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Archive for December 27th, 2013
Unwanted Greenhouse Gas Could Boost Geothermal Power Output
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on December 27th, 2013
Environment News Service: Researchers are developing a new kind of geothermal power plant that will lock away unwanted carbon dioxide, CO2, underground -- and use the greenhouse gas in liquid form as a tool to boost electric power generation 10-fold in geothermal power plants. Teams of researchers at the University of Minnesota, Ohio State University and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are collaborating on using CO2 in its liquid form as a supplemental fluid in geothermal power plants. The CO2 would otherwise be emitted...
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Oil Company Looks To Great Lakes As Shipping Demand Booms
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 27th, 2013
National Public Radio: North Dakota and western Canada are producing crude oil faster than it can be shipped to refineries. Rail car manufacturers can't make new tank cars fast enough, and new pipeline proposals face long delays over environmental concerns. So energy companies are looking for new ways to get the heavy crude to market. One proposed solution is to ship the oil by barge over the Great Lakes — but it's a controversial one. Crews are working around the clock in North Dakota, where there's a lot of oil under...
Devastating Drought Continues Plague California
Posted by EcoWatch: Kiley Kroh on December 27th, 2013
EcoWatch: As California enters its third consecutive dry winter, with no sign of moisture on the horizon, fears are growing over increased wildfire activity, agricultural losses and additional stress placed on already strained water supplies.
California`s Central Valley--prime agricultural land--is being hit the hardest by the state-wide drought which could cause catastrophic losses to crops and food supply.
The city of Los Angeles has received only 3.6 inches of rain this year--far below its average...
How it snows for days in the Arctic
Posted by LiveScience: Denise Chow on December 27th, 2013
LiveScience: For snow to form, there has to be stuff in the atmosphere — microbes, specks of dust — for water molecules to freeze on and then form ice crystals. But in the pristine Arctic, where the atmosphere is very clean and the ocean is covered in ice, it can sometimes paradoxically snow for days on end. Researchers at Michigan Technological University in Houghton set out to investigate the mystery of where snow in the Arctic comes from, and how it can fall so persistently in the region. "Within a few...
70+ USS Ronald Reagan Crew Members, Half Suffering From Cancer, to Sue TEPCO For Fukushima
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on December 27th, 2013
EcoWatch: After U.S. Navy sailors on the USS Ronald Reagan responded to the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan for four days, many returned to the U.S. with thyroid cancer, Leukemia, brain tumors and more.
At least 71 sailors--many in their 20s--reported radiation sickness and will file a lawsuit against Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which operates the Fukushima Daiichi energy plant.
The men and women accuse TEPCO of downplaying the danger of nuclear radiation on the site. The water contaminated the...
United Kingdom: David Cameron confronted by angry residents of flooded village
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 27th, 2013
Guardian: David Cameron has been confronted by angry residents of a village in Kent that was flooded by waist-high waters over the Christmas holidays.
When the prime minister swept into the devastated community in his Range Rover to talk to residents and members of the emergency services on Friday morning, despair at nature's power turned to recrimination over the perceived inadequacy of the official response.
Erica Olivares, 49, was among the residents of a row of early-18th-century cottages in Yalding...
Guess who’s cashing in on fracking? The Amish
Posted by Grist: Holly Richmond on December 27th, 2013
Grist: Since the Amish are opposed to cars, electricity, and orgies, you might think they’d frown on money, too. Like, “Keep your wealth in hay bales” could totally be an Amish saying, or maybe “bonnets over Benjamins.”
But while greed and materialism aren’t part of an Amish paradise, nearly 40 Amish families in eastern Ohio are taking piles of cash from oil and gas companies. Chesapeake Energy and others are paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars, tax free, in order to drill on their property....
Endangered species could be screwed by rising seas
Posted by Grist: None Given on December 27th, 2013
Grist: Sea-level rise isn`t just bad news for coastal-dwelling humans. It`s also bad news for coastal-dwelling critters and plants, including one out of every six threatened and endangered species in the U.S.
That`s according to a Center for Biological Diversity analysis of federal data. From the new report:
Left unchecked, rising seas driven by climate change threaten 233 federally protected species in 23 coastal states. ...
The most vulnerable groups are flowering plants, which represent a third...
2014 preview: The key to surviving climate change
Posted by New Scientist: Fred Pearce on December 27th, 2013
New Scientist: Be prepared – for anything. That will be the message of the next report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), its first attempt in seven years to forecast the impact of climate change on specific geographical regions. Due out in March, it will emphasise versatility over any fine-tuned mitigation measures. Building on the IPCC's October report on the latest climate science, the Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability report is designed to predict how those global trends will change...
A Newly Discovered Underground Lake in Greenland Will Help Us Understand Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 27th, 2013
Time: The Earth may be more than 4.5 billion years old, but it can still surprise us. Scientists have discovered a gigantic liquid water reservoir underneath Greenland`s massive ice sheet. (The discovery was reported in an article in this week`s edition of Nature Geoscience.) Uncovered accidentally by a team of glaciologists who were drilling ice cores in southeastern Greenland in 2011, the aquifer is more than 27,000 sq. miles (69,930 sq. km) large--bigger than West Virginia--according to data from NASA`s...