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Archive for June 17th, 2014
World’s energy systems vulnerable to climate impacts, report warns
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on June 17th, 2014
Guardian: Rising sea levels, extremes of weather and an increase in the frequency of droughts and floods will all play havoc with the world's energy systems as climate change takes hold, a new report has found.
Energy companies are more often cited as part of the problem of climate change, generating the lion's share of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, amounting to around 40% of the total. But they will also suffer as global warming picks up pace, as generators – from nuclear reactors to coal-fired...
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Northern Gateway Pipeline Approved Ignoring Democracy & Global Warming
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on June 17th, 2014
EcoWatch: There was little doubt the federal government would approve the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project, regardless of public opposition or evidence presented against it. The prime minister indicated he wanted the pipeline built before the Joint Review Panel hearings even began. Ad campaigns, opponents demonized as foreign-funded radicals, gutted environmental laws and new pipeline and tanker regulations designed in part to mollify the B.C. government made the federal position even more clear....
Deforestation reduces the size of fish
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 17th, 2014
Mongabay: Loss of forest cover can dramatically affect local fish populations, finds a study published in the journal Nature Communications. The research looked at fish biomass in a Canadian lake where sections of forest had been lost due to acid rain. It found that fish in areas near forest were "fatter" than fish in denuded zones. "We found fish that had almost 70% of their biomass made from carbon that came from trees and leaves instead of aquatic food chain sources," said Andrew Tanentzap from the University...
Not preparing for climate change will be costly, expert warns
Posted by Toronto Star: Raveena Aulakh on June 17th, 2014
Toronto Star: There is much to do, little time.
“The more we wait, the more it is going to cost us,” Mark Egener, a disaster management consultant, said in an interview. “Climate change isn’t waiting for anyone, so why we are not preparing for it the way we should? I don’t have an answer.”
That was one message that came out of the annual World Conference on Disaster Management held in Toronto this week.
Egener, who specializes in climate change and spoke at the conference, said the reality of not planning...
Breeding Trees Better Adapted Warmer Climates
Posted by Nature World: None Given on June 17th, 2014
Nature World: Scientists have confirmed the function of a gene that controls the awakening of trees from winter dormancy, a discovery that may be the key to a world in which trees don't have to worry about adapting to warmer climates.
The decade-long study, carried out by the University of Oregon, identified the EBB1 gene - or what they are calling the bud-break gene - involved in producing the first green leaves of spring. This gene is a master regulator in poplar trees (Populus species), and could pave the...
The Canadian pipeline (almost) everyone hates gets a go-ahead
Posted by Grist: None Given on June 17th, 2014
Grist: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has approved the Northern Gateway pipeline. This is not a huge shock. This is the man, after all, who called Barack Obama to personally register his displeasure over the president`s failure to approve Keystone XL. In the years before he was prime minister, Harper was a second-generation employee of the Imperial Oil Company. The man has governed in a way that is not only anti-environment but anti-environmental science. What else was he going to say to a pipeline...
California drought forces evacuation of trout hatcheries
Posted by Reuters: Sharon Bernstein on June 17th, 2014
Reuters: Millions of young rainbow and steelhead trout are being evacuated from California's most productive hatchery complex as summer heat and the state's ongoing drought combine to make the water too warm for them to survive, officials said Tuesday.
Workers clad in overalls used nets to scoop up thousands of foot-long steelhead and load them onto trucks on Tuesday, part of a weeks-long effort to move the fish to cooler lakes and streams where they will have a better chance of surviving, said Andrew...
United Kingdom: Drought could be on the way as experts predict ‘very little rain’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 17th, 2014
Telegraph: Southern Britain could be heading towards a drought in the next fortnight, just months after experiencing the wettest winter on record.
Certain areas may have no rainfall at all in the next week to 10 days, the Met Office said, and there is a "strong signal' the dry spell will continue after that.
The Environment Agency said people should "use water wisely' to ease demand on supplies of the "precious resource".
In the UK, an absolute drought is defined as a period of at least 15 consecutive...
California drought dries up honey supply
Posted by KQED: Alice Daniel on June 17th, 2014
KQED: These are hard times for honeybees; colonies are collapsing for reasons ranging from pesticides to parasites. And with this year`s pitiful rainfall in California, bees are facing another plight: There’s a lot less natural forage to make honey.
Second-generation beekeeper David Bradshaw pulls his truck up alongside wooden boxes of beehives on a farm outside the Central Valley town of Visalia. Soon, a loud mechanical sound – some would say a beekeeper’s buzz kill – drowns out the lively drone of...
‘Under water’: Bay Area Latinos, minorities most vulnerable to sea rise
Posted by New America Media: None Given on June 17th, 2014
New America Media: Intro: Did you know that as a result of global warming in the last century sea level has risen over 20 centimeters(7 inches)? That process is now accelerating and threatens to cause severe flooding that could affect neighborhoods with high Latino populations here in the Bay Area, as Pilar Nino reports in her special series "Under Water.'
This is the first of a two-part series. To read Part 2, click here.
Pilar Nino:There's no doubt that our proximity to the ocean is one of the major attractions...