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Archive for July 8th, 2014
Conserving water and climate change
Posted by ScienceDaily: ScienceDaily on July 8th, 2014
ScienceDaily: There's more to trying to slow down climate change than just cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Technology, policies or plans that aim to do so should also take environmental factors such as water usage into account. A more integrated approach might make some options considerably more attractive than others, especially when implemented in arid countries such as Australia, advise Philip Wallis of Monash University in Australia and colleagues, in an article in Springer's journal Climatic Change. The...
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California Governor Is Big on Talk, Weak on Climate Action
Posted by EcoWatch: Adam Scow, Food and Water Watch on July 8th, 2014
EcoWatch: When it comes to fighting pollution, global warming and our climate crisis, California Gov. Jerry Brown is big on talk and weak on action. Gov. Brown frequently warns us that climate change is a major threat we must solve, citing the ongoing drought and recent fires as indicators of global warming’s threat to our economy and standard of living. Yet when it comes to governance and real action the Governor is letting the oil and gas industry expand fracking and refineries that pollute our climate with...
Will Germany Ban Fracking?
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on July 8th, 2014
EcoWatch: German Ministers laid out plans to ban hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for shale gas on Friday, although anti-fracking campaigners believe plans for the new law should go much further.
In a press briefing, the Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel and Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks announced that the government will begin drawing up legislation on the issue and have it approved in the final half of this year, with a review taking place in 2021, saying: “There won’t be fracking of shale-gas and...
Australia is going backwards on climate change
Posted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Emma Alberici on July 8th, 2014
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: The politics of climate action is well understood in Australia, with the Coalition intent on scrapping the carbon tax and Labor and the Greens suggesting this is evidence that the Abbott Government isn't committed to reducing the country's greenhouse gas emissions. Now Britain's longest-serving Environment minister, Lord Deben, has entered the Australian debate. He's a Tory and he's on Labor's side. Lord Deben is the former chairman of the Conservative Party and he now heads...
Changing climate at root of Canada’s ‘utterly unprecedented’ summer flood
Posted by Postmedia: Margaret Munro on July 8th, 2014
Postmedia: Smith Creek in southeastern Saskatchewan normally runs dry in July. Last week it hit an all-time high and the stream gauge that scientists have been monitoring for decades is now under water.
So are countless homes and farms in Saskatchewan and Manitoba where the province has declared a state of emergency and called in the military to help deal with the stunning summer flood.
“It’s utterly unprecedented,” says John Pomeroy, director of the centre for hydrology at the University of Saskatchewan....
Drainage contributing to Canada flooding, expert says
Posted by Leader-Post: None Given on July 8th, 2014
Leader-Post: An expert on hydrology and climate change believes the recent flooding in Saskatchewan and Manitoba has been exacerbated by the widespread drainage of agricultural lands that have increased water volumes that flow downstream into Manitoba.
“The short answer is, yes I do,’’ said John Pomeroy, Canada research chair in water resources and climate change and director of the Centre for Hydrology at the University of Saskatchewan.
Pomeroy, who has studied water volumes on the Smith Creek watershed...
Canada struggles with melting permafrost as climate warms
Posted by Scientific American: Christa Marshall on July 8th, 2014
Scientific American: In 2006, reduced thickness of ice roads forced the Diavik Diamond Mine in Northern Canada to fly in fuel rather than try to transport cargo across melted pathways, at an extra cost of $11.25 million.
The mountain pine beetle outbreak in British Columbia--fueled by higher winter temperatures that allow insects to survive--expanded in recent years to be 10 times greater than any previously recorded outbreak in the province. Mortality rates of sockeye salmon, meanwhile, have increased because of...
Amazon rainforest once looked more like savannas of Africa than a jungle
Posted by LiveScience: Stephanie Pappas on July 8th, 2014
LiveScience: A series of square, straight and ringlike ditches scattered throughout the Bolivian and Brazilian Amazon were there before the rainforest existed, a new study finds. These human-made structures remain a mystery: They may have been used for defense, drainage, or perhaps ceremonial or religious reasons. But the new research addresses another burning question: whether and how much prehistoric people altered the landscape in the Amazon before the arrival of Europeans. "People have been affecting...