Archive for August 23rd, 2014

‘Incredible’ rate of polar ice loss alarms scientists

Guardian: A European satellite has shown ice sheets shrinking at 120 cubic miles a year in Antarctica and Greenland Share Tweet this Email Robin McKie The Observer, Saturday 23 August 2014 Jump to comments (...) An artist’s impression of CryoSat-2, the European satellite which has revealed dramatic ice loss. Photograph: ESA The planet's two largest ice sheets – in Greenland and Antarctica – are now being depleted at an astonishing rate...

Let’s make a deal: How Colorado came to a fracking compromise

Denver Post: On the second day of his vacation, surrounded by science fiction and comic book fans at Comic Con, Alan Salazar looked around the San Diego Convention Center for a quiet place so he could take a phone call from his boss. It was July 25, and Gov. John Hickenlooper wanted to talk to his trusted staffer about yet another compromise attempt on fracking measures headed to the November ballot. Other deals had fallen apart, but Hickenlooper wanted to try again to get Congressman Jared Polis, the state's...

Serengeti Wildlife to access Lake Victoria’s water as climate change looms large

eTurbo News: However, Bunda Legislator and a cabinet minister, Mr. Stephen Wasira, doesn’t buy this idea, maintaining that the people were legitimate inhabitants in the area and should not be evicted. Mr. Wassira, who is a Minister of State in the President's Office (Social Relations and Coordination), proposed that TANAPA in collaboration with the ministry of Tourism and Natural Resources to establish a Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in Ghuba Speke. "What is necessary is free movement of wildlife, and...

Wildfires Threaten Lake Tahoe

Liberty Voice: Lake Tahoe, the usually peaceful, serene oasis nestled on the California-Nevada border, has recently played host to invasive species, threatening wildfires, climate change and a potentially catastrophic drought, officials warned on Tuesday. The announcement came during the annual summit meeting about protecting the quintessential lake. The conference had opposing federal lawmakers finding common ground by agreeing on at least one point throughout the meeting, which was that an increase in logging...

Climate change and the methane crisis: Q & A with Harold Hensel

Examiner: With climate change rearing its ugly head with extreme weather disasters pounding the globe, some people have been connecting the dots to the horrifying conclusion that there is yet another catastrophe underway with implications far exceeding what most of us could ever dream of: an unfolding methane crisis of epic proportions. Capable of causing a planetary extinction, record high amounts of methane are insidiously being released into the oceans and going into our atmosphere. Methane, a colorless...

Water Trips Up Chemical Reactions That Lead To Biofuels

RedOrbit: Trying to understand the chemistry that turns plant material into the same energy-rich gasoline and diesel we put in our vehicles, researchers have discovered that water in the conversion process helps form an impurity which, in turn, slows down key chemical reactions. The study, which was reported online at the Journal of the American Chemical Society in July, can help improve processes that produce biofuels from plants. The study examines the conversion of bio-oil, produced from biomass such...

Shale gas industry needs more study, Justin Trudeau says in New Brunswick

Canadian Press: Greater scientific study is required before Canada expands its shale gas industry, federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said Saturday while campaigning alongside his provincial counterpart in New Brunswick. Trudeau waded into the controversial issue while at a rally in Moncton with New Brunswick Liberal Leader Brian Gallant, who is vying to become premier after the Sept. 22 provincial election. "I'm very much in agreement with Mr. Gallant that in terms of fracking and shale gas, we need to...

Take heed city dwellers: it’s hot and getting hotter

Indian Country: Buildings, roads, and other infrastructure that make up urban environments typically make cities hotter than surrounding rural areas, a condition known as an urban heat island. If you live in Albuquerque, Denver, Minneapolis, Portland or Seattle, you inhabit a notably hotter environment than do your rural neighbors during the hottest months of the year, thanks to the urban heat island effect. Other cities with large Native American populations like Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and Tucson suffer, too....

Global climate inaction mean economic turmoil for South Asia, warns bank

InsideClimate: The first comprehensive study ever issued on the economic costs that uncontrolled climate change would inflict on South Asia predicts a staggering burden that would hit the region's poorest the hardest. "The impacts of climate change are likely to result in huge economic, social and environmental damage to South Asian countries, compromising their growth potential and poverty reduction efforts," said the study, published by the Asian Development Bank. The cuts in regional GDP are so deep that...

American West is so dry that the land is rising

ClimateWire: f you live out West, you've likely noticed that things have been pretty dry lately. What you probably haven't noticed is that the ground beneath your feet is also a little bit higher in elevation -- an average of 4 millimeters higher, to be exact. It may be hard to believe, but new research using data from hundreds of different GPS stations shows it to be true: The current drought in the American West is so bad that the loss of water weight has actually caused the land to rise. Moreover, scientists...