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Archive for August, 2014
Why the Current Mass Extinction Matters
Posted by National Geographic: Simon Worrall on August 20th, 2014
National Geographic: More species are becoming extinct today than at any time since dinosaurs were wiped off the face of the Earth by an asteroid 65 million years ago. Yet this bio-Armageddon, caused mainly by humans, is greeted by most of us with a yawn and a shrug. One fewer bat species? I've got my mortgage to pay! Another frog extinct? There are plenty more!
In his new book Australian anthropologist Thom Van Dooren tries to break through this wall of indifference by showing us how we're connected to the living...
Antarctic hides extreme ecosystem
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 20th, 2014
BBC: While the underbelly of Antarctica may not exactly be teeming with life, it certainly supports viable ecosystems.
Scientists have pulled up thousands of different types of micro-organisms from Lake Whillans, a large body of water buried 800m under the ice sheet.
It proves the dark, cold bottom of Antarctica is not a sterile domain.
In doing so, it raises the tantalising prospect that similar benign - albeit challenging - conditions could exist elsewhere in the Solar System.
There are...
Ohio River reopens as oil spill clean-up progresses
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 20th, 2014
Reuters: The cleanup of a 5,000-gallon fuel oil spill from a Duke Energy Corp power plant into the Ohio River could stretch into Thursday, Duke said on Wednesday, as the U.S. Coast Guard reopened a 15-mile section of the river to limited traffic.
The Coast Guard closed a stretch of the river between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Dayton, Kentucky, on Tuesday after late Monday's spill. The incident occurred during what Duke called a "routine transfer of fuel oil" at the company's 60-year-old W.C. Beckjord Station...
Drought in California in pictures
Posted by Guardian: Justin Sullivan on August 20th, 2014
Guardian: As the severe drought continues for a third year, water levels in the state’s lakes and reservoirs are reaching historic lows
US Sent Thousands of Sailors To Help With Fukushima Relief. Did Radiation Make Them Sick?
Posted by Climate Desk: None Given on August 20th, 2014
Climate Desk: A $1 billion lawsuit accuses the Japanese nuclear energy company Tepco of lying about radiation levels.
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The article was reported by the Guardian`s Suzanne Goldenberg, and the video was produced by Climate Desk`s James West.
The first time it occurred to James Jackson that there could be lasting damage from his US Navy service during Japan`s tsunami and nuclear disaster came...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on US Sent Thousands of Sailors To Help With Fukushima Relief. Did Radiation Make Them Sick?Mining company escapes Great Barrier Reef compensation payments and strict operating conditions
Posted by Blue and Green: Richard Heasman on August 20th, 2014
Blue and Green: The Australian government’s environmental protections system has been labelled “broken” after Gina Rinehart’s mining company managed to negotiate down both compensation repayments and operating practices.
Information released due to a freedom of information request shows the previous Labour government demanded $800,000 (£446,000) a year in “biodiversity offsets” from mining company GVK Hancock as the environmental damage from its operations were deemed significant.
The company counter offered...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Mining company escapes Great Barrier Reef compensation payments and strict operating conditionsImpacts of climate change and land use on wildlife must be considered, say researchers
Posted by Blue and Green: Charlotte Malone on August 20th, 2014
Blue and Green: Policymakers need to consider the impacts of both climate change and land use when studying ecosystems, researchers have said. A study has found that when the two factors are analysed together, there are variances in the findings depending on the region.
Volker Radeloff, one of the researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said, “For conservation, as the world is changing, we want to know, how will wildlife respond. We need to take both land use and climate into account as we look...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Impacts of climate change and land use on wildlife must be considered, say researchersInteractive Wildfires Map Tracks the Blazes in the U.S
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 19th, 2014
Climate Central: Monitor wildfires with our interactive wildfires map (above). The flame icons represent wildfires currently active in the lower 48 states and Alaska. Hover over a given fire to see its name, and if you zoom in you’ll be able to see the outline of the area that’s burning — the so-called fire perimeter. If you click within the perimeter, a window pops up showing the fire’s size in acres, the amount by which the perimeter has grown or shrunk over the past 24 hours, the fraction of the fire that has...
Mexico closes 80 schools after chemical leak
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 18th, 2014
Agence France-Presse: Authorities in Mexico said Monday they have closed about 80 schools after sulfuric acid leaked from a copper mine in the country's northwest and contaminated the Sonora River.
"About 5,000 students from around 80 schools will not have classes this week because of a lack of water and in some locations their proximity to the river," said the director of the Sonora state civil protection agency, Jesus Arias.
On August 6, some 40,000 cubic meters (10.6 million gallons) of sulfuric acid used to...
One Year After Calif. Rim Fire, Debate Simmers Over Forest Recovery
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 18th, 2014
National Public Radio: Eric Knapp breaks apart a burnt pine cone, looking for seeds - in his line of work this is considered a clue. "Going into an area after a fire, you almost feel like CSI, you know, sleuthing," Knapp says. He is standing in a part of the Stanislaus National Forest that was severely burned by the Rim Fire. Knapp, an ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service, is studying how forests recover. "It's completely dead," he says. "These trees won't be coming back to life." A lot of the forest was charred...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on One Year After Calif. Rim Fire, Debate Simmers Over Forest Recovery