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Archive for September 1st, 2014
California Warms, Greener Mountains Will Mean Less Water for People
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 1st, 2014
National Geographic: Scientists have more bad news for drought-stricken California: The climate warming expected in this century is likely to result in even less water flow from the mountains, as trees and plants growing higher on the slopes soak up more of the available precipitation.
This finding should be "of great interest to water managers in California," says Roger C. Bales, a professor of hydrology and environmental engineering at the University of California, Merced, who co-authored the study published Monday...
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Mountain Forest Changes Threaten Water Supplies
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 1st, 2014
Climate Central: Hike high enough up California's Sierra Nevada and the forest morphs around you. At around 6,000 feet, the dazzling diversity of the lower montane forest, replete with California black oak, ponderosa pine, and incense cedars gives way to more monotonous landscapes of red fir and lodgepole pine. Hike further still and trees eventually disappear altogether, replaced with rocky topographies reminiscent of Mars.
The forestry changes underway threaten to slash the amount of water that flows down the...
Fukushima accepts ‘temporary’ radioactive waste storage
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 1st, 2014
Agence France-Presse: The governor of disaster-struck Fukushima agreed Monday to accept the "temporary" storage of nuclear waste from the Japanese accident, paving the way for an end to a years-long standoff.
Yuhei Sato has been cajoled and lavished with the promises of subsidies if he accepts a central government plan to build a depot on land near the battered Fukushima Daiichi plant.
"I have made an agonising decision to accept plans to construct temporary storage facilities in order to achieve recovery in the...
Climate Change Could Soak Up California’s Fresh Mountain Water Runoff
Posted by KPBS: David Wagner on September 1st, 2014
KPBS: The Sierra Nevadas deliver freshwater runoff that could dry up if temperatures continue rising.
A new study suggests rising global temperatures could cut into California's water supply by altering high-altitude vegetation.
Water used to irrigate crops in the Central Valley often begins as runoff from the top of Sierra Nevada mountains. It's so cold up there, vegetation can't take root. But with global temperatures rising, that could change.
"Rain or snow comes in, and the vegetation -- the...
Australia: Great Barrier Reef dumping plans scrapped: report
Posted by Wellington Times: Joanna Heath on September 1st, 2014
Wellington Times: Plans to use the Great Barrier Reef as a dumping site for 3 million cubic metres of dredged material from the ocean floor will be abandoned by a multinational consortium, the Australian Financial Review reports.
North Queensland Bulk Ports, GVK Hancock and Adani Group will alter plans to expand the Abbot Point coal terminal, a proposal which had already been approved by federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt.
The trio are set to re-submit a proposal as early as this week to Mr Hunt, however...
Historic Wildfires Burn Through Canada As Sub-Arctic Forests Heat Up
Posted by ThinkProgress: None Given on September 1st, 2014
ThinkProgress: Wildfires are taking off in Canada as the country goes through one of its hottest and driest summers in decades.
Wildfire activity in the Northwest Territories is more than six times higher than its 25-year average, and as of August 23 a total of 162 wildfires were burning in British Columbia. The latter province has seen 1,269 wildfires so far this year, along with 314,895 hectares of land burned - almost equivalent to 2010, when the province lost 337,149 hectares to various blazes.
The fires...
Exploring a Tree One Cell at a Time
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 1st, 2014
New York Times: Not every scientist would choose to spend a peaceful summer Sunday morning perched on a jittery scaffold 40 feet up a red oak tree, peering through a microscope to jab a leaf with a tiny glass needle filled with oil. But Michael Knoblauch, a plant cell biologist at Washington State University, is in the stretch run of a 20-year quest to prove a longstanding hypothesis about how nutrients are transported in plants. He is also running out of time: He’s nearing the end of a sabbatical year, much of...
A doomed Earth of science fiction may well become a reality
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 1st, 2014
Guardian: There’s a scene in the newly-restored science fiction classic The Day the Earth Caught Fire (premiered last week in the summer open air cinema at the British Museum) when The Daily Express’s fictional, bull-nosed science reporter, Bill Maguire, barks at a newsroom junior to fetch him information on the melting points of various substances. It’s to illustrate a spread in the paper which is investigating how massive nuclear tests have shifted the planet on its axis, causing chaotic weather and a heat...
Bad weather for 2050 as TV forecasters imagine climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 1st, 2014
Reuters: Imaginary television weather forecasts predicted floods, storms and searing heat from Arizona to Zambia within four decades, as part of a United Nations campaign on Monday to draw attention to a U.N. summit this month on fighting global warming.
"Miami South Beach is under water," one forecaster says in a first edition of "weather reports from the future", a series set in 2050 and produced by companies including Japan's NHK, the U.S. Weather Channel and ARD in Germany.
The U.N.'s World Meteorological...
Coalgate: India urges supreme court not to close coal mines
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 1st, 2014
Guardian: The Indian government has urged the country’s supreme court to allow 46 illegally granted coal licenses to continue to operate.
The court is considering what action to take in the “Coalgate” corruption scandal. Last week, it found that every coal mining license the government allocated between 1993 and 2009, 218 in all, had been granted in an “illegal and arbitrary” manner and the government committee that oversaw the process was a regulatory vacuum in which cronyism thrived.
India’s attorney...