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Archive for October 6th, 2014
‘Plumbing System’ Slows Greenland Ice Sheet
Posted by Nature World: None Given on October 6th, 2014
Nature World: The subglacial "plumbing system" beneath Greenland is slowing the ice sheet's movement toward the sea as the summer progresses, according to new research.
"Everyone wants to know what's happening under Greenland as it experiences more and more melt," study co-author Ginny Catania, a research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics, said in a statement. "This subglacial plumbing may or may not be critical for sea level rise in the next 100 years, but we don't really...
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Air Pollution is Driving Fewer Monsoons?
Posted by Nature World: None Given on October 6th, 2014
Nature World: A new study has found that pollutant emissions produced by human activity has been causing the world's total annual monsoon rainfall to decline over the past five decades. And while that may be good news for some flood-prone regions, experts do not doubt that it has had a significant adverse impact on delicate ecologies.
That's all according to a study recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
"This study shows for the first time that the drying of the monsoon over the...
Gov. Cuomo’s Office Tilts Study to Downplay Fracking Risks
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on October 6th, 2014
EcoWatch: A federal study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), commissioned by New York state to assess the impact of fracking on well water, was edited and delayed by state officials when they found some of its conclusions apparently not to their liking, according to Capital New York, which covers state politics.
"The study, originally commissioned by the state in 2011, when the administration was reportedly considering approving fracking on a limited basis, was going to result in a number of politically...
Air pollution increases river-flows, study shows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 6th, 2014
ScienceDaily: The paper shows how such pollution can have an impact on the natural environment and highlights the importance of considering such factors in assessments of future climate change. Credit: © Fyle / Fotolia [Click to enlarge image]
A study published in Nature Geoscience shows that air pollution has had a significant impact on the amount of water flowing through many rivers in the northern hemisphere.
The paper shows how such pollution, known as aerosols, can have an impact on the natural environment...
More fracking means more sand
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 6th, 2014
AAP: The white sand beaches in Pennsylvania are a mile underground, where salt water and fine mesh sand luxuriate in the fracks of the Marcellus Shale.
The volume of frack sand used at each well to prop open newly created fissures and allow gas to flow to the wellbore has been on the rise over the past year. By some estimates, the increase has been dramatic.
"Most customers are pumping as much as they can," said Iain McIntosh, vice president at Baker Hughes, a Texas-based oil and gas service firm...
With Boom in Oil and Gas, Pipelines Proliferate in the U.S
Posted by Yale Environment 360: Peter Moskowitz on October 6th, 2014
Yale Environment 360: In the spring of 2012, about nine years after Melissa Owen and her husband purchased 640 acres of remote Arizona desert that they hoped to turn into a wildlife refuge, a representative from the energy giant Kinder Morgan knocked on their front door. The man said his company planned to Melissa Owen A gas pipeline is being built on Melissa Owen's land in Arizona, despite her opposition. build a natural gas pipeline through her property and hoped to get the Owens' consent.
They didn't give it, and...
Governments have failed to protect wildlife, UN biodiversity report finds
Posted by Blue and Green: Ilaria Bertini on October 6th, 2014
Blue and Green: As representatives from around the world gather in South Korea to discuss conservation progress, a damning new report from the UN has revealed that governments have failed to tackle the loss of species, habitat destruction, pollution and overfishing.
The latest Global Biodiversity Outlook 4, published by the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity, argues that the Aichi Biodiversity Targets set up in 2010 to protect global wildlife by 2020, and promote sustainable development at the same time,...
Air pollution increases river-flows: Study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 6th, 2014
Press Trust of India: Air pollution has had a significant impact on the amount of water flowing through many rivers in the northern hemisphere, a new study has found. The study shows how aerosols can have an impact on the natural environment and highlights the importance of considering these factors in assessments of future climate change, researchers said. It is already established that increased burning of sulphurous coal up to the late 1970s led to additional aerosols in the atmosphere. These are reflective and...
Small Towns Wrestle with Lengths They’ll Go for Water
Posted by Texas Tribune: None Given on October 6th, 2014
Texas Tribune: On a recent afternoon, leaders of the V.V. Water Company visited Loving County officials to talk about how they could help the West Texas county meet its growing water needs.
Loving County, which has 95 residents, according to a 2013 Census Bureau estimate, making it the least populated county in the lower 48 states, has a public water supply system. But with the Permian Basin's flourishing oil and gas industry, county officials expect that they will need more water to accommodate growth.
Loving...
In Virtual Mega-Drought, California Avoids Defeat
Posted by LA Times: Bettina Boxall on October 6th, 2014
LA Times: A few years ago a group of researchers used computer modeling to put California through a nightmare scenario: Seven decades of unrelenting mega-drought similar to those that dried out the state in past millennia.
"The results were surprising," said Jay Lund, one of the academics who conducted the study.
The California economy would not collapse. The state would not shrivel into a giant, abandoned dust bowl. Agriculture would shrink but by no means disappear.
Traumatic changes would occur...