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Archive for October 12th, 2014
United Kingdom: Drugs flushed into environment could be cause of wildlife decline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 12th, 2014
Guardian: Potent pharmaceuticals flushed into the environment via human and animal sewage could be a hidden cause of the global wildlife crisis, according to new research. The scientists warn that worldwide use of the drugs, which are designed to be biologically active at low concentrations, is rising rapidly but that too little is currently known about their effect on the natural world.
Studies of the effect of pharmaceutical contamination on wildlife are rare but new work published on Monday reveals that...
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Alien species cause ‘environmental catastrophe’ in British rivers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 12th, 2014
Independent: Five of Europe’s deadliest freshwater species are now in UK waters wreaking havoc on the environment, a Cambridge University study has warned. At least 10 more are expected in the next half-decade.
Invasive species impact on the biodiversity of Britain by eating native species as well as affecting human health and the economy. Many originate from the Black, Asov and Caspian seas around Turkey and Ukraine. Scientists worry that some may already be in Britain, but as yet undiscovered.
Fears have...
UK waters face ‘invasional meltdown’
Posted by BBC: Matt McGrath on October 12th, 2014
BBC: Scientists are warning that an army of species from Turkey and Ukraine is poised to invade Britain's waterways.
One organism, the quagga mussel, was discovered in a river near London just weeks ago.
At least 10 others are established in the Netherlands and there is a "critical risk" of them coming here.
Researchers are also concerned that invaders, including the killer shrimp, will rapidly spread and devastate native species.
The research has been published in the Journal of Applied Ecology....
Outrage in Italy over ‘shame’ of Genoa flood chaos
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 12th, 2014
Reuters: Italy reacted with shock and outrage at the chronic bureaucratic and planning failures laid bare after severe flooding hit the northwestern city of Genoa, killing one man and leaving the streets of the medieval port city buried in mud and debris.
"The mud of Genoa, shame of a country," read the front page headline of Italy's biggest daily newspaper Corriere della Sera on Saturday after the flooding, which occurred less than three years after torrential floods in the same city killed seven people...
After nearly a century, West Virginia coal battle rages on
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 12th, 2014
Associated Press: At the dirt road entrance to the Mingo Logan Coal Company site along Route 17 in rural West Virginia, a white metal sign hangs, riddled with bullet holes, announcing "NO TRESPASSING" in red lettering. Kenny King doesn't much care. The 59-year-old has been trespassing here about weekly since 1991. That's when he first began an effort to transform this place — on top of a mountain in the middle of dense forest about 50 miles south of Charleston, West Virginia — from a coal mine into a national monument....
Not just California: Droughts extend across Americas
Posted by NBC: Miguel Llanos on October 12th, 2014
NBC: Say “drought” and Americans are likely to think California, but the Golden State is hardly alone when looking across the Western Hemisphere: A dry spell has killed cattle and wiped out crops in Central America, parts of Colombia have seen rioting over scarce water, and southern Brazil is facing its worst dry spell in 50 years. In the U.S., the few who have taken notice of this wider water scarcity include a former director of the U.S. Geological Survey. Now editor-in-chief of the journal Science,...
Beyond corn, the new frontier in ethanol is nonfood biofuel
Posted by Star Tribune: David Shaffer on October 12th, 2014
Star Tribune: The first large ethanol plants to produce biofuel from nonfood sources like corn cobs are starting operations in the Midwest amid industry worries that they might also be the last -- at least in the United States.
After a decade of research and development, ethanol maker Poet Inc. and its Dutch partner Royal DSM recently produced the first cellulosic ethanol at a $275 million plant next to a cornfield in this northern Iowa town.
Two other companies are completing new cellulosic ethanol plants...
Dam rising in Ethiopia stirs hope and tension
Posted by New York Times: JACEY FORTIN on October 12th, 2014
New York Times: There is a remote stretch of land in Ethiopia’s forested northwest where the dust never settles. All week, day and night, thousands of workers pulverize rocks and lay concrete along a major tributary of the Nile River. It is the site of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the continent’s biggest hydropower plant and one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects ever in Africa.
Ethiopia is a poor country, often known best for its past famines, but officials say the dam will be paid for without...
Warming Endangers a Crucial Yellowstone Tree
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 12th, 2014
Daily Climate: If you've hiked in the Northern Rockies above 9,000 feet, you've hiked among a whitebark pine forest.
And if you've hiked in the Rockies since 2009, you've likely hiked through a dead and dying forest, felled by a widespread outbreak of the mountain pine beetle.
Whitebark pine trees throughout the greater Yellowstone ecosystem are dying, succumbing to a combination of blister rust, beetle infestation and warmer temperatures.
At a scientific conference Tuesday at Mammoth Hot Springs, near...