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Archive for November 10th, 2014
Brazil’s Laws Threaten Ecosystems With the ‘Three Apocalyptic D’s’
Posted by Nature World: None Given on November 10th, 2014
Nature World: Brazil's beautiful, diverse, and globally significant ecosystems could face downsizing, downgrading, and delisting - the "three apocalyptic D's" - if a set of new proposed mining laws go into effect.
That's at least according to a report recently published in the journal Science, which details how Brazilian policymakers may be willing to let much of the hard work of conservationists over the last five decades be undone in the next 10 years as new mining and dam proposals are approved by their...
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Texas official ignores voters’ ban on fracking
Posted by Grist: Sara Bernard on November 10th, 2014
Grist: As predicted, mere hours after the first-ever fracking ban passed in Texas, industry reps took to the courts. By 9:09 a.m. on Nov. 5, both the Texas Oil and Gas Association and the Texas General Land Office had filed lawsuits that aim to prevent the city of Denton from enacting its ordinance on Dec. 2 - and Texas legislators are already drawing up plans to make future fracking bans like this one illegal.
The blowback here, of course, is because Denton is sitting on top of the Barnett Shale - one...
Dead zones are coming for your rivers, lakes, and oceans
Posted by Grist: Liz Core on November 10th, 2014
Grist: Halloween may have come and gone, but climate change continues to give us the creeps. A new study revealed that warmer temperatures are causing zombie-like "dead zones" in rivers, lakes, and oceans worldwide.
According to the study, published Monday in the journal Global Change Biology, researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center found two dozen ways that climate change is worsening dead zones.
If you`re catching up: Climate...
Study: Global warming worsening watery dead zones
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2014
Associated Press: Global warming is likely playing a bigger role than previously thought in dead zones in oceans, lakes and rivers around the world and it's only going to get worse, according to a new study.
Dead zones occur when fertilizer runoff clogs waterways with nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorous. That leads to an explosion of microbes that consumes oxygen and leaves the water depleted of oxygen, harming marine life.
Scientists have long known that warmer water increases this problem, but a new...
What climate change means for a land of glaciers
Posted by KUOW: None Given on November 10th, 2014
KUOW: Jon Riedel’s white hair and light blue eyes match the icy tint of the landscape he’s studied for more than 30 years.
He moved to Washington soon after finishing his PhD at the University of Wisconsin because he says the glaciers of the Northwest are still writing the landscape, still carving out curves and valleys.
Outside of Alaska, there is no better place in the U.S. to study glaciers than Washington. The Cascade Range has the perfect elevation and weather patterns to ensure that wet, heavy...