RSS Feed
Archive for February 5th, 2015
Plants Tricked Into Tolerating Drought
Posted by Nature World: None Given on February 5th, 2015
Nature World: In a new breakthrough study, scientists have successfully tricked plants into tolerating drought and given vegetation across the globe hope of survival amidst the world's ever-changing climate.
Crops and other plants are constantly up against hostile environmental conditions, such as warming temperatures (2014 was the warmest year on record) and a lack of fresh water. But drought is among the top plant stressors, affecting their growth and development.
What's more, with extreme weather patterns...
Posted in 
Golden Mussels Threaten the Amazon, What’s to be Done?
Posted by Nature World: None Given on February 5th, 2015
Nature World: The Amazon River has long been a symbol of nature's pristine balance - a powerful rush of water carving its way through dense forests full of live. However, these days that river is in danger, but not by man or machine. Instead, its biggest threat is a tiny freshwater mussel.
Since hitching its way from Chinese waters in the early 1990s, the golden mussel (Limnoperna fortunei) has earned a great deal of infamy as a hardy and fast-spreading invasive species. And while many invasive species will...
Gov. Jerry Brown’s fracking problem
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 5th, 2015
LA Times: California Gov. Jerry Brown has done more to fight climate change than perhaps any other elected official in the United States. So what accounts for the environmentalists heckling him during speeches and planning to confront him Saturday at an Oakland March for Real Climate Leadership? One word: fracking.
"I challenge anybody to find any other state" that's doing as much about climate change, Brown shot back to anti-fracking protesters during his speech at the California Democratic Party's convention...
Study: Climate change could bring more disease, crop damage, fires to Colorado
Posted by Daily Camera: Charlie Brennan on February 5th, 2015
Daily Camera: Colorado could see more infectious disease, negative impacts on the elderly and people living in poverty, as well as stresses to water, cattle and crops as byproducts of future climate change, according to a comprehensive new report commissioned by the Colorado Energy Office.
"The important takeaway is, here's what's important to Colorado," said Eric Gordon, co-lead editor of the 176-page report and managing director of the Western Water Assessment at the University of Colorado. "We're not talking...
Climate Change May Spark Debate In Washington, But D.C. Is Preparing For It
Posted by WAMU: Martin Austermuhle on February 5th, 2015
WAMU: Climate change and how to respond to it may provoke partisan fights in Washington, but that's not stopping the nation's capital from preparing for the consequences of changing weather patterns.
In his 2016 budget proposal, President Obama included $750,000 for a "climate change adaptation plan to identify climate risks to the District of Columbia, vulnerabilities, and mitigation options." The money would help local, regional and federal agencies plan for possible weather-related incidents, according...
Albania declares state of emergency historic floods
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 5th, 2015
Guardian: Albanian has declared a state of emergency after some of the worst floods the country has ever seen, which the country’s prime minister says have been exacerbated by past deforestation and soil erosion.
Hundreds of families have been evacuated from flood zones in the country’s south, where heavy rains have again been forecast for Friday.
“There are some critical hotspots where disasters can occur,” Albania’s prime minister Edi Rama told the Guardian at his office in Tirana. “We have had reasonable...
As oil wells enter neighborhoods, townships push back
Posted by Free Press: Keith Matheny on February 5th, 2015
Free Press: The grinding, whining, constant hum of industrial activity - but not from a factory. The clamor was coming from the 109-foot oil well West Bay Exploration was drilling outside her back door.
In a residential neighborhood.
Without any notification being given to the residents.
"I could hear it at night from my home with all the windows closed," said Calaguas, whose home is about 900 feet from the well. "It ran 24-7, and the lights were very bright - it was lit up like a football field. It...
Greenland’s hidden meltwater lakes store trouble
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 5th, 2015
Guardian: One small mystery that surrounds Greenland’s melting ice is a little closer to being solved as scientists in the US confirm that surface meltwater can drain all the way down to fill concealed lakes under the ice.
This means that atmospheric warming can reach thousands of metres below the ice sheet - warming the glacial base and potentially increasing its rate of flow.
One group, led by geologist Michael Willis, of Cornell University, and another team led by glaciologist Ian Howat, of Ohio State...