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Archive for March 21st, 2015
Riled Herpetologists Press Obama Admin to Protect America’s Salamanders from a Fungal Threat
Posted by New York Times: Andrew C. Revkin on March 21st, 2015
New York Times: The herpetologists I’ve met over the decades tend to be a retiring lot. Explore the website of the Herpetologists’ League to get the idea. They hunker down and probe under rotting logs and leaf litter for salamanders or prowl deserts to study tortoises and lizards. Some study ancient specimens in dusty jars. That was the case with the first herpetologist I got to know, during a junior semester abroad in London in 1977. I approached Garth Underwood (yes), at London’s Natural History Museum about undertaking...
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Adapting to climate change has repercussions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 21st, 2015
RedOrbit: Adapting to climate change could have profound environmental repercussions, according to a new study from the University of East Anglia.
Research in Nature Climate Change reveals that adaptation measures have the potential to generate further pressures and threats for both local and global ecosystems.
Lead researcher Dr Carlo Fezzi, from UEA`s School of Environmental Sciences, said: "Climate change is a just a little bit more complicated than we previously thought. We need to take into account...
Roundup weedkiller ‘probably’ causes cancer, says WHO study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 21st, 2015
Guardian: Roundup, the world’s most widely used weedkiller, “probably” causes cancer, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) – WHO’s cancer agency – said that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide made by agriculture company Monsanto, was “classified as probably carcinogenic to humans”. It also said there was “limited evidence” that glyphosate was carcinogenic in humans for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Monsanto, the world’s largest seed...
Massive Glacier Melt Pouring into Gulf of Alaska
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on March 21st, 2015
Nature World News: The collective freshwater discharge of this region is more than four times greater than the mighty Yukon River of Alaska and Canada, and half again as much as the Mississippi River. While scientists had indeed noticed this runoff, until now they had no idea the magnitude of its impact.
If all this mountain rain, snow and glacial ice melt empties into the Gulf of Alaska, it would create the sixth largest coastal river in the world if it emerged as a single stream, researchers say.
"Freshwater...
‘Water man of India’ bags top prize
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 21st, 2015
BBC: An award known as "the Nobel Prize for water" has been given to an Indian campaigner who has brought water to 1,000 villages.
The judges of the Stockholm Water Prize say his methods have also prevented floods, restored soil and rivers, and brought back wildlife.
The prize-winner, Rajendra Singh, is dubbed "the Water Man of India".
The judges say his technique is cheap, simple, and that his ideas should be followed worldwide.
Mr Singh uses a modern version of the ancient Indian technique...
U.N. report: Earth only have 60 percent of water needs by 2030
Posted by The Week: None Given on March 21st, 2015
The Week: A new U.N. report claims that without substantial change, Earth could face a massive water shortage as soon as 2030.
The report, "Water for a Sustainable World," says that in 2030, the Earth will only have 60 percent of the water it needs, if we continue on our current trajectory.
Countries such as India are "rapidly depleting" their groundwater sources, Time reports, and global rainfall is increasingly unpredictable, thanks to climate change. But the population is still increasing, raising...
Welcome to Global Warming’s Terrifying New Era
Posted by Slate: Eric Holthaus on March 21st, 2015
Slate: On Wednesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that Earth's global temperature for February was among the hottest ever measured. So far, 2015 is tracking above record-warm 2014--which, when combined with the newly resurgent El Niño, means we're on pace for another hottest year in history.
In addition to the just-completed warmest winter on record globally (despite the brutal cold and record snow in the eastern U.S.), new data on Thursday from the National Snow and...
Plan ensures Great Barrier Reef future: Australia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 21st, 2015
Agence France-Presse: Australia released its long-term blueprint to save the Great Barrier Reef Saturday, with Prime Minister Tony Abbott saying protecting the World Heritage site was a priority.
The 35-year plan for the major tourist attraction off the Queensland coast includes a complete and permanent ban on the dumping of capital dredge material in the area and sets targets to improve water quality and marine life populations.
Abbott said the plan would "secure Australia's majestic Great Barrier Reef as a place...
Australia: Abbott unveils plan to save Great Barrier Reef
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 21st, 2015
Guardian: Australia has submitted its long-term plan to arrest the decline of the Great Barrier Reef, with Tony Abbott stressing to the international community that the government is “utterly committed” to the reef’s preservation.
The Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan has been compiled to allay concerns from Unesco over the fading health of the reef, with the organisation’s world heritage committee set to meet in June to decide whether the reef is to be listed as “in danger.”
The plan sets a number...
As lakes become deserts, drought is Iran’s new problem
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 21st, 2015
Agence France-Presse: Nazar Sarani's village in southeast Iran was once an island. It is now a desert, a casualty of the country's worsening water crisis.
"We live in the dust," said the 54-year-old cattle herder of his home in the once exceptional biosphere of Lake Hamoun, a wetland of varied flora and fauna, which is now nothing but sand-baked earth.
Climate change, with less rainfall each year, is blamed, but so too is human error and government mismanagement.
Iran's reservoirs are only 40 percent full according...