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Archive for May 19th, 2015
Cold-blooded species face wipeout as cannot cope global warming, study says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 19th, 2015
Independent: Many lizard and insect species could be completely wiped out by global warming because they cannot evolve quickly enough to deal with rising temperatures, a new report warns.
Climate change threatens to wreak havoc on cold-blooded animals – known as ectotherms – because they cannot regulate their own body temperatures. Being particularly sensitive to their surrounding environment, these creatures can only tolerate temperatures just a few degrees above their normal range before they overheat and...
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Ma Jun: China has reached its environmental tipping point
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 19th, 2015
Guardian: It was almost 20 years ago that Ma Jun sat and watched the rainbow-coloured River Fen, in Shanxi province. As he turned to the skies in this coal and industrial heartland of north China he could see dozens of chimneys bellowing out their fumes.
He had been sent to the province on an assignment while working as a researcher for a foreign journalist in the late 1990s. The story then was about family planning and its impact on local communities, but it was the devastating pollution he witnessed that...
Coal & climate change: a death sentence for the Great Barrier Reef
Posted by Conservation: None Given on May 19th, 2015
Conservation: Back in 1999, I made an upsetting discovery. By comparing the temperature tolerance of reef-building corals with the projected effects of rising carbon dioxide levels, I found that the oceans would soon grow too warm for corals to bear, meaning that coral-dominated systems like the Great Barrier Reef would disappear within 30-40 years.
Much as I tried to find a mistake in my reasoning and calculations, the numbers kept telling me that one of the world’s most diverse ecosystems would disappear...
Coal Ash Crime Cost Duke Energy $102 Million
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on May 19th, 2015
Environment News Service: Admitting guilt for a massive coal ash spill last year, three subsidiaries of Duke Energy, the largest utility in the United States, will pay a $68 million criminal fine and spend $34 million to benefit rivers and wetlands in North Carolina and Virginia.
Four of the nine criminal charges relate to the massive coal ash spill from the Dan River steam station into the Dan River near Eden, North Carolina in February 2014.
A team from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service takes core samples during...
United Kingdom: ‘Greatest university’ curbs fossil fuel investment in endowment
Posted by Bloomberg: Reed Landberg on May 19th, 2015
Bloomberg: Oxford University said it would curb some of the most polluting fossil fuel-related investments in its 1.7 billion-pound ($3.3 billion) endowment, making it the most prominent institution to join the growing campaign for divestment from the industry. The university's governing board said it will avoid direct investments in coal and oil sands companies, of which it currently has none, and that it will also steer clear of sectors with high social and environmental risks, according to a statement released...
Why I Declined the TMT THINK Scholarship
Posted by Civil Beat: Narissa P. Spies on May 19th, 2015
Civil Beat: As a Native Hawaiian scientist, I struggled with my decision on whether to support the Thirty Meter Telescope project.
On one hand, the scientist in me knew that this instrument would make discoveries that would advance knowledge for all mankind, but the Native Hawaiian in me knew that this was a culturally sensitive issue that was hurting an entire group of people.
I struggled with my position on this sensitive topic, and I turned to what I know best as a scientist, which was to gather all...
Why Sacred Places Should Matter, Even to Business Folks
Posted by Triple Pundit: Christopher McLeod on May 19th, 2015
Triple Pundit: In the last month, Native Hawaiians blockaded construction machinery headed for the top of sacred Mauna Kea, where a 30-meter telescope is to be built. Thirty-one people were arrested. In Arizona, members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe walked 45 miles to Oak Flats and occupied a ceremonial initiation site that the U.S. Congress handed over to a London-based mining company for a copper mine. In California, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe continues their fierce opposition to government plans to raise the...
Major Antarctic Ice Shelf May Disappear by 2020
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on May 19th, 2015
Nature World News: With climate change heating things up, and the Earth's poles rapidly melting, it should come as no surprise that a major Antarctic ice shelf may completely disappear by 2020, according to a new NASA study.
The last remaining section of the Larsen B Ice Shelf, which partially collapsed in 2002, is quickly weakening, flowing faster, and becoming more and more fragmented as well as developing large cracks. This, plus the fact that two of its tributary glaciers are also flowing faster and thinning...
It’s Official: Texas Prohibits Local Fracking Bans
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on May 19th, 2015
EcoWatch: Yesterday Texas Gov. Abbott signed HB 40 into law. Written by former ExxonMobil lawyer Shannon Ratliff, the statute forces every Texas municipality wanting common sense limits on oil and gas development to demonstrate its rules are “commercially reasonable.” It effectively overturns a Denton ballot initiative banning fracking that passed last November. “HB 40 was written by the oil and gas industry, for the oil and gas industry, to prevent voters from holding the oil and gas industry accountable...
Nickel Mine, Lead Bullets: Maya Q’eqchi’ seek justice in Guatemala and Canada
Posted by Mongabay: Rebecca Kessler on May 19th, 2015
Mongabay: German Chub faces the judge as he responds calmly and evenly to question after question during cross-examination. He uses his arms to lift himself up and shift a little in his wheelchair. Other young Maya Q'eqchi' men had to carry him up the stairs to the second-floor courtroom in Puerto Barrios, a bustling Caribbean port city in eastern Guatemala.
Five and a half years ago, Chub was playing soccer in the community of La Unión, in the department of Izabal, when security guards from the Guatemalan...