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Archive for May 20th, 2015
Mike Huckabee can’t make up his mind about ethanol
Posted by Grist: None Given on May 20th, 2015
Grist: On the campaign trail, GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has been a vocal supporter of the ethanol industry. The former Arkansas governor has repeatedly spoken out in defense of the Renewable Fuel Standard -- the federal policy that requires energy companies to blend billions of gallons of biofuels into the nation`s gasoline and diesel supply. That makes political sense in Iowa, where corn is big business. Ethanol made from corn constitutes the vast majority of domestic biofuel consumption....
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Obama: Climate change poses “immediate risk” to national security
Posted by Grist: None Given on May 20th, 2015
Grist: President Barack Obama had a strong message for graduates of the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut on Wednesday, and all the rest of us too: Global warming is a major security threat.
During a commencement address at the academy, he linked changes in the climate to volatility and violence in the Middle East, and warned that global warming to undermine military readiness. He said military forces must adapt and prepare for the kinds of changes we`re already starting to see, but "such preparation...
Changes in land use pose greater threat to aquatic diversity than climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 20th, 2015
ScienceDaily: For the first time, scientists at the Senckenberg Research Center for Biodiversity and Climate and the Research Institute Senckenberg in Gelnhausen have modeled the effects of land use changes on the species diversity in rivers and streams. Their results show that the loss of biodiversity is caused to a significantly higher degree by changes in land use practices than by climate change. In consequence, conservation concepts for this valuable ecosystem and the organisms that live in flowing water...
Severe weather may be linked to Arctic warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 20th, 2015
ScienceDaily: Professor Edward Hanna and PhD student Richard Hall, from the University of Sheffield's Department of Geography, are part of a select group of international climate scientists investigating links between Arctic climate change and extreme weather in the northern mid-latitudes.
They have found that while it is too soon to know for certain whether the Arctic played a role in persistent cold events during the extreme wet UK winter of 2013/14 and recent USA East Coast winters, new studies are adding...
Second Largest Island in U.S. Goes 100% Renewable
Posted by EcoWatch: Laurie Guevara-?Stone, Rocky Mountain Institute on May 20th, 2015
EcoWatch: As most Alaskans can attest, energy in The Last Frontier is expensive. The average residential electricity rate of more than 18 cents per kWh is a full 50 percent higher than the national average, ranking among the highest in the country. That’s in part because outside the 50 hydro plants throughout the state, most of Alaska’s rural communities rely on imported diesel for their electricity. But the folks of Kodiak Island (pop. 15,000) in southern Alaska--powered almost 100 percent with renewable...
Air quality effects of natural gas extraction detected in PA’s Marcellus Shale region
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 20th, 2015
ScienceDaily: A team led by environmental engineers from Drexel University are the first independent researchers to take a closer look at the air quality effects of natural gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania. The group used a mobile air quality monitoring vehicle to survey regional air quality and pollutant emissions at 13 sites including wells, drilling rigs, compressor stations and processing areas. Their work establishes baseline measurements for this relatively new area of extraction....
How an American with a knack for math saved India from famine
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 20th, 2015
Bloomberg: Lester Brown has spent his career making shrewd projections about the food, water, and energy people need to survive, and pushing governments to respond. None of this math brings tears to his eyes except the time in 1965 he made some calculations and risked his career advising the president of the United States to save India from starving.
Brown's eyes misted over as the 81-year-old resource economist recalled the reaction of a U.S. agriculture attache in New Delhi to his discovery that famine...
How global warming make forests shorter and scrubbier
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 20th, 2015
Christian Science Monitor: As global warming progresses, look for increasing expanses of majestic forests worldwide to become short and scrubby.
That is the implication of a new study that applies a well-established principle of fluid flow to the inner workings of vegetation.
The analysis doesn't attempt to specify timing or specific locations where such shifts in vegetation would occur. Instead, it uses the principle known as Darcy's law to explore the general types of vegetation most likely and least likely to survive...
‘It’s a tinderbomb’ – Pacific Northwest faces major wildfire risk due to low snowpack
Posted by ClimateWire: Elizabeth Harball on May 20th, 2015
ClimateWire: Snow-free mountains and a recent drought declaration mean that Washington state is facing an extraordinarily risky wildfire season, according to one of the state's top forest officials.
"Over the years, people have become fond of referring to Western forests as tinderboxes," State Forester Aaron Everett of the Washington Department of Natural Resources said yesterday. "Our forest is not a tinderbox, it's a 'tinderbomb.' It's sprinkled with gasoline and ringed with dynamite."
Washington Gov....
New guidelines approved emergency drought relief funding
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 20th, 2015
LA Times: "As we enter a fourth year of severe drought, more communities are likely to face difficulties with their water supplies and delivering safe drinking water," said Darrin Polhemus, deputy director of the water board`s Division of Financial Assistance.
The guidelines ensure communities and groups with the greatest need of drinking water receive funding. The communities probably lack access to water supplies or suffer from contaminated water and need financial assistance to maintain drinking water....