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Archive for June 4th, 2015
EPA Finds No Widespread Drinking Water Pollution Fracking
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 4th, 2015
National Public Radio: The Environmental Protection Agency says it has found no evidence that hydraulic fracturing - better known as fracking - has led to widespread pollution of drinking water. The oil industry and its backers welcome the long-awaited study, while environmental groups criticize it.
"We found the hydraulic fracturing activities in the United States are carried out in a way that has not led to widespread systemic impacts on drinking water resources," says Tom Burke, science adviser and deputy assistant...
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3 things Rick Perry knows global warming: It’s a hoax, not a scientist and … we forget the third
Posted by Grist: None Given on June 4th, 2015
Grist: Rick Perry became the zillionth Republican seeking his party`s 2016 nomination when he announced his second presidential run in Dallas Thursday morning. The former Texas governor joined a crowded field of GOP contenders, and he has at least one thing in common with most of his competitors who aren`t named George Pataki: He rejects the science behind climate change.
During his 2012 presidential campaign, Perry regularly questioned climate science, saying that it hadn`t been settled. "There are...
Environmentalists sue to protect fish amid California drought measures
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 4th, 2015
Reuters: California environmental groups have sued state and federal water managers, claiming that their drought-management plan for projects below the crucial Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is pushing some species of fish to the brink of extinction.
The lawsuit marks the latest salvo in the battle over water in California as the state suffers through its fourth year of a devastating drought that has prompted strict conservation measures.
"We bring this lawsuit in an effort to prevent the impending...
Using new data, US finds no pause in global warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 4th, 2015
Agence France-Presse: Using updated data on the Earth's surface temperatures worldwide, US government scientists have found no evidence of a pause in global warming in recent years, according to research published on Thursday.
The report by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was published in the journal Science.
It had been thought that temperatures in the 21st century plateaued.
"The new analysis suggests no discernible decrease in the rate of warming between the second...
California’s War Over Water Has Farmer Fighting Farmer
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 4th, 2015
National Public Radio: Rudy Mussi is not the California farmer you've been hearing about. He is not fallowing all his fields or ripping up his orchards due to a lack irrigation water.
For Mussi and most of his neighbors in the bucolic Sacramento Delta, the water is still flowing reliably from the pumps and into the canals lining the fields.
"If you had to pick a place where you would say, 'Okay, where should I stick my farm?' You'd come to the Delta," he says.
As he steers his pickup through ripening wine grape...
It’s Official EPA Says Fracking Pollutes Drinking Water
Posted by EcoWatch: Anastasia Pantsios on June 4th, 2015
EcoWatch: In 2010, Congress commissioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to study the impact of fracking on drinking water. The U.S. EPA released its long-awaited final draft of its report today, assessing how fracking for oil and gas can impact access to safe drinking water. The report refuted the conclusion arrived at by the U.S. EPA`s 2004 study that fracking poses no threat to drinking water, a conclusion used to exempt the fracking process from the Safe Drinking Water Act.
The report...
Seven New Teeny-Tiny Frog Species Discovered in Brazil
Posted by Nature World: None Given on June 4th, 2015
Nature World: Seven new teeny-tiny frog species have recently been discovered in the cloud forests of Brazil, and though they were just found, scientists already say that they are threatened and on the brink of extinction.
The southern Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest harbors a highly unique group of frogs that have intrigued scientists for over a century. Known as Brachycephalus, these miniature frogs are among the smallest terrestrial vertebrates, with adult sizes often not exceeding 1 cm in length. Their pocket...
Greenland’s Draining Lakes Won’t Worsen Sea Level Rise?
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on June 4th, 2015
Nature World News: Each summer, Greenland's ice sheet - measuring three times the size of Texas - begins to melt. Pockets of melting ice form hundreds of large, supraglacial lakes on the surface of the ice. Many of these lakes drain through cracks and crevasses in the ice sheet, called moulins, creating a liquid layer over which massive chunks of ice can slide. This natural conveyor belt can speed ice toward the coast, where it eventually falls off into the sea.
"It's essentially a check on the inner ice starting...
Study dismisses ‘hiatus’ in global warming, says temperatures up
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 4th, 2015
Reuters: An apparent slowdown in the pace of global warming in recent years may be an illusion based on skewed data, according to a study on Thursday that found no break in a trend of rising temperatures.
In 2013, the U.N. panel of climate experts reported a "hiatus" in warming since about 1998, despite rising man-made emissions of greenhouse gases. That heartened skeptics who say the risks of climate change have been exaggerated.
The new U.S. study in the journal Science, based on a re-analysis of...
Proposed Andean headwater dams an ecological calamity for Amazon Basin
Posted by Mongabay: Tiffany Roufs on June 4th, 2015
Mongabay: Most "run-of-river" hydroelectric dams in the Amazon Basin are used to divert all of the flow away from the natural river channel to generate electricity in a powerhouse located downstream. Such dams disrupt ecological connectivity and eliminate any flow-dependent uses in the affected section of river. Photo credit: Ecuadorian Rivers Institute.
High in the Andes Mountains, countless minor streams begin their pilgrimage downward, joining forces with the rain to form the tributaries of the Amazon...