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Archive for September, 2015
Global Consumption Trends Break New Records
Posted by Blue and Green: None Given on September 15th, 2015
Blue and Green: From coal to cars to coffee, consumption levels are breaking records. According to the Worldwatch Institute’s latest report, Vital Signs, Volume 22: The Trends That Are Shaping Our Future, the acceleration of resource depletion, pollution, and climate change may come with under appreciated social and environmental costs. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Vital Signs shows trends related to today’s often record-breaking levels of consumption by providing data and concise analyses of significant...
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850 Tons of Treated Fukushima Water Dumped Into Pacific
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on September 15th, 2015
EcoWatch: Despite the objections of environmentalists and after overcoming local opposition from fishermen, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) pumped more than 850 tons of groundwater from below the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean on Monday. More than four years after a tsunami destroyed the plant and triggered a meltdown, the cleanup effort remains frought with numerous difficulties, including the nearly impossible task of dealing with the millions of gallons of contaminated and radioactive...
California Epic Drought Leads to Lowest Snowpack in 500 Years
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on September 15th, 2015
EcoWatch: The snowpack for the state of California--a critical source of drinking water for the state--hit its lowest level in the last 500 years, according to a study published yesterday in Nature. When the snowpack was measured in April--historically the high point for the season`s snowpack--it was just 6 percent of average for the past century.
California`s 2015 Sierra Nevada mountains snowpack was "the worst in the past 500 years" http://t.co/v0NzH7AXdQ pic.twitter.com/v61PIWq4IG
-- NYT Science (@NYTScience)...
Lack of resources could create 50 million climate migrants in decade, says report
Posted by Newsweek: Conor Gaffey on September 15th, 2015
Newsweek: Fifty million refugees fleeing hunger and poverty could be created in the next 10 years unless the world's land degradation crisis is addressed, according to a new U.N.-backed report.
The report, titled The Value of Land, estimates that between $6.3 trillion and $10.6 trillion worth of resources—including agricultural products, soil quality and benefits in tackling climate change—are lost each year due to land degradation. This is equivalent to between 10 and 17 percent of global annual GDP. ...
Sierra Nevada snowpack lowest in 500 years; new study says
Posted by Canada Journal: None Given on September 15th, 2015
Canada Journal: The Sierra Nevada snowpack that is a critical water source for California fell to a 500-year low last winter – far worse than scientists had estimated and underlining the severity of the current drought, according to new research.
For the study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, researchers compared the snowpack on April 1 with estimates from the last 500 years derived from tree ring studies. Tree rings provide a window into the climate of centuries past, expanding during warm periods...
Thai villagers say gas drilling sickens them, ruins crops
Posted by Greenwich Time: None Given on September 15th, 2015
Greenwich Time: More than 100 students and villagers crowded into a northeast Thailand college forum to hear about American gas companies conducting drilling operations in their region. A lieutenant colonel and dozens of soldiers and police officers followed them in.
The armed police began photographing members of the crowd, a menacing move in a country now run by a military junta that bars protests and routinely cracks down on dissenters. Some in the audience had already viewed the military as part of the problem,...
Spread of deserts costs trillions, spurs migrants
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2015
Reuters: Land degradation, such as a spread of deserts in parts of Africa, costs the world economy trillions of dollars a year and may drive tens of millions of people from their homes, a U.N.-backed study said on Tuesday.
Worldwide, about 52 percent of farmland is already damaged, according to the report by The Economics of Land Degradation (ELD), compiled by 30 research groups around the world.
It estimated that land degradation worldwide cost between $6.3 trillion and $10.6 trillion a year in lost...
Raging wildfires drive 23,000 Calif from their homes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2015
Christian Science Monitor: California officials say about 23,000 people have been displaces by two massive wildfires. California’s historic drought has provided ample fuel for wildfires this season. Some 13,000 people have been driven from their homes by a wildfire 20 miles north of the famed Napa Valley, according to Mark Ghilarducci, director of the governor's emergency services office. Another 10,000 people have been displaced from a second blaze less than 200 miles away in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Up to 720 homes...
Protests over giant telescope put concern Native Hawaiians into focus
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on September 15th, 2015
Al Jazeera: The world’s tallest mountain from seafloor to summit is Mauna Kea, a 32,000-foot volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii where ancient Hawaiians believed the gods dwelled at the intersection of sky and peak.
In the last five months this sacred summit has also become a battleground. After plans were announced to build the world’s most powerful telescope atop the mountain, hundreds of protesters calling themselves protectors blocked Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) construction crews and equipment from...
Woman killed, 400 homes destroyed by California wildfire
Posted by Reuters: Curtis Skinner on September 15th, 2015
Reuters: A Northern California wildfire ranked as the most destructive to hit the drought-stricken U.S. West this year has killed a woman and burned some 400 homes to the ground, fire officials said on Monday, and they expect the property toll to climb.
The so-called Valley Fire erupted on Saturday and spread quickly to a cluster of small communities in the hills and valleys north of Napa County's wine-producing region, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents.
An elderly, disabled woman who...