RSS Feed
Archive for October 20th, 2015
Canada’s new government heralds freedom of speech for scientists
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 20th, 2015
New Scientist: Winds of change are blowing in Canada. The Liberal party has surged to victory in the general election, winning a majority in parliament.
The result brings an end to 10 years of rule by the Conservative party, which drew criticism for its policies on science and the environment, most notably for muzzling publicly funded scientists and pulling out of the Kyoto protocol in 2011 as part of a rollback on climate action.
New prime minister Justin Trudeau has promised to let scientists speak openly...
Posted in 
Oklahoma cracks down more disposal wells after Cushing quakes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 20th, 2015
Reuters: Oklahoma regulators are cracking down harder on saltwater disposal wells near the vitally important Cushing crude storage hub, where a rash of quakes have stoked concerns its tanks and pipelines may not be designed to handle a major seismic event. The state's oil and gas regulator late on Monday said all saltwater disposal wells within a 10-mile radius of Cushing could face new limits. It has also basically halted approvals for new disposal wells for the time being and ordered 13 wells to shut in...
Spring will be springing earlier in the US
Posted by Environmental News Network: Institute Of Physics Via EurekAlert on October 20th, 2015
Environmental News Network: Scientists have projected that the onset of spring plant growth will shift by a median of three weeks earlier over the next century, as a result of rising global temperatures.
The results, published today (Wednesday 14th October), in the journal Environmental Research Letters, have long term implications for the growing season of plants and the relationship between plants and the animals that depend upon them.
The researchers, based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US, applied the extended...
Study sees ecological risks as solar expands
Posted by Climate Central: Bobby Magill on October 20th, 2015
Climate Central: Solar power development is big business in sunny California, fueled by low solar panel prices and the drive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to tackle climate change. Some biologists, however, are growing concerned that the placement of new large-scale solar power plants in the Mojave Desert may harm the biological diversity found there.
A study published Monday shows that solar power developers in California have been using mostly undeveloped desert lands with sensitive wildlife habitat as...
Drought-stressed California forests face a radical shift
Posted by LA Times: Thomas Curwen on October 20th, 2015
LA Times: Biologist Greg Asner first heard the numbers in April, but they did little to prepare him for what he saw.
The Forest Service had estimated that nearly 12.5 million trees in the state's southern and central forests were dead. But as Asner peered down upon the same forests from his airplane at 6,000 feet, he saw something far worse.
California's drought-parched landscape was poised for a radical transformation. Much of the low-elevation forests near Mt. Pinos in the Los Padres National Forest...
Climate change means plants are growing better, but they are drinking more water
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Lucy Cormack on October 20th, 2015
Sydney Morning Herald: Increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is making plants in Australia's semi-arid and subtropical regions bigger and greener. It's also making them a hell of a lot thirstier.
It is a peculiar paradox that sees plants "greening" and growing better as a result of climate change, while water supply across Australia's grazing and annual cropping land is suffering.
"What we are seeing is very much consistent with [the effect of] increasing carbon dioxide, the main ingredient of photosynthesis. So higher...
Scientists discover 41 global warming ‘tipping points’ that could trigger natural disasters
Posted by Tech Times: None Given on October 20th, 2015
Tech Times: Scientists have discovered 41 global warming tipping points or places that could trigger natural disasters. They believe that these tipping points could cause a domino effect and increase the risk of climate change.
A group of scientists has discovered specific places where abrupt changes in temperature could trigger the occurrence of natural disasters.
These global warming "tipping points" are not found near any major city, but their contribution to climate change still threatens the planet....
Food that is good for the planet actually tastes good too, research suggests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 20th, 2015
Washington Post: It’s an unfortunate truth that humans don’t always eat what’s good for us -- and we don’t always eat what’s good for the planet, either. Food production, alone, is a significant (and growing) contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. And combined with the fuel required to transport various types of in-demand meat and produce around the world, the meat and potatoes on our plates might just have a bigger carbon footprint than we’d like to think about.
So promoting more sustainable food choices is...
Pakistan’s climate change ‘time bomb’ is already ticking
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 20th, 2015
Agence France-Presse: The sprawling megacity lies crumbling, desiccated by another deadly heatwave, its millions of inhabitants suffering life-threatening water shortages and unable to buy bread that has become too expensive to eat.
It sounds like the stuff of dystopian fiction but it could be the reality Pakistan is facing. With its northern glaciers melting and its population surging - the country`s climate change time bomb is already ticking.
In a nation facing violence and an unprecedented energy shortage slowing...
Poisonous frogs more likely to face extinction, study finds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 20th, 2015
ScienceDaily: Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that amphibians that use toxins to protect themselves against predators are at a higher risk of extinction than those who use other types of defence, which poses a challenge to a long-held evolutionary hypothesis. As part of nature's evolutionary arms race, animals have evolved a whole host of different defence mechanisms, including chemical defences, such as poisons or irritants, camouflage, warning colouration and mimicry. The way mechanisms...