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Archive for November 3rd, 2015
Restoration project recreates variation in Vindel River, Sweden
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 3rd, 2015
ScienceDaily: Vindel River LIFE is an EU project at Umeå University aimed at restoring tributaries in northern Sweden that were affected by a century-long timber-floating era. The project spanned over nearly six years and came to an end on 31 October 2015.
The project has worked with how to practically go about reducing the effects of fragmentation and channelization in 26 of the tributaries in the northern Swedish Vindel River as well as studying how to evaluate the effects of the restorations. Another objective...
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5 Things To Know About The Keystone XL Pipeline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 3rd, 2015
National Public Radio: After spending years as a political football in the U.S., the Keystone XL pipeline's would-be builder is now asking for a timeout in the review process. Why now? Changing politics in the U.S. and Canada, falling oil prices and mounting pressure from environmentalists have marked a turnaround for the company, which had pushed for approval of the project, and its supporters. Here are five things to know about where the pipeline stands now: 1. Geography gives the U.S. government a say The United...
A Tale of Two Northern European Cities: Meeting the Challenge of Sea Level Rise
Posted by Yale Environment 360: Alex Maclean on November 3rd, 2015
Yale Environment 360: A dike, the green strip along the coast, protects flower fields and wind turbines in the northern Netherlands. This promenade in the HafenCity district of Hamburg is designed to withstand flooding. An elevated roadway passes behind it. Hamburg's HafenCity is partially protected against storm surges and rising seas. The area encompasses the islands in the right two-thirds of photo. The Maeslant Barrier in the Netherlands. When waters reach 10 feet above normal sea level, the massive gates are closed...
Global connections between El Nino events, drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 3rd, 2015
ScienceDaily: A team of researchers recently discovered that global climate change is causing general increases in both plant growth and potential drought risk. University of Montana Professor John Kimball is among the team of researchers who published an article on Oct. 30 about their study on Nature magazine's website titled "Vegetation Greening and Climate Change Promote Multidecadal Rises of Global Land Evapotranspiration." Their research shows that during the past 32 years there have been widespread increases...
Rotting oaks lead to hazardous voids in Indiana’s Mount Baldy sand dune
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 3rd, 2015
ScienceDaily: Mount Baldy, a sand dune in Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, may appear to be no more than an innocent pile of sand grains speckled with vegetation, but the rolling slopes hide narrow, deep holes, which are evidence of entombed oak trees.
No one knew the holes under Mount Baldy existed until a six-year-old boy fell into one in the summer of 2013 and was buried. Emergency responders successfully rescued the boy after three and a half hours, but the accident left Indiana University Northwest coastal...
Study: Melting Ice in West Antarctica Could Raise Sea Levels by 3 Meters
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 3rd, 2015
Agence France-Presse: A key area of ice in west Antarctica may already be unstable enough to cause global sea levels to rise by three metres of ocean rise, scientists said on Monday.
The study follows research published last year, led by Nasa glaciologist Eric Rignot, warning that ice in the Antarctic had gone into a state of irreversible retreat, that the melting was considered “unstoppable” and could raise sea level by 1.2 metres.
This time, researchers at Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research...
Experts dispute NASA study showing Antarctic ice gain
Posted by Al Jazeera: Renee Lewis on November 3rd, 2015
Al Jazeera: A number of experts are disputing the conclusion of a recent NASA study that says more ice is accumulating in Antarctica than is being lost due to climate change. They argue that the study contradicts more than a decade of other scientific measurements -- including previous NASA studies.
The NASA report issued last week, “Mass Gains of Antarctic Ice Sheet Greater than Losses,” argued that snow accumulation in East Antarctica has added enough ice to the continent to outweigh the losses from the...
Abrupt changes in food chains predicted as Southern Ocean acidifies fast
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on November 3rd, 2015
Sydney Morning Herald: The Southern Ocean is acidifying at such a rate because of rising carbon dioxide emissions that large regions may be inhospitable for key organisms in the food chain to survive as soon as 2030, new US research has found.
Tiny pteropods, snail-like creatures that play an important role in the food web, will lose their ability to form shells as oceans absorb more of the CO2 from the atmosphere, a process already observed over short periods in areas close to the Antarctic coast.
Ocean acidification...
Australia: October blew away heat records for any month of any year: Bureau of Meteorology
Posted by Morning Herald: None Given on November 3rd, 2015
Morning Herald: The red-hot start to October barely let up, setting Australia up for its most abnormally warm month in records going back to 1910, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
The arrival of summer-like conditions several months early has combined with on-going dry conditions in many southern parts of the country to create dangerous fire conditions, authorities say.
Nationally, maximum temperatures were 3.44 degrees above average for October, eclipsing the previous record deviation of 3.41 degrees set in...
TransCanada suspends request for permit to build Keystone pipeline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 3rd, 2015
New York Times: The company seeking to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline asked the Obama administration on Monday to suspend its yearslong review of the project, potentially bringing an abrupt halt to a politically charged debate that had become part of a broader struggle over President Obama’s environmental policies. It was not immediately clear whether the administration would grant the request, which was swiftly denounced by environmental activists as a bid to dodge a near-certain rejection of the pipeline....