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Archive for December 21st, 2015
Greenhouse gas emissions from freshwater higher than thought
Posted by Environmental News Network: Kelly April Terrell, University Of Wisconsin-Madison on December 21st, 2015
Environmental News Network: Do not underestimate the babbling brook. When it comes to greenhouse gases, these bucolic water bodies have the potential to create a lot of hot air.
According to a new analysis in the journal Ecological Monographs, by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and colleagues, the world’s rivers and streams pump about 10 times more methane into our atmosphere than scientists estimated in previous studies. The new study also found that human activity seems to drive which streams are the...
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In a first, China prosecutors sue environmental department
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 21st, 2015
Reuters: Prosecutors in eastern China have filed a lawsuit against a county-level environmental protection department, accusing it of "failing to fulfil its regulatory duties" in its supervision of a local sewage firm, China's top prosecutor said on Monday.
China's Supreme People's Procuratorate said the lawsuit filed by prosecutors in eastern Shandong province last week marked the first time prosecutors had sued a government department in a public interest case.
"This is the country's first administrative...
Earth’s Lakes Are Warming Faster Than The Oceans And Atmosphere
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 21st, 2015
Associated Press: Some of the world's biggest temperature jumps are happening in lakes — an ominous sign that suggests problems such as harmful algae blooms and low-oxygen zones hazardous to fish will get worse, says a newly released scientific report.
An analysis of 235 lakes that together hold more than half the earth's fresh surface water found they have warmed an average of 0.61 degrees Fahrenheit or 0.34 degrees Celsius per decade, the report said. While seemingly insignificant, the increase is bigger than...
Groundwater depletion adding to global sea-level rise
Posted by Desert Sun: Ian James on December 21st, 2015
Desert Sun: Increasing amounts of water are being depleted from the world’s aquifers, and scientists have estimated that a large portion of the water ends up flowing into the oceans.
So much groundwater is being pumped from wells that researchers say it is contributing significantly to global sea-level rise.
Hydrologists Yoshihide Wada and Marc Bierkens have calculated estimates of the amounts of groundwater depleted annually since 1900, and their findings are striking. When plotted on a chart, their figures...
Paris climate agreement latest sign of trouble for Canada’s oil patch
Posted by Toronto Star: None Given on December 21st, 2015
Toronto Star: When solar entrepreneur Jeremy Leggett bumped into Suncor Energy boss Steve Williams at the World Economic Forum in 2014, odds were high that tempers would flare.
The two men were among about 40 dinner guests – a mix of CEOs, pension fund managers, economists and government leaders. They had gathered in Davos, Switzerland, to talk about “short-termism” in the financial and corporate worlds and how it undermines efforts to tackle climate change.
At one point during the dinner, Leggett recalls...
Costa Rica at 99 percent renewable: Are others on the same path?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 21st, 2015
Christian Science Monitor: This year, nearly all of Costa Rica’s electricity came from renewable sources, according to the state electricity agency. The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) said in a statement Friday that it achieved "99 percent renewable electricity generation" so far this year, AFP reports. Early this year, the Costa Rican government announced that the country had been running fully on renewable energy for the first 75 days of 2015. At the time, it set a target to run 97.1 percent on geothermal, wind,...
Homeless in Los Angeles brace for El Nino rainstorms
Posted by Reuters: Lucy Nicholson on December 21st, 2015
Reuters: As Los Angeles grapples with a huge homelessness problem, El Nino weather patterns are likely to bring torrential downpours in coming months and add to the misery of the thousands of people who sleep on the city's streets.
"It is a crisis in LA, and I don't think people realize the magnitude of it," said John Kump, an outreach program manager at the charity People Assisting the Homeless (PATH).
Los Angeles' homeless population is estimated at about 44,000, with many of them concentrated in...
The Parched West: California Wants to Store Water for Farmers, but Struggles Over How to Do It
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 21st, 2015
New York Times: Californians suffering through the fourth year of a punishing drought have a new worry. With fierce storms predicted for the winter, they are bracing for floods by stockpiling sandbags and rushing to buy insurance.
Yet those who need water the most, farmers, are in a poor position to take advantage of any deluge. If El Niño floods pour into the Central Valley, the farmers will inevitably watch millions of gallons of water flow to the sea.
This state, forward-looking on other environmental issues,...
World’s Lakes At Risk Of Continued Algal Blooms Triggered By Warm Waters
Posted by Nature World: Samantha Mathewson on December 21st, 2015
Nature World: The Earth's lakes may take a devastating hit from climate change, researchers report in a new study. Rapidly warming waters in freshwater bodies, including several Great Lakes and many reservoirs, trigger harmful algae blooms that ultimately threaten freshwater supplies for local ecosystems.
A team of researchers led by Catherine O'Reilly from Illinois State University analyzed satellite temperature data and long-term ground measurements taken from a total of 235 lakes, which store half of our...
Fish populations at world’s second largest freshwater lake
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 21st, 2015
ScienceDaily: A University of Wyoming researcher is studying fish populations -- and their relationship with local fishing communities -- in Africa's largest lake. Catherine Wagner, a UW assistant professor in the Department of Botany and the UW Biodiversity Institute, is studying interactions between the biodiversity of East Africa's Lake Tanganyika and the human communities that live around the lake. The work is conducted with the support of The Nature Conservancy and with collaborator Peter McIntyre, an assistant...