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Archive for January 25th, 2016
Pressure building on global water supply
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 25th, 2016
ScienceDaily: If current trends continue, domestic and industrial water demand would more than double by the year 2050, and continue to increase after that, according to a new study published in the journal Geoscientific Model Development. The study introduces the first scenarios from the IIASA Water Futures and Solutions (WFaS) initiative, a multi-year interdisciplinary research project focusing on global water challenges and solutions, and explains the methodology and models used by the research initiative....
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Plaintiffs’ lawyers wary of taking on Flint water scandal
Posted by Reuters: Brendan Pierson on January 25th, 2016
Reuters: The water scandal in Flint, Michigan has many of the ingredients for a mass, class-action lawsuit: danger signs that may have been ignored, many thousands of potential victims, the possibility of lifelong health problems, and the alleged systemic failure of people in charge.
Even consumer activist Erin Brockovich, the main subject of a 2000 movie named after her, has drawn attention to Flint's plight on her Facebook page and in public appearances.
But big-name, national plaintiffs' firms have...
2015 was warmest year on record; El Niño, climate change to blame
Posted by Republic: Weldon B. Johnson on January 25th, 2016
Republic: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's most recent State of the Climate report confirmed what many climatologists have been predicting for most of the past year. The year 2015 was the warmest since records on that statistic have been kept starting in 1880.
The average temperature last year was 1.62 degreesFahrenheit above the 20th-century average of 57 degrees. That temperature topped the record set in 2014 by 0.29 degrees. Last year not only was the warmest calendar year, it also...
The surprising way that climate change could worsen East Coast blizzards
Posted by Washington Post: Chris Mooney on January 25th, 2016
Washington Post: As the East Coast digs out from the enormous snowfalls of Winter Storm Jonas, a prominent climate scientist has drawn a provocative connection between the storm, warm ocean temperatures off the U.S. and a slowdown of ocean circulation in the North Atlantic that may also be behind a much discussed cold ‘blob‘ to the southeast of Greenland.
“People have thought, you get this cold blob, and it’s going to maybe affect Britain,” says Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research,...
Salamander Fungus: Lacey Act to Keep Out 201 Foreign Amphibians
Posted by Nature World: Samantha Mathewso on January 25th, 2016
Nature World: Roughly 201 salamander species were recently listed as injurious wildlife - or those likely to cause harm - under Lacey Act by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). Researchers say that keeping these particular foreign amphibians out of the country will help prevent the fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, also known as Bsal or salamander chytrid, from spreading into the U.S., which is a global hotspot for salamander diversity.
"This action should be seen as an effective step toward controlling...
Alaskan Yellow Cedar: Saving It, A New Report
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on January 25th, 2016
Nature World News: As less and less snow has fallen over the West Coast, yellow-cedar forests across Alaska have rapidly declined within the last century. The stately conifers grow up to 78 feet tall and are historically a major part of forests north of the top of California. A new report from the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station addresses the threat to them and outlines a climate adaptation strategy designed to help save the iconic trees.
"Our report assesses the past, current, and expected...
Global nitrogen footprint mapped for first time
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 25th, 2016
ScienceDaily: The first-ever global nitrogen footprint, encompassing 188 countries, has found the United States, China, India and Brazil are responsible for 46 percent of the world's nitrogen emissions.
The international collaboration, led by the University of Sydney's Integrated Sustainability Analysis team in the Faculty of Science, found developing countries tend to embody large amounts of nitrogen emissions from their exports of food, textiles and clothing. Australia is one of the few wealthy nations that...
Flint rewrites water testing directions blamed in lead pollution crisis
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 25th, 2016
Guardian: The city of Flint has belatedly rewritten water testing instructions that have been blamed for the gross underestimation of its lead pollution crisis, with the Michigan government to be sued this week over its continued support for the distorted tests revealed by the Guardian. 'It's all just poison now': Flint reels as families struggle through water crisis Read more People in Flint have been complaining about their water since the summer of 2014. Until December 2015, officials in the city were...
Is Climate Change Causing The Recent Streak Of Record-Setting Warm Years?
Posted by Popular Science: None Given on January 25th, 2016
Popular Science: Last year was the warmest on record. Red and orange show areas that were above the average temperature last year. Blue areas show places where temperatures were cooler than average.
We're on a roll. 2015 was the hottest year on record, just like 2014 was the hottest year on record, and before that, 2012 was the hottest year on record... In fact, 15 of the 16 hottest years on record have happened in the last 15 years. What are the odds?
In a paper released in Scientific Reports today, researchers...
DRC: Battle to protect Virunga National Park and wildlife living there
Posted by Business Times: None Given on January 25th, 2016
Business Times: The Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is simultaneously one of the most beautiful yet heartbreaking places on Earth. Africa's oldest national park has been a hotbed of armed conflict throughout the country's turbulent history, but it is also home to some of the world's last remaining mountain gorillas, lions, forest and savanna elephants, rare species of birds and some 20,000 hippopotamuses.
The landscape of lush greenery, lava plains and snowcapped mountains...