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Archive for January 27th, 2016
Human activities to blame for unprecedented climate changes and global warming
Posted by Delhi Daily News: None Given on January 27th, 2016
Delhi Daily News: A report by United Nation's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says that 2015 was the hottest year since 2000 and the researchers are blaming the greenhouse gases and the man-made activities for the fuelling heat waves and downpours.
About fifteen of the 16 hottest years on record belonged to this century, the exceptionally strong El Nino and the greenhouse gases together had the effect on the climate system in 2015. The influence of El Nino will weaken in the upcoming time, but the effect...
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Would it be wrong to eradicate mosquitoes?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 27th, 2016
BBC: The mosquito is the most dangerous animal in the world, carrying diseases that kill one million people a year. Now the Zika virus, which is carried by mosquitoes, has been linked with thousands of babies born with brain defects in South America. Should the insects be wiped out?
There are 3,500 known species of mosquito but most of those don't bother humans at all, living off plant and fruit nectar.
It's only the females from just 6% of species that draw blood from humans - to help them develop...
Canada to consider CO2 emissions in approving new pipelines
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 27th, 2016
Agence France-Presse: Canada's environment and resources ministers announced Wednesday a new framework for approving the construction of pipelines that must consider the direct and upstream greenhouse gas emissions linked to the projects.
The new requirements will be tacked on to Canada's existing environmental assessment process, and will apply to projects currently being scrutinized by the national energy regulator.
This will also allow the government to also consult more broadly with indigenous peoples about...
Australia: Wildfires Are Burning Some of the World’s Oldest Trees
Posted by Climate Central: Brian Kahn on January 27th, 2016
Climate Central: Northwest Tasmania is home to part of the Gondwana forest. It's a stretch of primeval-looking temperate rainforest, much like the one found in the Pacific Northwest's Olympic National Park. Trees more than 1,000 years old tower above ancient ferns, forming a connection to the distant past. It's why the region has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
But that connection is being broken by climate change. Fueled by extremely dry conditions that stretch back two years, major bushfires have...
Flint, Michigan: Did race and poverty factor into water crisis?
Posted by CNN: Michael Martinez on January 27th, 2016
CNN: The contamination of drinking water in Flint, Michigan, has so outraged community advocates that they now pose a powerful question: Was the city neglected because it is mostly black and about 40% poor?
Several advocates say yes. They charge that Flint residents are victims of "environmental racism" -- that is, race and poverty factored into how Flint wasn't adequately protected and how its water became contaminated with lead, making the tap water undrinkable.
Flint water crisis: AG seeks to...
Seattle Sues Monsanto Over PCB Contamination, Becomes 6th City to Do So
Posted by EcoWatch: Lorraine Chow on January 27th, 2016
EcoWatch: Seattle joins the growing list of cities in the American West that has slapped Monsanto with a PCB lawsuit. PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, is a highly toxic chemical that the company manufactured decades ago.
The complaint, filed on Monday with the U.S. District Court in Seattle, alleges that Monsanto knew that the chemicals were polluting the environment and causing harm to people and wildlife, as Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes explained to The Seattle Times.
“When the profit motive...
Another Lead Water Poisoning Scandal Has Erupted, This Time in Ohio
Posted by EcoWatch: Cole Mellino on January 27th, 2016
EcoWatch: Amid the Flint, Michigan water crisis, experts warned that what`s happening in Flint could happen elsewhere. And now it appears it already has. The town of Sebring, Ohio outside of Youngstown learned Thursday that high levels of lead were detected in some residents` water last summer.
Residents are now demanding to know why they have been left in the dark for months. According to the AP, schools have been closed for three days, children are being tested for lead poisoning, bottled water is being...
Coal projects advance but won’t be final under moratorium
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 27th, 2016
Associated Press: U.S. officials on Wednesday cleared the way for a review of two mining projects that would dig up 644 million tons of coal from public lands, despite a recent government moratorium halting federal coal sales.
Wyoming, Montana and U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials approved moving forward with a multiyear evaluation of the projects located next to existing mines in the states' Powder River Basin, the nation's largest coal-producing region.
The Jan. 15 moratorium from the Obama administration...
The blizzard of 2016 was influenced by manmade global warming
Posted by Mashable: None Given on January 27th, 2016
Mashable: The blizzard of 2016 was an exceptional storm that broke all-time snowfall records in multiple locations. Yet for many people it hit, this storm was not a complete shock; a string of severe winter storms have slammed the East Coast in recent years.
This could be random chance, since the atmosphere does tend to unleash more major winter storms during some decades compared to others. Or it could be due to another factor: Manmade global warming could be tilting the scale in favor of exceptional snowfall...
Coal moratorium turns spotlight to oil, gas leases
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 27th, 2016
Climate Central: Emboldened by the Obama administration's pause on federal coal leasing, activists and scientists are now urging the government to bring federal oil and gas leasing in line with U.S. climate policy before the president leaves office next January.
The federal coal leasing moratorium announced in January marks a major turning point in the federal fossil fuels leasing program because it shows the government is willing to take steps to keep some fossil fuels in the ground as a way to address climate...