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Archive for March 11th, 2016
Five Years After Nuclear Disaster Fukushima Remains Highly Contaminated
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 11th, 2016
Yale Environment 360: It has been five years since a powerful earthquake and resulting tsunami caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. While a few towns closed after the disaster have reopened and some locals have returned, groundwater en route to the ocean, as well as nearby soils, remain highly contaminated with radioactive waste. Toxic water and soil that has been removed by the cleanup project’s 8,000 workers sit in a growing number storage tanks on the property, several of which...
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Gold mining in Venezuela: “perfect storm” of illegality, deforestation and mafias
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on March 11th, 2016
Mongabay: The Nineties were a decade that stood out for Venezuelans, because they discovered that the were garimpeiros in the south of the country. These traditional miners from Brazil, drawn by the gold rush, had crossed the wide Amazonian border between the two countries digging ditches in the middle of the rainforest in order to extract the precious metal. These illicit activities affected the fragile equilibrium of the Amazonian ecosystem, the health and way of life of the local indigenous and Creole...
Panel: Finding climate fingerprints in wild weather is valid
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 11th, 2016
Associated Press: Climate science has progressed so much that experts can accurately detect global warming's fingerprints on certain extreme weather events, such as a heat wave, according to a high-level scientific advisory panel.
For years scientists have given almost a rote response to the question of whether an instance of weird weather was from global warming, insisting that they can't attribute any single event to climate change. But "the science has advanced to the point that this is no longer true as an...
NOAA: Carbon Dioxide Levels ‘Exploded’ in 2015 Highest Since Ice Age
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on March 11th, 2016
EcoWatch: The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose 3.05 parts per million in 2015, the largest year-to-year increase ever recorded, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report finds.
It was the fourth year in a row that CO2 concentrations grew by more than 2 parts per million. “Carbon dioxide levels are increasing faster than they have in hundreds of thousands of years,” a lead scientist at NOAA said.
Some of the spike in CO2 levels can be attributed to...
EPA Introduces New Climate Crackdown on Methane Emissions Amid U.S.-Canada Announcement
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on March 11th, 2016
EcoWatch: On the heels of President Obama and Prime Minister Trudeau’s joint announcement on new climate measures, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it will implement a rule to limit methane emissions from existing oil and gas facilities. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said the agency will start work immediately on the regulations, meant to reduce methane emissions 40 to 45 percent below 2012 levels by 2025. Obama and Trudeau focused on methane in their agreement, along with other...
Reptile fossil discovery ‘extraordinary’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 11th, 2016
BBC: A newly discovered 250-million-year-old fossil reptile from Brazil gives an "extraordinary" insight into life just before the dinosaurs appeared.
At the time, the world was recovering from a massive extinction that wiped out most living species.
The reptile, named Teyujagua or "fierce lizard", is the close relative of a group that gave rise to dinosaurs, crocodiles and birds.
The fossil is "beautiful" and fills an evolutionary gap, say scientists.
Dr Richard Butler from the University...
Wildlife heaven or nuclear hell: Chernobyl future up for grabs
Posted by New Scientist: Fred Pearce on March 11th, 2016
New Scientist: A white-tailed eagle soars in the clear winter air. It is hunting for fish in one of the most radioactive bodies of open water on the planet: the 12-kilometre-long cooling pond whose waters doused the burning Chernobyl nuclear power station after it exploded 30 years ago.
The pond is radioactive – as are the fish. But they are also abundant. Wildlife is booming in the exclusion zone that stretches for some 30 kilometres from the corroding plant.
Grey wolves, lynx, wild boar, rabbits, moose...
Sea level rise is accelerating; how much it costs is up to us
Posted by Guardian: John Abraham on March 11th, 2016
Guardian: As humans emit heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, it’s causing the Earth to warm. It’s also causing the ocean waters to rise. In fact, water rise is one of the clearest signatures of a warming world. The questions we want to answer are, how much will sea levels rise, and how fast?
The answers to this have large implications on what societies should do. It isn’t just coastal communities that will be affected. While there are approximately 150 million people worldwide that live within 3 feet...
Planting more trees can reduce UK’s flood risk, research shows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 11th, 2016
Guardian: Natural defences, including planting more trees, could be a solution to the country’s flooding problems, according to new research.
In a study led by the Universities of Birmingham and Southampton, scientists found that planting trees could reduce the height of flooding in towns by up to 20%.
They found strategic planting on flood plains could help towns downstream reduce the “peak height” of floods.
But the scientists warned that natural flood defences would need to be combined with conventional...
U.S., Canada Pledge To Lower Methane Emissions In Oil And Gas sectors
Posted by National Public Radio: John Burnett on March 11th, 2016
National Public Radio: Methane leaks are bad news. We'll fly over a South Texas oilfield with a leak detection crew and witness - with the aid of an infrared camera - how much methane gushes into the atmosphere.