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Greenpeace says China increasing coal-fired capacity
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 2nd, 2016
Reuters: Greenpeace East Asia said on Wednesday that China had a total of 210 coal power projects in the pipeline"for environmental assessment permitting at the end of 2015, despite overcapacity in the industry and pollution concerns.
Of those, 95 projects received final regulatory permits that would allow construction to begin, Greenpeace said in a report. Construction began on at least 66 coal power projects with a combined capacity of 73 gigawatts (GW), Greenpeace added, some of which had received approval...
Microorganisms duke it out within algal blooms
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 2nd, 2016
ScienceDaily: An unseen war rages between the ocean's tiniest organisms, and it has significant implications for understanding the ocean's role in climate change, according to a new study.
David Needham and Jed Fuhrman from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences sampled water off the coast of Southern California over the course of five months, almost every day shortly after an algal bloom occurred, and found that the cloud of microorganisms is anything but uniform. Instead, they found traces...
Bees ‘dumb down’ after ingesting tiny doses pesticide chlorpyrifos
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 2nd, 2016
ScienceDaily: Honeybees suffer severe learning and memory deficits after ingesting very small doses of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, potentially threatening their success and survival, new research from New Zealand's University of Otago suggests.
In their study, researchers from the Departments of Zoology and Chemistry collected bees from 51 hives across 17 locations in the province of Otago in Southern New Zealand and measured their chlorpyrifos levels. They detected low levels of pesticide in bees at three...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Bees ‘dumb down’ after ingesting tiny doses pesticide chlorpyrifosResearchers develop realistic system to study impact of residential mold on health
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 1st, 2016
ScienceDaily: Residential mold has increased in recent years, due to water damage from a rising frequency of flooding. But there is scant information on the impact of residential mold on human health. But now a team of Danish investigators has developed a modeling system that actually mimics indoor fungal aerosols. The research is published ahead of print Feb. 26, 2016 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology. In the past, systems for modeling indoor mold have...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Researchers develop realistic system to study impact of residential mold on healthWinter ‘was probably warmest ever in England and Wales’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 1st, 2016
Guardian: This winter is on track to be the warmest ever recorded in England and Wales, according to preliminary figures from the Met Office.
The agency is due to process the final set of winter temperature readings from weather stations around the UK on Tuesday, with 2015/16 expected to beat records going back to the 17th century.
Preliminary data for the central England temperature series – the longest-running in the world – showed an average temperature of 7C (44.6F) this winter, beating a previous...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Winter ‘was probably warmest ever in England and Wales’Climate activists threaten to shut down world’s major coal sites
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 1st, 2016
Guardian: Climate activists will use direct action to try to shut down major coal sites across the world in May, including the UK’s largest opencast coal mine in south Wales.
The dozen international sites facing civil disobedience from the Break Free 2016 campaign span the globe from the US to Australia and South Africa to Indonesia.
The Ffos-y-fran opencast mine, near Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, is about halfway through extracting 11m tonnes of coal. Ellie Groves, from the Reclaim the Power network, said:...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate activists threaten to shut down world’s major coal sitesAustralia: WWF: Worst coral bleaching on Lizard Island since 2002 a cause for concern
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 1st, 2016
Telegraph: Reports that Lizard Island is experiencing the worst coral bleaching since 2002 is a major concern for the Great Barrier Reef, WWF-Australia said on Tuesday.
The organisation today released photographs of the damage showing a wide variety of corals being impacted.
WWF Great Barrier Reef campaigner Louise Matthiesson said Lizard Island, in far north Queensland, is being hit amid forecasts of more risk of coral bleaching on the Reef in March.
"If conditions continue to worsen, the Great Barrier...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: WWF: Worst coral bleaching on Lizard Island since 2002 a cause for concernEl Nino has eased to moderate levels: Australia weather bureau
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 1st, 2016
Reuters: An ongoing El Nino weather pattern is now at moderate levels, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said on Tuesday, as associated climate indicators have eased.
Pacific Ocean sea temperatures have eased in the last two weeks, the BOM said, pushing the severity of the El Nino down from strong to moderate levels.
The El Nino is expected to end by the second quarter of 2016, the BOM said.
The Australian weather bureau said a La Nina weather event remains a possibility, though neutral...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on El Nino has eased to moderate levels: Australia weather bureauMalawi to import 50,000 tonnes of maize after drought worsens
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 29th, 2016
Reuters: Malawi will import 50,000 tonnes of the staple maize from Tanzania to avert hunger after a drought that affected 2.8 million people in the southern African nation, state officials said on Monday.
Agriculture is Malawi's mainstay, accounting for a third of the economy and providing livelihoods for 80 percent of the population of about 15 million people.
"With the 30,000 tonnes coming in from Zambia, we expect to add on another 50,000 tonnes from Tanzania that we have authorized (state-owned...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Malawi to import 50,000 tonnes of maize after drought worsensScientists warn of the dangers of salt pollution of freshwaters if preventive measures are not taken
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 27th, 2016
ScienceDaily: An article published today in the journal Science warns of the dangers of increasing water salinity for human health and freshwater ecosystems (rivers, lakes, etc.) and the economic cost arising from a lack of public policies to tackle this problem. The study, prepared by an international team of scientists coordinated by the researcher Miguel Cañedo-Argüelles, of the BETA research group of the University of Vic -- Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) and the FEM research group of the University...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Scientists warn of the dangers of salt pollution of freshwaters if preventive measures are not taken