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Archive for the ‘Water Conservation’ Category
Burning Amazon forests and a rain-drenched Calif. are likely to come with El Niño – researchers
Posted by ClimateWire: Gayathri Vaidyanathan on December 17th, 2015
ClimateWire: The Amazon forests of Central and South America are at increased risk of fires in 2016 due to the ongoing El Niño, according to NASA scientists.
This El Niño, which has helped trigger more than 100,000 fires in Indonesia and spewed an estimated 1.75 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents into the atmosphere, will next threaten tropical forests in Southeast Asia and in southern Mexico, Guatemala and other countries in Central America, said James Randerson, an Earth system scientist at...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Burning Amazon forests and a rain-drenched Calif. are likely to come with El Niño – researchersMore child marriage in drought-hit Ethiopia with risk of “full-blown disaster”
Posted by Reuters: Katy Migiro on December 17th, 2015
Reuters: Child marriage is on the rise in Ethiopia due to the worst drought in decades, the government and agencies said on Friday, as Oxfam warned of a "full-blown disaster" unless more than $1 billion in food aid is found for 10 million people. Agencies predict the El Niño weather phenomenon will cause record levels of malnutrition in Africa's second most populous nation, famed for war- and drought-induced famine in 1984. More than one in ten of Ethiopia's 92 million people, most of whom depend on rain-fed...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on More child marriage in drought-hit Ethiopia with risk of “full-blown disaster”UK government hands out new fracking licences
Posted by Guardian: David Hellier on December 17th, 2015
Guardian: The government’s controversial attempt to establish a shale gas industry in the UK took another step forward on Thursday as it handed out new licences for onshore gas and oil exploration in 159 blocks, in a move campaigners say could open up swaths of the country to the controversial practice of fracking.
Before companies can go ahead and start producing oil and gas commercially, they have to submit to a series of safety and environmental checks, though campaigners have always maintained these...
Just how fast is Greenland melting?
Posted by Christian Science Monitor: Olivia Lowenberg on December 17th, 2015
Christian Science Monitor: A new study tracks how Greenland's ice structure has changed over time, including how the melting rate has accelerated in recent years.
This latest study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, tracks how Greenland’s ice mass and structure has changed over a 110-year period. This fills in crucial gaps in knowledge about Greenland’s role in sea-level rise, for which little data has existed until now.
“We have observation-based estimates that is new and super important,” Kristian Kjellerup...
Mercury decision boosts bid to kill climate rule – EPA foes
Posted by Greenwire: Robin Bravender on December 17th, 2015
Greenwire: U.S. EPA critics were dismayed as federal judges this week kept intact a major Obama administration rule to slash mercury emissions from power plants, but others saw a silver lining.
Having the mercury rule in place, they say, bolsters their arguments against another major rule, EPA's Clean Power Plan.
In the litigation over that landmark rule to limit power plants' greenhouse gas emissions, a central argument made by EPA's critics is that the agency lacks authority to issue the climate rule...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Mercury decision boosts bid to kill climate rule – EPA foesThree miles high: Using drones to study high-altitude glaciers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 17th, 2015
ScienceDaily: While some dream of the day that aerial drones deliver their online purchases, scientists are using the technology today to deliver data that was never available before. About 5,000 meters high in the Peruvian Andes, the scientists are mapping glaciers and wetlands in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range with 10-centimeter precision to gauge how climate change will affect the half-million local residents who rely in part on those glaciers for their water supply. Their strategy provides a template...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Three miles high: Using drones to study high-altitude glaciersResearchers discover six new African frog species, uncover far more diversity
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 17th, 2015
ScienceDaily: Researchers have discovered half a dozen new species of the African clawed frog, and added back another to the list of known species, in the process uncovering striking new characteristics of one of the most widely studied amphibians in the world. The discovery increases the number of known clawed frog species from 22 to 29 -- a 30 percent increase. Each of the new species is documented online today in the journal PLOS ONE. "Because the African clawed frog is used as a model organism for biological...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Researchers discover six new African frog species, uncover far more diversityGreenland Ice Sheet during the 20th Century — a missing link in IPCC’s climate report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 17th, 2015
ScienceDaily: For the first time, climate researchers from the Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, together with a national and an International team of researchers, have pubished in the scientific journal Nature their direct observations of the reduction and melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet during the latest 110 years. All previous estimations have been based on computer models, which although valuable do not provide the same level of insight as direct observations. In this paper,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Greenland Ice Sheet during the 20th Century — a missing link in IPCC’s climate reportEl Niño vs. the Amazon: researchers worry Brazil is not prepared
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on December 16th, 2015
Mongabay: A total of 18,716 fires were reported in the Brazilian Amazon in November alone, primarily caused by farming activity. Researchers on the ground say local fire control efforts are not enough to combat the blazes. They stress the need for global leaders to address the growing problem of tropical forest fires, to both protect wildlife habitat and improve public health. The severe fires that have been ripping through Indonesia’s forests have rightfully been a focal point for international media this...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on El Niño vs. the Amazon: researchers worry Brazil is not preparedAfrica Looks for Help to Implement Climate Agreement
Posted by Voice of America: Mariama Diallo on December 16th, 2015
Voice of America: Africa cannot be left to foot the bill for climate change, so say leaders and specialists from the continent who attended the recent climate conference in Paris. Nearly 200 nations adopted a historic deal December 12 that aims to slow the pace of global warming and provide billions of dollars for climate change remediation to poorer countries. While it's hard to predict the impact the deal will have on Africa, it's significant that there is recognition of the continent's vulnerability, says Edith...