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Archive for the ‘Water Conservation’ Category
El Salvador: coastal communities fight tide of climate change – in pictures
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 12th, 2015
Guardian: Predictions that rising seas could destroy over a quarter of El Salvador’s coastal areas have left people living along the country’s shoreline facing a bleak future
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on El Salvador: coastal communities fight tide of climate change – in picturesHawaii’s Telescope Controversy Latest Long History Land-Ownership Battles
Posted by Scientific American: Shannon Hall on December 12th, 2015
Scientific American: Last week Hawaii’s Supreme Court rescinded the construction permit for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), an estimated $1.4-billion observatory planned for Mauna Kea, the dormant volcano whose red dusted slopes rise 4,205 meters above the Pacific Ocean on the island of Hawaii. The court’s decision is the most recent battle wound in a years-long contest between astronomers and native Hawaiians as well as environmentalists who oppose the construction because of the sanctity of the mountain. The controversy...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Hawaii’s Telescope Controversy Latest Long History Land-Ownership BattlesIn final push for landmark climate deal, end of fossil fuel era nears
Posted by Reuters: Alister Doyle and Barbara Lewis on December 12th, 2015
Reuters: At the tail end of the hottest year on record, climate negotiators in Paris will aim on Saturday to seal a landmark accord that will transform the world's fossil fuel-driven economy within decades and turn the tide on global warming. After four years of fraught U.N. talks often pitting the interests of rich nations against poor, imperiled island states against rising economic powerhouses, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius will unveil the latest text of a climate deal on Saturday at 9 a.m. (0300...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on In final push for landmark climate deal, end of fossil fuel era nearsCOP21 Forgot Farm Animals
Posted by Environment News Service: Judith Needham on December 12th, 2015
Environment News Service: Dame Jane Goodall travels the globe 300+ days each year – with a cow – a small black and white stuffed toy. The British scientist and UN Messenger of Peace is also an animal activist. Goodall describes Cow’s life with a twinkle in her eye. “Cow works hard. She is a spokesperson for abused farm animals.” Cow also helps Goodall explain to the world the relationship between methane gas (CH4) and global warming. During the 2015 United Nations climate change talks, COP21, Dame Goodall and Azzedine...
Brazil’s Amazon River Ports Give Rise to Dreams and Nightmares
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 11th, 2015
Inter Press Service: River port terminals in the northern Brazilian city of Santarém are considered strategic by the government. But what some see as an opportunity for development is for others an irreversible change in what was previously a well-preserved part of the Amazon rainforest.
In the evening light on the Tapajós River, whose green-blue waters mix with the darker muddy water of the Amazon River in Santarém, it's not easy to ignore the silos that overshadow what used to be a public beach, where passenger...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Brazil’s Amazon River Ports Give Rise to Dreams and NightmaresFinding Refuge for Salmon, Cold Water Preferred
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 11th, 2015
New York Times: When Lewis and Clark first encountered the Columbia River in 1805, they wrote about nearby streams so thick with salmon that you could all but walk across on their backs. Last summer, those streams looked very different. As a torrid heat wave settled over the Pacific Northwest, the salmon heading up the Columbia River from the ocean in their ancient reproduction ritual started dying en masse, cooked in place by freakishly hot water that killed them or made them vulnerable to predators. Sockeye died...
Paris Climate Negotiators Continue Into Overtime
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 11th, 2015
National Public Radio: The U.N. climate conference in Paris was supposed to end Friday, but negotiators have extended it for at least another day. NPR has the latest from Paris.
The need to name all forms of life: 60 new species of dragonflies described from Africa
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 11th, 2015
ScienceDaily: As dragonflies are good indicators of water quality, knowledge of these insects is important. The discoveries were published by three odonatologists (dragonfly experts) led by guest researcher KD Dijkstra of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in a 230-page issue of the journal Odonatologica on December 1st 2015.
All dragonflies are bound to freshwater, which occupies less than 1% of the planet's surface. Nonetheless, it harbours 10% of all animal species. As water is used so intensively, life is...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on The need to name all forms of life: 60 new species of dragonflies described from AfricaUnited Kingdom: Flood-hit Cumbria communities prepare more wet weather
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 11th, 2015
Press Association: Cumbrian communities hit by floods during Storm Desmond are gearing up for a second weekend of wet weather.
The Environment Agency said it was checking the condition of flood defences and the position of pumps and temporary flood barriers before a predicted 6.5cm of rain on Saturday.
River levels in the county remain high days after water deluged homes and businesses. The agency said residents could expect further flooding on ground that was already sodden.
Chris Wilding, the Environment...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Flood-hit Cumbria communities prepare more wet weatherUnited Kingdom: For flood-hit areas the problems don’t stop after the waters have receded
Posted by Guardian: Harriet Meyer on December 11th, 2015
Guardian: Government pledges to spend billions of pounds on flood defences won’t necessarily shield householders against rising insurance costs in flood-hit areas of the country, despite the protection they offer. Around £23m of defences were completed in June in the Northumberland town of Morpeth after major floods in 2008 and 2012 wrought devastation. Yet some householders near the river Wansbeck still face massive and sometimes rising insurance premiums. Labour MP for Morpeth, Ian Lavery, has raised the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: For flood-hit areas the problems don’t stop after the waters have receded