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Archive for the ‘Water Conservation’ Category
North-east Scotland warned of risk of further flood damage
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 8th, 2016
Associated Press: Residents in parts of north-east Scotland have been advised to prepare for “residual impacts” from the recent floods after heavy rain caused record river levels and severe flooding. Dozens of homes were evacuated in Inverurie, Port Elphinstone and Ellon in Aberdeenshire as the swollen river Don sent flood waters racing down the streets on Thursday night and Friday morning. The river Ythan has also breached its banks, prompting the emergency services to mount an operation to rescue residents. The...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on North-east Scotland warned of risk of further flood damageHydroelectric Dams Planned World’s Largest Rivers Threaten Fish
Posted by Nature World: None Given on January 8th, 2016
Nature World: Hydroelectric dam builders, and the need to curb greenhouse emissions, often underestimate the long-term effects these massive structures have on local biodiversity. In a new study, 30 leading aquatic ecologists warn impending dams in the Mekong, Amazon and Congo -- the world's three greatest and most diverse tropical rivers -- could have drastic impacts on the world's food supply.
"These three river basins hold roughly one-third of the world's freshwater fish species," Kirk Winemiller, lead author...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Hydroelectric Dams Planned World’s Largest Rivers Threaten FishMissouri residents pack up and leave as once-rare floods become the new normal
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on January 8th, 2016
Guardian: About 100 miles downstream of Hannibal, the boyhood home of Mark Twain, the small Missouri town of West Alton has spent the past week without almost its entire population as it has been completely swamped by water.
William Richter is the mayor of a town he cannot reach. West Alton’s 525 people were evacuated due to deadly floods that caused the nearby Mississippi river to surge to 38ft high – a good 17ft above the flood level. Both roads into the town are still cut off.
“You can only really...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Missouri residents pack up and leave as once-rare floods become the new normalFlexible gene expression may regulate social status in male fish
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 8th, 2016
ScienceDaily: For a small African fish species, a colorful dominant male does better in life, winning access to food and females. New research by Stanford biologists suggests that this lucky outcome is regulated at a genetic level, by turning genes on and off. People generally think that our genetic code, and thus the expression patterns of our genes, is fixed throughout life. Indeed, this is true in some cases such as eye color, a characteristic that is determined by gene expression early in development. However,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Flexible gene expression may regulate social status in male fishBrazil cautious on re-starting hydro dams after mining spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 8th, 2016
Reuters: Four hydroelectric dams along Brazil's Rio Doce remain closed for an indefinite time after a deadly mining spill in November flooded the river with thick mud, according to water agency ANA.
ANA said in an emailed statement that only one of four hydro plants along the 800 km (497 mile) river, which runs through states of Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo, had requested to power up as the others continue to assess potential damage from the spill.
The bursting of a dam at the Samarco iron ore mine...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Brazil cautious on re-starting hydro dams after mining spillOverwhelming evidence of human-driven Anthropocene
Posted by Bonham Journal: None Given on January 8th, 2016
Bonham Journal: Additionally, human farming and fishing have brought about "transglobal species invasions...permanently reconfiguring Earth's biological trajectory".
Study's lead researcher Colin Waters from the British Geological Survey said that the paper unveils about the big changes and as massive as the ones happened at the end of the last ice age.
That is why, the Anthropocene Working Group believe that we have moved on into a new era, the Anthropocene Epoch. One of the factors considered is climate...
Wonder of the aquatic world under threat from plans for Mekong dams
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 8th, 2016
Guardian: In a few months’ time, monsoon rains will more than quadruple the size of Cambodia’s Tonlé Sap, south-east Asia’s greatest lake and one of the wonders of the aquatic world. The huge flood will reverse the seaward flow of the river that feeds into the lake, submerge forests, make a perfect wetland for spawning fish and will replenish soils for a rich rice harvest.
Tonlé Sap is the most intensely-fished inland body of water in the world and as the annual flood subsides, many millions of fish will...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Wonder of the aquatic world under threat from plans for Mekong damsIllegal gold mining spreads to protected Peruvian reserve
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on January 8th, 2016
Mongabay: Recently released satellite images show that illegal gold mining activities have now encroached upon an important protected area in the southern Peruvian Amazon: Tambopata National Reserve. A report released by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) shows that the area between the Tambopata National Reserve and its buffer zone, the La Pampa area, has already lost over 2,500 hectares of forest between 2013 and 2015 largely due to illegal gold mining. The report follows a June 2015 statement...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Illegal gold mining spreads to protected Peruvian reserveDam projects on world’s largest rivers threaten fish species, rural livelihoods
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 7th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Advocates of huge hydroelectric dam projects on the Amazon, Congo, and Mekong rivers often overestimate economic benefits and underestimate far-reaching effects on biodiversity, according to an article in the Jan. 8 issue of Science by scientists representing 30 academic, government, and conservation organizations in eight countries.
"These three river basins hold roughly one-third of the world's freshwater fish species," said Kirk Winemiller, a professor of wildlife and fisheries sciences at...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Dam projects on world’s largest rivers threaten fish species, rural livelihoodsThe Anthropocene: Hard evidence a human-driven Earth
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 7th, 2016
ScienceDaily: The evidence for a new geological epoch which marks the impact of human activity on Earth is now overwhelming according to a recent paper by an international group of geoscientists. The Anthropocene, which is argued to start in the mid-20th Century, is marked by the spread of materials such as aluminium, concrete, plastic, fly ash and fallout from nuclear testing across the planet, coincident with elevated greenhouse gas emissions and unprecedented trans-global species invasions. An international...