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Archive for the ‘Water Conservation’ Category
Why would militants take over a wildlife refuge?
Posted by Mother Nature: Russell McLendon on January 5th, 2016
Mother Nature: Earlier this week, armed militants took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. The move is a protest against "overreach" by the United States, according to the group's leaders, who say they hope the refuge "will be shut down forever." Why would anyone want to shut down a wildlife refuge? Do they hate animals? No, or at least that's not their stated purpose. The roots of this standoff are long and tangled, dating back to the early days of Mormonism and the 1862 Homestead Act. Much...
Causes of mangrove deforestation in Southeast Asia identified
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 5th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Southeast Asia has the greatest diversity of mangrove species in the world, and mangrove forests provide multiple ecosystem services upon which millions of people depend. Mangroves enhance fisheries by providing habitat for young fishes and offer coastal protection against storms and floods. They also store substantially higher densities of carbon, as compared to most other ecosystems globally, thus playing an important role in soaking up carbon dioxide emissions and mitigating climate change. Despite...
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Comments Off on Causes of mangrove deforestation in Southeast Asia identifiedMississippi River Swells Dramatically During Historic Rainfall and Flooding
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 5th, 2016
Yale Environment 360: A historic flood has sent the highest water levels ever recorded through the Mississippi River south of St. Louis, toppling records set during the devastating floods of 1993. The massive surge follows heavy rains that dropped up to 12 inches of water across the region during a three-day period in late December. A NASA satellite recently acquired this image of flooding along the Mississippi River from January 3rd, which shows floodwaters as blue and vegetation as green. The previous day, the waters...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Mississippi River Swells Dramatically During Historic Rainfall and Flooding12 Earthquakes Hit Frack-Happy Oklahoma in Less Than a Week
Posted by EcoWatch: Cole Mellino on January 5th, 2016
EcoWatch: After the Oklahoma City area was hit by at least a dozen earthquakes in less than a week, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry, ordered Monday that several injection well operators reduce wastewater disposal volumes. “We are working with researchers on the entire area of the state involved in the latest seismic activity to plot out where we should go from here,” Oil and Gas Conservation Division Director Tim Baker told the Associated Press. The commission’s...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on 12 Earthquakes Hit Frack-Happy Oklahoma in Less Than a WeekAn investment strategy to save the planet
Posted by New York Times: Tina Rosenberg on January 5th, 2016
New York Times: If one of your New Year’s resolutions was to do your part against climate change, keep reading. Now you can — with your investments.
You’d be following New York State’s example. At the Paris climate change talks last month, the state’s comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, announced that the state’s Common Retirement Fund, for public employee pensions, will put $2 billion into a new investment fund created by Goldman Sachs that prioritizes companies with smaller carbon footprints. If that goes well, the...
Heatwaves, drought may curb global power output: Study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 5th, 2016
Agence France-Presse: Thousands of power plants worldwide face sharp reductions in electricity output by mid-century due to more frequent heatwaves and drought driven by global warming, according to a study published Monday.
"We need to be concerned as electricity will become more expensive and less reliable in the future due to climate change," co-author Keywan Riahi of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria told AFP.
If warming continues unchecked, higher temperatures and water shortages...
Peering into the Amazon’s future
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 5th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Harvard researchers are challenging the widely-held theory that climate change could cause Amazon forests to rapidly change from forests to savannah. A new model, based on the effect of water stress on individual trees, suggests the change would be a gradual transition from high-biomass forests to low-biomass forests and woodland ecosystems. The study is described in a recently published paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "In earlier approaches, they use an aggregated...
Earth is Experiencing a Global Warming Spurt
Posted by Climate Central: John Upton on January 5th, 2016
Climate Central: Cyclical changes in the Pacific Ocean have thrown earth's surface into what may be an unprecedented warming spurt, following a global warming slowdown that lasted about 15 years.
While El Niño is being blamed for an outbreak of floods, storms and unseasonable temperatures across the planet, a much slower-moving cycle of the Pacific Ocean has also been playing a role in record-breaking warmth. The recent effects of both ocean cycles are being amplified by climate change.
A 2014 flip was detected...
Scientists move one step closer to turning water into fuel, cheaply
Posted by Christian Science Monitor: Eva Botkin-Kowacki on January 5th, 2016
Christian Science Monitor: Scientists have cleared one hurdle on the path to deriving hydrogen fuel from water affordably, a breakthrough that could drastically change the way we power vehicles.
Hydrogen has the potential to fuel incredibly environmentally-clean cars. But making that fuel hasn't been so efficient or economical. Pure hydrogen gas does not occur naturally on Earth, so scientists must devise ways to separate hydrogen from naturally-occurring compounds, like H2 O.
Until now, cars that run on water have been...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Scientists move one step closer to turning water into fuel, cheaplyMississippi River crest rolls toward Tennessee; singer’s body found
Posted by Reuters: Suzannah Gonzales and Tim Ghianni on January 5th, 2016
Reuters: Tennessee residents girded on Monday for the rapidly rising Mississippi River to crest within days as Oklahoma officials found the body of a country-rock singer whose boat capsized on a lake in late December.
The swollen Mississippi and rivers that feed into it wreaked havoc in Missouri and Illinois after late December heavy rain and severe storms brought flooding across several central U.S. states, leaving at least 33 people dead.
Officials on Monday found the body of Craig Strickland, 29,...
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