Michele Kearney's Environmental Blog - Environmental degradation and waning natural resources including energy resources threaten U.S. security. And the loss of renewable natural resources, including forests, fresh water, fish and fertile soils, can drive political instability and conflict in the developing world, and around the globe. In short, natural resoures, energy and the environment are national security issues.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates on Thursday called for a "digital
revolution" to alleviate world hunger by increasing agricultural
productivity through satellites and genetically-engineered seed
varieties.
"We have to think hard about how to start taking advantage of the
digital revolution that is driving innovation including in farming," the
US billionaire philanthropist said in a speech at th
Indigenous people around the world are among the most vulnerable to
climate change and are increasingly susceptible to the pathogen loads
found in potable water after heavy rainfall or rapid snow melt.
These are the preliminary findings of Sherilee Harper, a Vanier Canada
Graduate Scholar in Aboriginal People's Health at the University of
Guelph, who says that there has been a significant
Hydraulic fracturing of shale formations to extract natural gas has no
direct connection to reports of groundwater contamination, based on
evidence reviewed in a study released Thursday by the Energy Institute
at The University of Texas at Austin.
The study, released at the annual meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Vancouver, British Columbia,
The renewable energy industry convenes this week in California, the
birthplace of U.S. geothermal energy production, for the Renewable
Energy World Conference and Expo. In conjunction with the event, the
Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) has released Why Support Geothermal,
a report highlighting the benefits of supporting geothermal energ
Could replacing coal-fired electricity plants with generators fueled by
natural gas bring global warming to a halt in this century? What about
rapid construction of massive numbers of solar or wind farms,
hydroelectric dams, or nuclear reactors-or the invention of new
technology for capturing the carbon dioxide produced by fossil-fueled
power plants and storing it permanently underground?
As previewed in Nature last fall, scientists at Conservation International and other institutions have launched
a new initiative intended to gather and integrate data about
agriculture, ecosystems and human well-being in Africa. Backed by an
initial US$10-million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
the three-year project is expected to set the stage for a larger
global-monitoring system, organizers announced Thursday at a meeting of
the International Fund for Agricultural Development in Rome.
Ambitious
targets to improve the world’s oceans with US$1.5 billion in new
funding have been set by a coalition headed by the World Bank. Many of
the targets appear to mirror existing goals, but the move has been
welcomed by conservation groups.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 will
have a large economic impact on the U.S. Gulf fisheries. A new study
published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
(CJFAS) says that over 7 years this oil spill could have a $US8.7
billion impact on the economy of the Gulf of Mexico.
This includes losses in revenue, profit, and wages, and close t
Thawing permafrost will have far-reaching ramifications for populated
areas, infrastructure and ecosystems. A geographer from the University
of Zurich reveals where it is important to confront the issue based on
new permafrost maps - the most precise global maps around. They depict
the global distribution of permafrost in high-resolution images and are
available on Google Earth
For the first half of this year's winter, the big news was warm
temperatures and lack of snow. Ski resorts were covered in bare dirt,
while January temperatures in southern California topped July highs.
Then, out of the blue, Europe got clobbered: Over the past two weeks,
temperatures in Eastern Europe have nose-dived to -30 degrees Celsius
(-22 degrees Fahrenheit). Blizzards and the bone-
The March 11, 2011 Tohoku earthquake is a grim reminder of the potential
for another strong-motion mega-earthquake along the Pacific Northwest
coast, geophysicist John Anderson of the University of Nevada, Reno told
members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in a
lecture at their annual conference in Vancouver, B.C. Sunday.
"The Cascadia fault line, which runs from
Global warming and climate change are likely to unfold a water crisis in
the United States within the next 40 years, says a new report.
It concluded that seven in 10 of the more than 3,100 US counties could
face risk of fresh water shortages. The report includes maps that
identify those places.
Sujoy B. Roy, director for research and development (R and D), Tetra
Tech Inc., Lafayette,
When the Environmental Protection Agency issued its first comprehensive
report on major greenhouse gas emitters last month, power plants topped
the list, accounting for more than 70 percent of industrial carbon
dioxide (CO2) emissions in the United States.
Many climate experts have urged power plants and other industries to
capture CO2 before it gets into the atmosphere and sequester it de
Thinning ice resulting from climate change in the Arctic is happening
far faster than experts previously imagined. With it come new global
shipping routes and growing interest in natural resource development and
regional tourism.
These changes, says a leading expert in oceanic governance, are urging
Canada to advance its laws on shipping regulation, ocean governance and
marine biodiversity
There are lots of new ideas out there for giving you extra protection
against chronic diseases through the food you eat. But many good ideas
may never make it to market.
Researchers at the University of Guelph, led by Brian McBride, have
found a way to enrich milk with docosahexaeonic acid (DHA)-an essential
nutrient that many people are lacking.
Researchers at the University of Mani
The use of hydraulic fracturing in shale gas development took center
stage Friday as a panel of U.S. and Canadian experts discussed the
contentious practice in a three-hour symposium hosted by the American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
The panel, moderated by Dr. Raymond L. Orbach, former Under Secretary
for Science in the U.S. Department of Energy, addressed concerns
- Storage capacities of all active and planned oil and chemicals storage
terminals globally
- Information on storage capacity additions through commissioning of new
terminals and expansion of existing terminals in Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and
Africa, North America and South and Central America
- Annual storage capacity information on crude oil, petroleum products and
chemicals storage terminals covering historic data from 2005 to 2011 and forecasts
till 2015
- Provides operator name and commodities stored for storage terminals
- Analysis of the operations of major oil and chemicals storage companies
including Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation, Korea National Oil
Corporation and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation.
http://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/latest.jsp?resourceid=5007032&access=EH
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A
growing number of Chinese scholars have trumpeted China as an emerging
green giant for its clean energy production and its promises to
aggressively cut carbon emissions. Yet as the “world’s factory,” China
is the victim of heavy pollution, and releases more CO2 than any other
nation. The time therefore seems ripe for a carbon tax and the
strengthening of renewable energy subsidies in China, which would not
only mitigate carbon emissions, but would also stimulate technological
innovation.
Why is a carbon tax a good idea? For a start, some estimates suggest
levying a carbon tax could help encourage improvements in industrial
energy efficiency of anywhere from 5 percent to 25 percent. And levying a
carbon tax can also help save energy by increasing fossil fuel prices.
In 2009, Beijing’s municipal government imposed a carbon tax on
gasolinefor the first time. Despite car numbers increasing by 40
percent, gasoline consumption increased ...
Read More...
Can
a single number represent the health of the ocean? Researchers think
they have cracked a method to do just that, they reported at the
American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Vancouver
this weekend.