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.
The ancient reserves of methane gas seeping from the melting Arctic ice
cap told Jeff Chanton and fellow researchers what they already knew: As
the permafrost thaws, there is a release of methane, a powerful
greenhouse gas that causes climate warming. The trick was figuring out
how much, said Chanton, the John W. Winchester Professor of Oceanography
at Florida State University.
In an effort to save the dwindling honeybee population researchers at
the University of Nevada, Las Vegas are looking to viruses to help treat
one of the most destructive and widespread bee brood diseases in the
United States. They report their findings at the 2012 General Meeting of
the American Society for Microbiology
An international team of researchers in Colombia, the UK, USA and
Switzerland have developed the first ever system to monitor
deforestation across Latin America in near real-time using satellite
data. Preliminary results from the new system reveal that in parts of
Colombia, deforestation has increased by 340 per cent since 2004; and
over a million hectares of forest have been lost in the Gran Ch
'Green grabbing' - the rapidly-growing appropriation of land and
resources in the name of 'green ' biofuels, carbon offsetting schemes,
conservation efforts and eco-tourism initiatives - is forcing people
from their homelands and increasing poverty, new research has found.
Ecosystems being 'asset-stripped' for profit is likely to cause
dispossession and further poverty amongst already-poor
Swiss researchers studying wind turbines as alternative energy sources
say the bigger the turbine, the greener the energy it produces.
The findings, published in the journal Environmental Science &
Technology, could accelerate a trend toward construction of ever-bigger
turbines, the researchers said.
Marloes Caduff of the Institute of Environmental Engineering in Zurich
and
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) must not make final licensing
decisions until it has completed a rulemaking action on the
environmental impacts of highly radioactive nuclear waste in the form of
spent, or 'used', reactor fuel storage and disposal, as required under
the landmark Waste Confidence Rule decision of June 8th by the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, according to
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Micheal Klare examines the global competition for Earth's dwindling reserves of oil, minerals, and fertile land |
| Report says fracking not a big factor in earthquakes Pittsburgh Post Gazette A new report by the National Research Council is saying that hydraulic fracturing does not pose a high risk for causing earthquakes large enough to feel. | |
| Study: Fracking Unlikely To Cause Quakes Big Enough To Feel Public News Service A scientific study has found that natural gas hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is unlikely to cause earthquakes strong enough to feel. However, it says there is ... | |
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