Apocadocuments, for the week of

[About the Project]
[About the ApocaDocs]
[About Equal Share]
[TwitterFollow: apocadocs]

Explore:

Play:

It's weekly, funny, and free!

Play:

Click for paper-free fun!

	Ads for potentially microfunding this site:

What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from

View By Scenario:
Species Collapse:	(3)
Plague/Virus:	(1)
Climate Chaos:	(15)
Resource Depletion:	(3)
Biology Breach:	(8)
Recovery:	(10)

This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
climate impacts ~ global warming ~ smart policy ~ faster than expected ~ holyshit ~ rising sea level ~ carbon emissions ~ water issues ~ airborne pollutants ~ coal issues ~ bad policy

ApocaDocuments (40) gathered this week:
Sun, Apr 5, 2009 from London Daily Telegraph: Trees are growing faster and could buy time to halt global warming The phenomenon has been discovered in a variety of flora, ranging from tropical rainforests to British sugar beet crops. It means they are soaking up at least some of the billions of tons of CO2 released into the atmosphere by humans that would otherwise be accelerating the rate of climate change.... they would be removing nearly 5 billion tons of CO2 a year from the atmosphere... Humans are believed to generate about 50 billion tons of the gas each year. ...	Fantastic! Then let's pump out MORE carbons! ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Apr 5, 2009 from Calcutta Telegraph: Tiger prey to rising waves The tiger may once have ruled the jungles. But now it is being forced to surrender to many things, including climate change. According to a recent finding, climate change is threatening to push the Royal Bengal Tiger on the verge of extinction in 60 years. A recent study carried out on tigers in the Sunderbans by the US unit of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has predicted that the tiger population would significantly reduce as a direct fall-out of climate change and corresponding rise in the sea level. ...	Another poster child for species collapse. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Apr 5, 2009 from Reuters: Ice bridge holding Antarctic ice shelf cracks up An ice bridge which had apparently held a vast Antarctic ice shelf in place during recorded history shattered on Saturday and could herald a wider collapse linked to global warming, a leading scientist said. "It's amazing how the ice has ruptured. Two days ago it was intact," David Vaughan, a glaciologist with the British Antarctic Survey, told Reuters of a satellite image of the Wilkins Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula. The satellite picture, from the European Space Agency (ESA), showed that a 40 km (25 mile) long strip of ice believed to pin the Wilkins Ice Shelf in place had splintered at its narrowest point, about 500 meters wide. ...	By "cracks up," I'm presuming they don't mean its funnybone was tickled. ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Apr 5, 2009 from 350.org: Dear World: This is an invitation to help build a movement--to take one day and use it to stop the climate crisis. On October 24, we will stand together as one planet and call for a fair global climate treaty. United by a common call to action, we'll make it clear: the world needs an international plan that meets the latest science and gets us back to safety. This movement has just begun, and it needs your help. Here's the plan: we're asking you, and people in every country on earth, to organize an action in their community on October 24. There are no limits here--imagine bike rides, rallies, concerts, hikes, festivals, tree-plantings, protests, and more. Imagine your action linking up with thousands of others around the globe. Imagine the world waking up. ...	If we're gonna take our world back, we're gonna have to get organezized! ApocaDoc permalink
Sun, Apr 5, 2009 from Associated Press: Climate change threatens Channel Islands artifacts ...Around the globe, climate change is erasing the archaeological record, already under assault from development, grave robbers and illegal trade. Most at risk are prehistoric burials entombed in ice and ancient settlements hugging ever-shrinking coastlines. A warming planet is speeding the melting of polar ice, threatening to expose frozen remains like Scythian warrior mummies in Mongolia. Thawing permafrost is causing the ground to slump on Canada's Herschel Island, damaging caskets dating to the whaling heyday. Accelerated glacial melting may flood pre-Incan temples and tombs in the northern Andean highlands of Peru...."There are whole civilizations that we risk losing completely," said C. Brian Rose, president of the Archaeological Institute of America. "History is disintegrating before our very eyes." ...	...there's a certain sad symmetry to erasing history as we're ruining the future... ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Apr 4, 2009 from TIME Magazine: The New Age of Extinction ...There have been five extinction waves in the planet's history — including the Permian extinction 250 million years ago, when an estimated 70 percent of all terrestrial animals and 96 percent of all marine creatures vanished, and, most recently, the Cretaceous event 65 million years ago, which ended the reign of the dinosaurs. Though scientists have directly assessed the viability of fewer than 3 percent of the world's described species, the sample polling of animal populations so far suggests that we may have entered what will be the planet's sixth great extinction wave. And this time the cause isn't an errant asteroid or megavolcanoes. It's us... Through our growing numbers, our thirst for natural resources and, most of all, climate change — which, by one reckoning, could help carry off 20 percent to 30 percent of all species before the end of the century — we're shaping an Earth that will be biologically impoverished. A 2008 assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature found that nearly 1 in 4 mammals worldwide was at risk for extinction... ...	Do androids dream of electric Tasmanian devils? ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Apr 4, 2009 from Montreal Gazette: Climate clock is ticking We have already crossed some critical climate thresholds. The world not only has to drastically cut back its greenhouse gas emissions but also begin to take steps to deal with the inevitable changes that global warming will cause. The much-feared tipping points - which would cause massive icecap and ice shield melting, and plunge the world headlong into severe weather systems, causing broad devastation and rising seas - seem increasingly probable. This is why, scientists say, the United Nations climate talks that began this week in Bonn, Germany, and will culminate in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December, are so important. They are a last chance for the world to come to its senses and negotiate an agreement to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions. ...	It's time to stop tiptoeing around tipping points. ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Apr 4, 2009 from Reuters: Wordie Ice Shelf has disappeared: scientists One Antarctic ice shelf has quickly vanished, another is disappearing and glaciers are melting faster than anyone thought due to climate change, U.S. and British government researchers reported on Friday. They said the Wordie Ice Shelf, which had been disintegrating since the 1960s, is gone and the northern part of the Larsen Ice Shelf no longer exists. More than 3,200 square miles (8,300 square km) have broken off from the Larsen shelf since 1986. Climate change is to blame, according to the report from the U.S. Geological Survey and the British Antarctic Survey, available at pubs.usgs.gov/imap/2600/B. "The rapid retreat of glaciers there demonstrates once again the profound effects our planet is already experiencing -- more rapidly than previously known -- as a consequence of climate change," U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement. ...	Wordie up! Wordie... down... ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Apr 4, 2009 from ProPublica: CDC Study Finds Rocket Fuel Chemical in Baby Formula Perchlorate, a hazardous chemical in rocket fuel, has been found at potentially dangerous levels in powdered infant formula, according to a study [1] by a group of Centers for Disease Control scientists. The study, published last month by The Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, has intensified the years-long debate about whether or how the federal government should regulate perchlorate in the nation’s drinking water. According to the CDC, perchlorate exposure can damage the thyroid, which can hinder brain development among infants. For nearly a decade, Democratic members of Congress, the Department of Defense, the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency have been fighting about how much perchlorate in water is too much. ...	That'll put hair on those babies' chests! ApocaDoc permalink
Sat, Apr 4, 2009 from Scientific American: Are some chemicals more dangerous at low doses? There are some 82,000 chemicals used commercially in the U.S., but only a fraction have been tested to make sure they're safe and just five are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to congressional investigators. But a government scientist says there's no guarantee testing actually rules out health risks anyway. The basic premise of safety testing for chemicals is that anything can kill you in high enough doses (even too much water too fast can be lethal). The goal is to find safe levels that cause no harm. But new research suggests that some chemicals may be more dangerous than previously believed at low levels when acting in concert with other chemicals. ...	Is it just me... or is it time to find a new, pristine planet! ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Apr 3, 2009 from Associated Press: Arctic sea ice is melting faster than expected, study shows Arctic sea ice is melting so fast that most of it could be gone in 30 years. A new analysis of changing conditions in the region, using complex computer models of weather and climate, says conditions that had been forecast for the end of the century could occur much sooner. A change in the amount of ice is important because the white surface reflects sunlight back into space. When ice is replaced by dark ocean water, the sunlight can be absorbed, warming the water and increasing the warming of the planet. ...	Thirty years? That's all the time in the world. ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Apr 3, 2009 from Environmental Science and Technology: In the mix: equine estrogens used in HRT Equine estrogens, presumably derived from human hormone replacement therapy (HRT) medications, are pervasive in effluents from sewage treatment works (STW) in the U.K., according to a comprehensive study published in ES&T (DOI 10.1021/es803135q). The study demonstrates, both in vitro and in vivo, that these compounds can have substantial effects on the reproductive systems of fish. In most HRT regimens, women ingest estrogens derived from the urine of pregnant mares. The researchers routinely detected one of these equine estrogens, equilenin (Eqn), and a metabolite, 17β-dihydroequilenin (17β-Eqn), in STW discharge from multiple facilities, says lead author Charles Tyler of the University of Exeter (U.K.). ...	Maybe this is how seahorses are created. ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Apr 3, 2009 from Reuters UK: Slum cooker protects environment, helps poor Kenya's huge and squalid slums don't have much of anything, except mountains of trash that fill rivers and muddy streets, breeding disease. Now Kenyan designers have built a cooker that uses the trash as fuel to feed the poor, provide hot water and destroy toxic waste, as well as curbing the destruction of woodlands. ...	If it can also take my dog for a walk I'm gettin' one! ApocaDoc permalink
Want more context? Try reading our book FREE online: Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies! More fun than a barrel of jellyfish!
Fri, Apr 3, 2009 from UN IRIN: BANGLADESH: Air pollution choking Dhaka Thousands of people in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, are dying prematurely because of air pollution, say health experts. An estimated 15,000 premature deaths, as well as several million cases of pulmonary, respiratory and neurological illness are attributed to poor air quality in Dhaka, according to the Air Quality Management Project (AQMP), funded by the government and the World Bank. The World Health Organization (WHO) says vehicular air pollution is a major cause of respiratory distress http://www.whoban.org/sust_dev_mental_env.html] in urban Bangladesh. "If pregnant mothers come across excessive pollution, it may cause premature death of their children," said Soofia Khatun, a professor of paediatrics at the Institute of Maternal and Child Health. ...	DHAKA.... The word sounds like someone choking. ApocaDoc permalink
Fri, Apr 3, 2009 from The Nation: Tennessee's Dirty Data The Tennessee Valley Authority manipulated science methods to downplay water contamination caused by a massive coal ash disaster, according to independent technical experts and critics of the federally funded electrical company. The TVA is the largest public provider of electricity in the nation, providing power to 670,000 homes and burning through some 14,000 tons of coal per day. On December 22 the authority made headlines when one of its retention ponds collapsed, letting loose an avalanche of coal ash--the toxic residue left over when coal is burned. More than 5 million cubic yards of ashy mud pushed its way through a neighborhood and into Tennessee's Emory River, knocked houses off foundations and blanketed river water with plumes of gray scum that flowed downstream. New evidence indicates that in the wake of the disaster, the TVA may have intentionally collected water samples from clean spots in the Emory River, a major supplier of drinking water for nearby cities and a popular site for recreational activities such as swimming and fishing. Third-party tests have found high levels of toxins in the river water and in private wells, while the TVA has assured residents that tap water, well water and river water are safe. ...	Isn't it just soooo human nature to want to cover up mistakes. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Apr 2, 2009 from New Scientist: Rainforests may pump winds worldwide THE acres upon acres of lush tropical forest in the Amazon and tropical Africa are often referred to as the planet's lungs. But what if they are also its heart? This is exactly what a couple of meteorologists claim in a controversial new theory that questions our fundamental understanding of what drives the weather. They believe vast forests generate winds that help pump water around the planet. If correct, the theory would explain how the deep interiors of forested continents get as much rain as the coast, and how most of Australia turned from forest to desert. It suggests that much of North America could become desert - even without global warming. The idea makes it even more vital that we recognise the crucial role forests play in the well-being of the planet. ...	Forests may also be the earth's brain. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Apr 2, 2009 from Agence France-Presse: Climate change to bring more whale beachings Experts studying the mass beaching of whales along Australia's coast have warned that such tragedies could become more frequent as global warming brings the mammals' food stocks closer to shore. Almost 90 long-finned pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins died after washing up last week at Hamelin Bay, on the country's west coast. It was the second mass stranding in March, and took the total number of cetaceans to beach in southern Australia in the past four months beyond 500, including a single stranding of almost 200 on King Island. Researchers tracking the beaching of whales in the region since 1920 said strandings tended to occur in 12-year cycles which coincided with cooler, nutrient-rich ocean currents moving from the south and swelling fish stocks. ...	Aren't beached whales one of the Seven Signs of the Apocalypse? ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Apr 2, 2009 from Reuters Health: Egyptian boy contracts bird flu virus: agency A two-year-old Egyptian boy has contracted the highly pathogenic bird flu virus, bringing to 61 the number of confirmed cases in the most populous Arab country, state news agency MENA said on Wednesday. Egypt, hit harder by bird flu than any other country outside of Asia, has seen an upswing in bird flu cases over the past month, with six new human infections. The boy, from the province of Beheira in northern Egypt, was believed to have contracted the H5N1 virus after coming into contact with infected birds, MENA quoted health ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shahine as saying. The boy was taken to hospital on Monday after he came down with a high fever while visiting extended family in another province. He was being treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu.... While H5N1 rarely infects people, experts fear it could mutate into a form that people could easily pass to one another, sparking a pandemic that could kill millions. ...	Then the sky really would be falling. ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Apr 2, 2009 from New York Times: China Vies to Be World's Leader in Electric Cars Chinese leaders have adopted a plan aimed at turning the country into one of the leading producers of hybrid and all-electric vehicles within three years, and making it the world leader in electric cars and buses after that... To some extent, China is making a virtue of a liability. It is behind the United States, Japan and other countries when it comes to making gas-powered vehicles, but by skipping the current technology, China hopes to get a jump on the next... But electric vehicles may do little to clear the country's smog-darkened sky or curb its rapidly rising emissions of global warming gases. China gets three-fourths of its electricity from coal, which produces more soot and more greenhouse gases than other fuels. ...	How about this, then? How about Flintstones-style vehicles? ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Apr 2, 2009 from Reuters: Water Wars Leave Northern Colorado Farmers Dry Many farmers in this northern Colorado plains region are struggling to keep their crops irrigated and stay afloat as they find themselves on the wrong side of state water rules dating back to the 19th century. The farmers around Wiggins, population 830, recently lost a lengthy war over access to the nearby South Platte River.... The farmers' plight traces back to the late 1800s, when reservoir and ditch companies bought senior rights to the Platte. Some 30 years later, farmers drilled their first wells in the South Platte River Valley. Water in Colorado is first come, first served. State law requires well users to have a supply of replacement water ready before they start pumping from the river to ensure there's enough for the senior rights holders. ...	Let's hope they don't use waterguns in these wars! ApocaDoc permalink
Thu, Apr 2, 2009 from Los Angeles Times: Report outlines possible effects of warming on California As California warms in coming decades, farmers will have less water, the state could lose more than a million acres of cropland and forest fire rates will soar, according to a broad-ranging state report released Wednesday. The document, which officials called the "the ultimate picture to date" of global warming's likely effect on California, consists of 37 research papers that examine an array of issues including water supply, air pollution and property losses. Without actions to limit greenhouse gas emissions, "severe and costly climate impacts are possible and likely across California," warned state environmental protection secretary Linda Adams. The draft Climate Action Team Report, an update of a 2006 assessment, concludes that some climate change effects could be more serious than previously thought. ...	This "more serious than previously thought" remark is getting a little too familiar. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Apr 1, 2009 from NOAA, via EurekAlert: NOAA report calls flame retardants concern to US coastal ecosystems NOAA scientists, in a first-of-its-kind report issued today, state that Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs), chemicals commonly used in commercial goods as flame retardants since the 1970s, are found in all United States coastal waters and the Great Lakes, with elevated levels near urban and industrial centers.... "This is a wake-up call for Americans concerned about the health of our coastal waters and their personal health," said John H. Dunnigan, NOAA assistant administrator of the National Ocean Service. "Scientific evidence strongly documents that these contaminants impact the food web and action is needed to reduce the threats posed to aquatic resources and human health." ...	Hey scientists: I don't want my coastal waters burning. ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Apr 1, 2009 from International Journal of Exergy, via EurekAlert: Waste not, want not Tapping industrial waste heat could reduce fossil fuel demands in the short term and improve efficiency of countless manufacturing processes, according to scientists in Japan writing in the International Journal of Exergy.... The team has investigated three promising technologies for heat recovery: latent heat, reaction heat, and the use of a thermoelectric device. The aim of their study was to find a way to capture the heat from industrial furnaces and other systems without the constraints of time and space associated with simply using the heat to produce steam to drive other processes at precisely the same site. They say their approach can "recuperate industrial waste heat beyond time and space." ...	We so much need to get "beyond time and space." ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Apr 1, 2009 from Helsingen Sanomat: Russian burial ground for toxic waste seen as an environmental time bomb Toxic waste from St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region have been taken to Krasnyi bor since 1969. About 1.5 million tonnes of chemicals, oil, and heavy metals have been buried in dozens of pits in an area of 70 hectares. Some of the waste is incinerated. Russia does not have a single modern facility for processing problem waste. Furthermore, in St. Petersburg, poisons are often left out in the open, or are disposed of in illegal dumping areas. According to Dmitri Artamonov, the director of Greenpeace in St. Petersburg, not all pits have been covered up, and more waste is being transported to the area. Some of the pits have been sealed with clay. "Poisons evaporate into the air from liquid waste. In the rain, the pits can overflow, which means that all the makings of a disaster are ready", Artamonov says. ...	Maybe it's time for central planning? Wait, that's what started the problem.... ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Apr 1, 2009 from Vancouver Sun: Not your ordinary fish story "Fish are essential to human life in all kinds of ways, but we're losing them at such a rate that they'll never recover. I used to go fishing with my dad all the time and sit in a rowboat and catch cutthroat trout, we'd jig for halibut, and we could drop a line anywhere at the mouth of the Fraser and catch sturgeon," he says.... The worst-case scenario approaches science-fiction, he says, because as commercial over-fishing and climate change begin to change ecosystems, the quality of the oceans begins to change as well. Acidity levels are rising and carbon dioxide levels are at the point of maximum saturation. If we continue on the same track, Suzuki says within 50 years waterfront homes will be as desirable as a yurt on a garbage dump as the water becomes slick, acidic, stinky and laden with jellyfish. ...	And what's so wrong with a yurt? ApocaDoc permalink
Wed, Apr 1, 2009 from BBC (UK): Climate change fans Nepal's fires The forest fires that flared unusually viciously in many of Nepal's national parks and conserved areas this dry season have left conservationists worrying if climate change played a role. At least four protected areas were on fire for an unusually long time until just a few days ago. Nasa's satellite imagery showed most of the big fires were in and around the national parks along the country's northern areas bordering Tibet.... For nearly six months, no precipitation has fallen across most of the country - the longest dry spell in recent history, according to meteorologists. ...	Got marshmallows? ApocaDoc permalink
You're still reading! Good for you! You really should read our short, funny, frightening book FREE online (or buy a print copy): Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies! We've been quipping this stuff for more than 30 months! Every day! Which might explain why we don't get invited to parties anymore.
Tue, Mar 31, 2009 from Popular Science: Rust in the Food Supply Food-borne illness frequently grabs headlines: tomatoes, peanut butter and, most recently, pistachios have all made people sick from salmonella and caused headaches for grocers across the United States. Now, another food illness of sorts is popping up on the international radar screen -- only this one makes the food itself ill. Well, one of the plants that turns into much of our food, in any case. Scientists from 40 countries on six continents are fighting a virulent form of an old wheat disease that some fear could threaten 90 percent of the world's wheat crop. They aim to fight the fungus on the genetic level, hoping to prevent it from spreading to North America by replacing much of the world's wheat varieties with tougher plants. At a conference in Mexico earlier this month, scientists confirmed that a newly emerged wheat rust strain known as Ug99 is now in most of eastern Africa and is marching toward South Asia, a region that produces 19 percent of the world's wheat. The wind-borne fungus has already devastated farms in Kenya, where some farmers have reported losses up to 80 percent. ...	And as we know... rust never sleeps. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Mar 31, 2009 from London Daily Mail: What is to blame for the vanishing cuckoo? This is the season of the year when the natural pageant of the British countryside begins to unfold in a fashion which has enchanted poets and pastoralists since the beginning of time. Shakespeare wrote in The Winter's Tale about the 'daffodils that come before the swallow dares'... The statistics gathered by birdwatchers are frightening. Since 1967, the summer cuckoo population has fallen by 59 per cent, the spotted flycatcher by 84 per cent, turtle doves by 82 per cent. Since only 1994, 47 per cent of yellow wagtails have disappeared. Nightingales are becoming rare. Worse still, over the past decade the trend has accelerated. There is a real likelihood that, within a few years, birds which we love and take for granted will simply vanish from our landscape. ...	From canary in the coal mine to cuckoo in the countryside. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Mar 31, 2009 from Minneapolis MinnPost: There ain't no bugs in me: Anti-antibiotics bill irks agribusiness Are pigs hogging all the good antibiotics? A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives assumes so, and it aims to control the overuse of the drugs in livestock and poultry production. Penicillin, tetracycline and other antimicrobials that doctors prescribe for our strep throats are also used in factory farming. The drugs are mixed with animal feed at CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations), where a crowded environment can lead to petri dish-like conditions for bacteria. Antibiotics also help animals grow faster. And as we learned in high-school science class from Mrs. Phelps, the more bacteria are exposed to antibiotics, the more resistant some of them (sometimes called "superbugs") get. ...	Chances are... if it irks agribusiness, it's probably good for regular folks! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Mar 31, 2009 from San Jose Mercury News: Obama signs landmark wilderness bill; restoration of key California river included In one of the first major environmental acts of his presidency, President Barack Obama on Monday signed a far-reaching measure to provide wilderness protection to 2.1 million acres of federal land and restore salmon to California's second-longest river, the San Joaquin. The law will put billions of gallons of fresh water back into the river, potentially improving drinking water quality for large sections of the Bay Area, including Silicon Valley. "This legislation guarantees that we will not take our forests, rivers, oceans, national parks, monuments, and wilderness areas for granted," Obama said at a White House ceremony. "But rather we will set them aside and guard their sanctity for everyone to share." The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, co-written by Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Sen. Barbara Boxer, is the largest wilderness preservation bill since President Clinton signed the Desert Protection Act in 1994. ...	Yes we really can! ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Mar 31, 2009 from Washington Times: Coal is winner even in 'green' Congress After two years of campaign rhetoric and months of hearings, Congress is set this week to begin testing whether it can turn the push for renewable energy sought by President Obama into reality. But the result is likely to fall short of Mr. Obama's goals and, ironically, preserve the primacy of the most abundant and dirtiest fossil fuel: coal. Lawmakers this spring plan to keep their distance from the president's most ambitious and controversial proposals, including a mandate for utilities to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and the creation of a system to reduce such emissions called "cap and trade." Yet they appear eager to appropriate billions of dollars for a little-tested technology that would prevent carbon dioxide from polluting the air by burying it underground, a process called "sequestration." Coal - and the many parts of the country that rely on coal for power generation - would be the prime beneficiaries of such funding. ...	Coal... it is still king. ApocaDoc permalink
Tue, Mar 31, 2009 from The Washington Independent: Tensions High as EPA Reasserts Mining Authority For environmentalists in the Appalachians, it was a roller-coaster week. Just one day after the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to reassert its powers to protect mountain streams from the ravages of mountaintop coal mining, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the broad expansion of such a project without EPA input... The recent saga began last Monday, when the EPA sent letters to the Army Corps of Engineers in Huntington, W.Va., recommending that the Corps either deny or alter proposed projects in West Virginia and Kentucky because agency studies show that the two mountaintop mines would have serious water-quality consequences. A day later, the EPA vowed to review hundreds more backlogged permit requests to assess their effect on streams... On Wednesday, however, the Corps’ Louisville district approved a 1.5-square-mile expansion of a mountaintop mine in Southeast Kentucky with no input from the EPA. ...	In the battle betwixt the two my money's on the Army! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Mar 30, 2009 from CBC News (Canada): Global warming could melt winter sport industry: report Global warming could cripple winter sports and winter tourism in Canada, according to a report published Monday by the David Suzuki Foundation. "If heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions are not significantly cut, global warming stands to wipe out more than half of Canada's ski season later this century with few exceptions," said the study. Entitled On Thin Ice, it was released Monday in Vancouver on the opening day of the 8th annual world conference on sport and the environment. "By 2050, if we fail to take immediate action on climate change, a whole range of winter activities across Canada, from Olympic sports like skiing and snowboarding to iconic Canadian pastimes such as ice fishing and pond hockey, will be jeopardized," says report author and the foundation's climate-change specialist, Ian Bruce. ...	OMG!!! You mean I have to take up skateboarding instead of snowboarding!? ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Mar 30, 2009 from US News and World Report: 6 Scientists on the Cutting Edge of Energy and Environmental Research Donald J. Hammerstrom envisions a day when every electrical appliance is wise to what's happening on the far side of the wall socket. The inexpensive device he and his Pacific Northwest National Laboratory colleagues in Richland, Wash., have developed, dubbed the Grid Friendly Appliance Controller, is designed to reduce reliance on backup generators and prevent power outages that can occur when the electrical grid suffers momentary capacity problems. The controller, which he says could be built into a water heater, clothes dryer, or other energy-hungry appliance for $5 or less, recognizes when telltale fluctuations in the current flowing through the socket indicate that the grid is straining to meet demand. The controller's response: briefly scale back the appliance's electricity use. That move, if multiplied by many appliances in thousands of homes and buildings, would be enough to relieve the strain on the grid, potentially averting a blackout. The grid would also need less 24-7 standby capacity (read, wastefully idling generators) to buffer the occasional unexpected fluctuation in electrical supply or demand. ...	It better not know everything going on, on the far side of that wall socket! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Mar 30, 2009 from Forbes: Hottest Electric Cars Soon To Hit The Roads America's roads could get a whole lot quieter in the not-too-distant future. Thanks to unprecedented tax incentives included in Obama's $787 billion stimulus package, plug-in electric vehicles are getting closer to the road than you might expect. Tax credits ranging from $2,500 to $7,500 for buyers of electric cars, the largest of which start in 2010, mean the race is on for automakers to produce moderately priced plug-ins for eager, eco-conscious consumers. "There is a lot of interest currently with the Obama administration making it very attractive for electric vehicle manufacturers to come into the U.S. to produce vehicles," says Brendan Prebo, a spokesman for Th!nk, a Norway-based maker of electric cars. "And that's very much what we'd like to do." ...	Plus, we can pray gas prices go up, too! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Mar 30, 2009 from London Guardian: Fit every home with water meter by 2020, says Environment Agency Every home in London and south-east England should be fitted with a water meter within six years, according to experts at the Environment Agency who say the move is needed to conserve dwindling water supplies. The agency says water companies and the government must accelerate plans to roll out the meters, and wants one fitted to every home in England and Wales by 2020. Water-stressed areas such as the south-east should have them by 2015, it says. Paul Leinster, chief executive of the Environment Agency, said: "People and businesses need to use less water and wasting water needs to cost a lot more." He said climate change and population growth could lead to serious shortages. "There may not be enough water in England and Wales in the future for people and the environment unless we start planning and acting now. We need a joined-up approach to this problem to prevent it becoming a crisis." ...	This better not impact my 20 minute showers! ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Mar 30, 2009 from Soil Science Society of America, via EurekAlert: Nitrate fertilizer stimulates greenhouse gas production in small streams Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas that has been accumulating in the atmosphere since the industrial revolution. It is well known that fertilizer can stimulate nitrous oxide production in soils, but less is known about nitrous oxide production in small streams which drain agricultural landscapes. Much of the cropland in the agricultural Midwest is drained by an extensive subsurface drainage network which delivers soil-derived nitrate to small streams where it may be converted to nitrous oxide. Given the large quantities of nitrogen that leach from agricultural soils and the predominance of small streams in Midwestern agricultural landscapes, small streams may an important source of nitrous oxide.... The study revealed that nitrous oxide is frequently produced in the sediments of small streams and that production rates were best explained by stream water nitrate concentrations. The highest production rates were observed during the winter and spring of the second year of the study when snow melt and rain flushed nitrate into the streams resulting in elevated stream water nitrate concentrations. ...	Fertilizing our way to climate warming? How efficient. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Mar 30, 2009 from Associated Press: New Hampshire issues first climate plan New Hampshire's first climate action plan calls for "a new way of living," beginning immediately, to reduce carbon emissions blamed for global warming -- and preparing the state for the warming the authors say is already under way. Recommendations range from making buildings more energy efficient to expanding public transportation systems and bike lanes as well as building transmission lines to bring hydroelectric and wind power from Canada. "Future economic growth in New Hampshire as well as mitigation of and adaptation to a changing climate will depend on how quickly we transition to a new way of living" based on increasing energy efficiency, using more renewable energy and driving less, the report said. ...	Live Green or Die. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Mar 30, 2009 from Cleantech Blog: Carbon Capture and Storage: To Be or Not To Be? Or, To Partially Be? One of the more contentious questions in the cleantech community is the role of coal in the energy sector of the future. There's a lot of coal in the world -- many decades of supply left -- including here in the U.S. It's pretty darned cheap to mine. So, it would be great to figure out a way to use it in non-harmful ways. And there's the rub: it's a pretty nasty fuel. Putting aside the issue of how to mine coal in an environmentally-acceptable manner, coal is one of the most highly carbonaceous of hydrocarbons, meaning that it generates a lot of carbon dioxide per unit of energy released when burned -- much more so than oil or natural gas. As a result, the worldwide use of coal -- primarily for power generation -- is the largest component of global carbon dioxide emissions, which in turn is the most important of the greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change. In the arena of climate change, coal is therefore the main culprit. Not the only culprit, to be sure, but the main one.... ...	Hey, it all smells like the same air to me. ApocaDoc permalink
Mon, Mar 30, 2009 from Guardian (UK): The 'revolution' starts here as 35,000 pack the G20 march They hoped for 10,000, but in the end more than triple that number turned out on London's streets for the biggest demonstration since the beginning of the economic crisis. The Put People First march yesterday was organised by a collaboration of more than 100 trade unions, church groups and charities including ActionAid, Save the Children and Friends of the Earth. The theme was "jobs, justice and climate" and the message was aimed at the world leaders who will be gathering for the G20 summit here this week.... Updates on the event and messages of support were quickly posted on social networking websites such as Twitter, which organisers encouraged people to use to provide live coverage. One blog dubbed the event as "Protest 2.0". ...	This is the dawning of the age of Pisces. ApocaDoc permalink