US precipitation has increased an average of about 5 percent over the past 50 years. Projections of future precipitation generally indicate that northern areas will become wetter, and southern areas, particularly in the West, will become drier. While precipitation over the United States as a whole has increased, there have been important regional and seasonal […]
Haze is reducing visibility, carries a strong smell, and poses a health risk By Vivian Luk, Vancouver Sun August 21, 2010 VANCOUVER — Clouds of stinking smoke from B.C. forest fires covered much of Western Canada on Friday, reducing visibility and sparking air-quality advisories. Cooler weather and a chance of showers could ease some of […]
BBC20 August 2010 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has sacked the head of the forestry agency for failing to deal adequately with the recent wildfires. The fires have destroyed hundreds of thousands of hectares of countryside, and shrouded Moscow in dense smog. Mr Putin replaced Alexei Savinov with his deputy, Viktor Maslyakov. However, some Russian […]
By Vladimir Slivyak, 21 August 2010; translated by Maria Kaminskaya MOSCOW – Last Wednesday, August 18, a group of journalists and environmentalists joined representatives of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations (MChS) to visit Bryansk – a region in Central European Russia where wildfires threatened to spread into areas affected by the 1986 Chernobyl fallout, […]
Kashmor, Pakistan, 9 August 2009 Kashmor, Pakistan, 12 August 2010 Caption by Holli RiebeekAugust 19, 2010 By mid-August, the extreme monsoon floods that had overwhelmed northwestern Pakistan had traveled downstream into southern Pakistan. The bottom image, acquired by the Landsat 5 satellite on August 12, 2010, shows flooding near Kashmor, Pakistan, just before the […]
By CTV.ca News Staff Sat. Aug. 21 2010 6:15 PM ET Aid workers say the flooding in Pakistan that has forced millions from their homes will get worse before it gets better. Rahul Singh, of the aid group Global Medic, told CTV News Channel that he and his fellow aid workers are trying as quickly […]
By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News 18 August 2010 A disease that first emerged in the UK in 2005 has caused a severe decline in the number of greenfinches and chaffinches, according to researchers. In the worst affected areas, greenfinch populations have fallen by an estimated 35% and in 2007 about 500,000 birds […]
(American Geophysical Union) A new simulation of oil and methane leaked into the Gulf of Mexico suggests that deep hypoxic zones or “dead zones” could form near the source of the pollution. The research investigates five scenarios of oil and methane plumes at different depths and incorporates an estimated rate of flow from the Deepwater […]
By VERENA SCHMITT-ROSCHMANN, Associated Press WriterAugust 20, 2010 (AP) — It was a big shot. A big hog. And a big disappointment. When Georg van Bebber hauled back his wild boar from Ebersberg forest near Munich after a day of hunting, he was exhilarated about his impressive prey. But before he could take it home, […]
SAN FRANCISCO, California, August 20, 2010 (ENS) – An attempt by irrigation districts to strip federal protected status from wild steelhead trout in California’s Central Valley was rejected in a ruling today from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. This Endangered Species Act case is a challenge to the decision of the National Marine Fisheries […]
