By Ryan J. Foley26 September 2015 DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Deep inside a complex of huge tanks, drinking water for Iowa’s capital city is constantly cleansed of the harmful nitrates that come from the state’s famously rich farmland. Without Des Moines Water Works, the region of 500,000 people that it serves wouldn’t have a […]
[Some good news to start the week. A dry hole really is the best outcome. – Des] By Charisse Jones28 September 2015 (USA TODAY) – Royal Dutch Shell will end exploration in off shore Alaska “for the forseeable future,” after an exploratory well in the Chukchi Sea failed to yield the oil and gas that […]
By Lynn Jenner23 September 2015 (NASA) – The widespread burning of lowland forests on Borneo as well as southern Sumatra, as seen in this image taken by the MODIS instrument on the Aqua satellite, is an annual, manmade occurrence. People use fires to manage agricultural lands which in this part of the world includes large […]
By Seth Borenstein22 September 2015 WASHINGTON (Associated Press) – Americans are sending more than twice as much trash to landfills as the federal government has estimated, according to a new study. It turns out that on average America tosses five pounds of trash per person per day into its landfills, according to an analysis of […]
18 November 2014 (Urban Water Blueprint) – Impacts on water quality are not limited to sedimentation rates. As watersheds are exploited for agricultural purposes, and as agriculture turns intensive, the use of fertilizers increases and more fertilizers end up in the water. The two most common nutrients that cause problems are excessive phosphorus and nitrogen, […]
17 August 2015 (UNZ) – The majority of New Zealand’s freshwater species are disappearing. That’s the message of the Society for Conservation Biology’s new report, which two of New Zealand’s leading freshwater ecologists Massey University’s Dr Mike Joy and Professor Russell Death have contributed to. The ‘Diagnosis and Cure’ report on managing New Zealand freshwater […]
By Noah Seelam17 September 2015 (AFP) – Outdoor air pollution from sources as varied as cooking fires in India, traffic in the United States and fertiliser use in Russia, claim some 3.3 million lives globally every year, researchers said Wednesday. The vast majority of victims — nearly 75 percent — died from strokes and heart […]
By Angel Canales14 September 2015 (ABC News) – Famous for its pink coloring, the Chinese white dolphin is under threat of extinction in Hong Kong. Among other things, their shrinking habitat has deprived them of food and shelter, experts say. “So that’s why it has seriously impacted the number of dolphins in Hong Kong,” Samantha […]
16 September 2015 (Plastic Pollution Coalition) – A new international study published on 14 September 2015, led by a University of Queensland researcher, has suggested that more than half the world’s sea turtles have ingested plastic or other human rubbish. The study, led by Dr. Qamar Schuyler from UQ’s School of Biological Sciences, found the […]
By Nancy Shute25 August 2015 (NPR) – I stepped out my parents’ front door last Thursday, expecting a typically glorious summer day in southern Oregon. Instead, I was hit with acrid wood smoke that stung my eyes and throat. The air was thick with haze that obscured the mountains. I quickly retreated inside. Health departments […]
