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Monday, 20 May 2013 19:15 |
By Talia Buford – Politico Morning Energy – May 20, 2013Climate activists worry that President Barack Obama’s grassroots organization, Organizing for Action, may be telegraphing his upcoming decision on the Keystone XL pipeline by not coming down on one side or the other of the project. OFA says it is echoing Obama’s stance on the pipeline — that he’s waiting on the State Department to finish its review of the project — but environmentalists say the group should be pushing Obama toward a decision. For full story, click here. |
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Monday, 20 May 2013 19:15 |
By Jenny Anderson – The New York Times – May 18, 2013When a handful of retired homeowners from Osborn Island in New Jersey gathered last month to discuss post-Hurricane Sandy rebuilding and environmental protection, L. Stanton Hales Jr., a conservationist, could not have been clearer about the risks they faced. “I said, look people, you built on a marsh island, it’s oxidizing under your feet — it’s shrinking — and that exacerbates the sea level rise,” said Dr. Hales, director of the Barnegat Bay Partnership, an estuary program financed by the Environmental Protection Agency. “Do you really want to throw good money after bad?” Their answer? Yes. For full story, click here. |
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Monday, 20 May 2013 19:15 |
EPA – May 17, 2013The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office announced in a Federal Register Notice (Volume 78, Number 46, Pages 15012 – 15013) published on March 8, 2013 that it was seeking public nominations of technical experts to serve on an expert Panel under the auspices of the SAB to review the EPA’s draft science synthesis report on the connectivity of streams and wetlands to downstream waters. The SAB Staff Office sought public nominations of recognized experts in one or more of the following disciplines: (a) hydrologists, geologists, and fluvial geomorphologists with expertise in the hydrology and formation of large rivers, small streams, wetlands, surface-groundwater interactions, sediment transport, or hydrologic connectivity of waters; (b) ecologists with expertise in stream ecology or wetland ecology, particularly with respect to freshwater stream-wetland connectivity, or wetland ecosystem function; (c) biologists with expertise in population dynamics and dispersal of freshwater organisms, fisheries, aquatic entomology, amphibian biology, or the biologic connectivity of freshwater systems; and (d) water chemists and biogeochemists with expertise in nutrient dynamics or pollutant fate and transport in watersheds. For more information and list of candidates, click here. |
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Monday, 13 May 2013 15:42 |
By Catherine Griffin – Science World Report – May 7, 2013Algae can have serious consequences for Lake Erie. They can choke fish and hamper boat movement. In fact, toxic algal blooms two years ago were so thick that some anglers said that their boats slowed down as they drove through the green slime. Now, it turns out that these blooms may becoming more frequent--a bad situation for one of the Great Lakes. Harmful algal blooms are made of blue-green algae, which can drastically impact wildlife. The bloom thrives in nutrient rich waters where it can spread out across vast swathes of the lake. Yet when the algae dies, oxygen is leached out of the water. This, in turn, causes dead zones where little to no life can survive. Since the algae contains a toxin that can cause gastrointestinal illness, liver problems and headaches, swimmers are also at risk if they come in contact with the bloom, according to The News Messenger. Unfortunately, it looks like these blooms are likely to continue into the future. Climate change is causing increased heavy rains and dry summers in the area, according to the National Wildlife Federation.Heavy rains wash fertilizers and other nutrients into the lake, which then help feed the algae. Since the Lake Erie Basin has the most agricultural land in the Great Lakes region, it's due to suffer some serious consequences with these rain events. For full story, click here. |
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