Archive for the 'Environment' Category
Gallery: Snowpocalypse Russia: ‘Snow Tsunami’ Swallows Streets, Cars, Buildings
January 21st, 2013Via: Russia Today: Unrelenting snowfalls have caused unprecedented chaos in Russia. Over the past week, the country has seen scores of traffic accidents, flight delays and, in some cases, the complete isolation of some remote settlements and towns.
A Mysterious Patch Of Light Shows Up In The North Dakota Dark
January 17th, 2013Via: NPR: What we have here is an immense and startlingly new oil and gas field — nighttime evidence of an oil boom created by a technology called fracking. Those lights are rigs, hundreds of them, lit at night, or fiery flares of natural gas. One hundred fifty oil companies, big ones, little ones, wildcatters, […]
Air Pollution in Beijing Goes Off the Index
January 13th, 2013Via: AP: People refused to venture outdoors and buildings disappeared into Beijing’s murky skyline on Sunday as the capital’s air quality went off the index. The Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center said on its website that the density of PM2.5 particulates had surpassed 700 micrograms per cubic meter in many parts of the city. The […]
USDA: Drought Cut Corn Crop by About One-Fourth
January 12th, 2013Via: AP: For farmers like Earl Williams, last year couldn’t have started out better or ended much worse as a warm, sunny spring that let him plant early gave way to record heat and drought that devastated his corn. Williams ended up with about two-thirds of the crop he expected, and a U.S. Department of […]
Nuclear Security Helicopters Testing Radiation Levels Above DC Area
January 7th, 2013[???] Via: CBS: Helicopters have been conducting radiation tests above portions of the Washington, D.C. area using remote gamma radiation sensing technology. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has been flying the radiation missions since Dec. 27, 2012 and they will continue until next Friday, Jan. 11. The flights have been conducted during daylight only, […]
America’s Real Criminal Element: Lead
January 5th, 2013Via: Mother Jones: In 1994, Rick Nevin was a consultant working for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development on the costs and benefits of removing lead paint from old houses. This has been a topic of intense study because of the growing body of research linking lead exposure in small children with a […]
Caffeinated Seas Found off U.S. Pacific Northwest
January 5th, 2013Via: National Geographic: The Pacific Northwest may be the epicenter of U.S. coffee culture, and now a new study shows the region’s elevated caffeine levels don’t stop at the shoreline. The discovery of caffeine pollution in the Pacific Ocean off Oregon is further evidence that contaminants in human waste are entering natural water systems, with […]
Mississippi River Nears Historic Lows, Shipping at Risk
January 3rd, 2013Via: Reuters: The drought-drained Mississippi River will rise slightly later this week between St. Louis and Cairo, Illinois, but later continue its decline toward historic lows, according to a National Weather Service forecast. Low water, due to the worst U.S. drought since 1956, has already impeded the flow of billions of dollars worth of grain, […]
U.S. Sailors Sue Japan Over Fukushima Lies
December 30th, 2012Well, unless we’re expected to assume that a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier isn’t equipped to measure radiation levels (which would be a totally absurd assumption), the plaintiffs should name the U.S. Navy in the lawsuit as well. Hint: Good luck. Via: Courthouse News Service: The Fukushima nuclear disaster exposed Navy rescue workers to dangerous levels […]
Anonymous Drone Photos Lead to Indictment for Texas Polluters
December 29th, 2012Via: Slashdot: In January of this year, we posted news of a major pollution site in Texas that was the subject of some anonymous amateur sleuths with drones, who used their UAVs to document the release of a “river of blood” (pig blood, that is) into the Trinity River as it flows through Dallas. Now, […]
