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[Species Collapse]: from New York Times, Fri Mar 7 2014:
Minnesota Mystery: What's Killing the Moose?
For moose, this year's winter-long deep freeze across the Upper Midwest is truly ideal weather ... Yet moose in Minnesota are dying at an alarming rate, and biologists are perplexed as to why... In Northeast Minnesota, the population has dropped by half since 2006, to 4,300 from more than 8,800... Seth Moore, a wildlife biologist in Grand Portage, theorizes that recent years of warmer, shorter winters and hotter, longer summers have resulted in a twofold problem. The changing climate has stressed out the moose, compromising their immune systems. And warmer temperatures have allowed populations of white-tailed deer, carriers of brain worm -- which is fatal to moose -- to thrive.
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Our moose is cooked.
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[Read more stories about: anthropogenic change, ecosystem interrelationships, massive die-off]
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[Biology Breach]: from Reuters, Fri Mar 7 2014:
Groups sue EPA to force it to move on pesticide disclosures
Three environmental and public health groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday, seeking to press it to move forward with rules that would require public disclosure of certain pesticide ingredients...
The groups claimed there has been an "unreasonable delay" on the EPA's part in finalizing rules to require chemical manufacturers to disclose hazardous inert ingredients in their pesticide products.
The groups said there are more than 350 inert pesticide ingredients that can be just as hazardous as active ingredients that are labeled and can comprise up to 99 percent of a pesticide's formulation. Of the common inert ingredients, many are classified as carcinogenic, possibly carcinogenic or potentially toxic, the lawsuit said.
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Instead of calling them inert we should call them ert.
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[Read more stories about: contamination, governmental idiocy, health impacts, pesticide runoff, corporate farming]
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[Climate Chaos]: from Huffington Post, Fri Mar 7 2014:
New Government Report Warns of 'Cascading System Failures' Caused By Climate Change
For example, during Hurricane Katrina, the loss of electricity in the region meant that several major oil pipelines could not ship oil and gas for several days, and some refineries could not operate. Gas prices rose around the country.
Other scenarios include a major storm wiping out communications lines, a blackout that cuts power to sewage treatment or wastewater systems, and a weather event that damages a bridge or major highway. In the latter case, the damage would not only cost money to repair, but could cause traffic backups or delays in the shipment of goods, which could in turn have wider economic implications. As the report describes it:
"A central theme of the report is that vulnerabilities and impacts are issues beyond physical infrastructures themselves. The concern is with the value of services provided by infrastructures, where the true consequences of impacts and disruptions involve not only the costs associated with the cleanup, repair, and/or replacement of affected infrastructures but also economic, social, and environmental effects as supply chains are disrupted, economic activities are suspended, and/or social well-being is threatened.";
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Après moi, le cáscade.
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[Read more stories about: unintended consequences, short-term thinking]
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[Recovery]: from Des Moines Register, Thu Mar 6 2014:
Iowa gets about 27 percent of energy from wind, report says
Iowa received about 27 percent of its energy from wind generation last year, placing it first in the nation, ahead of South Dakota at 26 percent, a new report today shows.
The American Wind Energy Association said Iowa generated enough wind last year to power 1.4 million homes, second only to Texas, which generated enough wind energy to power 3.3 million homes.
Iowa has 5,117 megawatts of installed wind energy capacity, with 1,055 megawatts under construction.
The report said Iowa ranks third in the nation for the number of jobs — up to 7,000 direct and indirect, based on 2012 data — that are tied wind generation.
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What with all that wind, the hair salon industry is getting a boost as well!
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[Read more stories about: climate impacts, efficiency increase]
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[Climate Chaos]: from The Hill, Thu Mar 6 2014:
House passes bill on energy efficiency
The House passed a bipartisan package on Wednesday intended to up energy efficiency in homes and federal agencies.
The legislation, authored by Reps. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and David McKinley (R-W.Va.), aims to boost energy conservation with a program called Tenant Star, which provides incentives to landlords and tenants who up their energy savings.
The package, which passed 375 to 36, also promotes energy efficiency in federal agencies under a provision added by Rep. Anna Eschoo (D-Calif.)
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This news comes from a parallel universe where politicians do the right thing.
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[Read more stories about: efficiency increase, smart policy]
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[Climate Chaos]: from The Daily Caller, Tue Mar 4 2014:
Warren Buffett: Global warming not causing extreme weather
Business magnate Warren Buffett contradicted a major Obama administration talking point by saying that global warming was not causing extreme weather.
The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway told CNBC that he has not changed the way his companies calculate the likelihood of a natural disaster because of global warming.
Berkshire Hathaway owns several insurance companies that often have to pay out huge claims when natural disasters strike. Environmentalists and the Obama administration have warned that global warming has caused natural disasters like hurricanes to become fiercer and more common.
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From Oracle of Omaha to Nimrod of Nebraska.
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[Read more stories about: deniers, global warming]
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[Biology Breach]: from New York Times, Tue Mar 4 2014:
Ash Spill Shows How Watchdog Was Defanged
Last June, state employees in charge of stopping water pollution were given updated marching orders on behalf of North Carolina's new Republican governor and conservative lawmakers... From now on, regulators were told, they must focus on customer service, meaning issuing environmental permits for businesses as quickly as possible. Big changes are coming, the official said, according to three people in the meeting, two of whom took notes. "If you don't like change, you'll be gone."
But when the nation's largest utility, Duke Energy, spilled 39,000 tons of coal ash into the Dan River in early February, those big changes were suddenly playing out in a different light.
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How's that customer service working out for ya?
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[Read more stories about: governmental corruption, toxic leak, health impacts, coal issues]
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[Biology Breach]: from MLive.com, Tue Mar 4 2014:
Piece of metal lodged in reactor at Palisades Nuclear Power Plant
A piece of metal from a broken impeller blade has lodged in the reactor vessel at Palisades Nuclear Power Plant. Workers discovered the issue during the nuclear power plant's scheduled refueling and maintenance shutdown, which began Jan. 19.
The metal is 5 inches by 12 inches long, said Lindsay Rose, spokeswoman for Entergy Corp., which owns Palisades. The piece is wedged into the reactor vessel between the vessel wall and the flow skirt, inside the vessel... Efforts to remove the metal have proved unsuccessful. At this point, Entergy plans to leave it in place, saying it does not pose a safety risk.
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As safe as leaving a scalpel in a surgery patient.
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[Read more stories about: radiation]
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[Recovery]: from E&E Publishing, Tue Mar 4 2014:
Batteries combined with rooftop solar may speed grid's 'death spiral' -- report
A new study estimates that cheap batteries paired with rooftop solar panels is a new sort of threat to the traditional utility business model, hastening the day when on-site power is cheaper than grid power and utilities struggle to pay off the power plants and transmission lines they've already bought.
By as soon as 2020, the report asserts, tens of millions of businesses and homeowners in California and New York may be able to combine solar panels, batteries and sometimes a backup diesel generator to get local electricity cheaper than that from the grid. Much of the rest of the country may be able to do the same by the 2030s, it states.
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Local electricity just flows better.
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[Read more stories about: climate impacts, renewable energy]
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[Recovery]: from Sioux City Journal, Mon Mar 3 2014:
HARVESTING THE WIND
...Lately, the vast wind resource has turned the rural Northwest Iowa county into a hotbed of economic activity. A bevy of companies are moving ahead with large-scale projects that would harness and export the renewable energy to more populated regions.
The undertakings are projected to spur hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and create thousands of temporary construction jobs and hundreds of permanent jobs, as well as fill local tax coffers and grow communities that have seen an exodus in population in recent decades.
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Iowa wind a win win.
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[Read more stories about: climate impacts, renewable energy]
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[Species Collapse]: from Huffington Post, Wed Feb 26 2014:
10 Million Scallops Dead In B.C. Waters
Rising acidity in the sea water around Qualicum Beach has led to the death of 10 million scallops -- equivalent to three years' product, and every scallop the company put ...
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Don't miss:
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from the last 7 days
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Random Sample PANIQuestion:
What is happening in the waters around Peninsula Valdes along Argentina's Patagonian Coast?
a) Coral reefs in a state of regeneration.
b) Not enough to draw Spring break revelers.
c) The largest great whale die-off on record.
d) Dolphins employing human speech.
e) Jellyfish the size of elephants.
Answer: The largest great whale die-off on record.
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The ApocaDocs try to make fun of the horror of environmental collapse
by locating a handful of news items every day, and giving each a
punchline. The stories are categorized into five main topics: Species Collapse (ecosystem
interrelationships, invasive species, the sixth extinction, pesticide
effects, and more); Resource Depletion (peak oil, peak
phosphorus, overfishing, topsoil loss, aquifer declines, and more);
Biology Breach (toxic runoff, radiation, GMOs, pharmwater,
contamination, and idle destruction); Climate Chaos (global warming,
weather extremes, ocean warming, and more); and Infectious Disease
(pandemics, viruses, antibiotic resistance). To avoid deep depression,
we also include stories of Recovery
(alternative energy, innovations, species restoration, better policies, social
change, and the like).
For more information, see About The ApocaDocs.
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