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Report: Global Warming Raises Chance of Events Like Texas Heat Wave and Warm British Novembers

      

Texas State Park Police Officer Thomas Bigham walks across the cracked lake bed of O.C. Fisher Lake, Aug. 3, 2011, in San Angelo, Texas. A combination of the long periods of 100-plus degree days and the lack of rain in the drought-stricken region has dried up the lake that once spanned over 5,400 acres. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

washingtonpost.com - by Associated Press - July 10, 2012

NEW YORK — Last year brought a record heat wave to Texas, massive floods in Bangkok and an unusually warm November in England. How much has global warming boosted the chances of events like that?

Quite a lot in Texas and England, but apparently not at all in Bangkok, say new analyses released Tuesday.

Scientists can’t blame any single weather event on global warming, but they can assess how climate change has altered the odds of such events happening, Tom Peterson of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told reporters in a briefing. He’s an editor of a report that includes the analyses published by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

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Growing interest in prairie cordgrass as a biofuel source

www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com - June 27, 2012

                                                                              

                                                          Source: illinois.edu

Until recently, prairie cordgrass (Spartina pectinata) has received comparatively little attention because, unlike the other types of switchgrass, it is not a good forage crop; as interest in energy crops and in feedstock production for cellulosic biofuels increases, however, prairie cordgrass is receiving more attention because it grows well on marginal land.

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Injection Wells: The Poison Beneath Us

      

A class 2 brine disposal well in western Louisiana near the Texas border. The well sat by the side of the road, without restricted access. (Abrahm Lustgarten/ProPublica)

propublica.org - by Abrahm Lustgarten - June 21, 2012

Over the past several decades, U.S. industries have injected more than 30 trillion gallons of toxic liquid deep into the earth, using broad expanses of the nation's geology as an invisible dumping ground.

No company would be allowed to pour such dangerous chemicals into the rivers or onto the soil. But until recently, scientists and environmental officials have assumed that deep layers of rock beneath the earth would safely entomb the waste for millennia.

There are growing signs they were mistaken.

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Video - Zero Waste Family - Johnson Family - CA

submitted by Samuel Bendett

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj0JBJ6muDs&feature=related

Uploaded by on May 14, 2011

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Video - Dive !

submitted by Samuel Bendett

HTTP://WWW.DIVETHEFILM.COM - Uploaded by on Oct 6, 2009

Winner at 21 Film Festivals Worldwide

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Simulating the Effects of Different Actions to Minimize Disaster’s Consequences

submitted by Linton Wells

homelandsecuritynewswire.com - June 1, 2012

The European CRISMA project prepares for disasters by developing a decision-support tool to help the authorities, responders, communities, and private parties to prioritize the most important measures for saving lives and mitigating the effects of the crisis.

The CRISMA project, coordinated by VTT Technical Research Center of Finland, is developing a planning tool for crises which have immediate, extensive, and often irreversible consequences to the population and society. Crises of this type include natural disasters, toxic emissions, forest fires, and aircraft accidents.

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U.S. Loan for Huge Brazilian Landfill Gas Project Pays Dividends

submitted by Albert Gomez

waste-management-world.com - May 31,2012

A $48.6 million loan by the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) supporting exports of equipment and services for the development of the Novo Gramacho biogas project in Brazil has generated 165 new jobs.

The transaction is Ex-Im Bank's first financing for biogas reclamation and development.

Among the beneficiaries is Newport Beach, California based renewable energy specialist, FirmGreen, which estimated that the project directly generated 165 new jobs at its facilities and at other companies in seven states.

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Plastic-Eating Fungi Found in Amazon May Solve Landfill Problems

               

digitaljournal.com - by Anne Sewell - March 10, 2012

Just when you thought that plastic waste was never going to break down in the environment, along comes Mother Nature to solve the problem.

The Amazon contains more species of flora and fauna than virtually anywhere else on earth.

In a report by NZ Herald it was stated that a group of students from Yale University found a species which appears to be happy eating plastic in airless landfills.

Their findings were published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology last year with the conclusion that the microbe is "a promising source of biodiversity from which to screen for metabolic properties useful for bioremediation."

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Biodegradation of Polyester Polyurethane by Endophytic Fungi

http://aem.asm.org/content/77/17/6076.short?rss=1&amp%3bssource=mfr

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Grand Challenges Explorations - Winners Announced May 9, 2012

From: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation <***@***.***>
Date: May 9, 2012 1:28:04 PM EDT
To: <redacted>
Subject: Grand Challenges Explorations - Winners Announced May 9, 2012
Reply-To: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation <***@***.***>

Dear Colleagues:

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Researchers Use GPS Data to Speed Up Tsunami Warnings

      

In this Jan. 2, 2005 file photo, a wide area of destruction is shown from an aerial view taken over Meulaboh, 250 kilometers (156 Miles) west of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Researchers in the United States are hoping to use GPS data to speed up current warnings. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)

U.S. seismologists currently testing new warning system

by Andrew Pinsent - CBC News - May 5, 2012

Scientists in the United States have been testing an advanced tsunami warning system using GPS data, combined with traditional seismology networks, to attempt to detect the magnitude of an earthquake faster so warnings of potential tsunamis can get out to potentially affected areas sooner.

The prototype is called California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN), and is a collaboration between the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, whose focus is on environmental conservation.

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