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Horses and Burros
July 14, 2010 07:27 PM - Andy Soos, ENN
One does not think often about vast herds of horses or burros. However, there are a few herds here and there and they need to be protected and maintained. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced today that it has issued a new policy handbook relating to the management of wild horses and burros roaming public lands under the BLM's jurisdiction. Among other things, the handbook would ensure that the factors considered in determining appropriate herd population levels are consistent across all of the Bureau's 179 herd management areas in 10 Western states.
EPA Proposes Transport Rule to Aid Downwind States
July 14, 2010 10:36 AM - David A Gabel, ENN
A new EPA proposal is taking aim at reducing emissions from power plants that affect people living downwind. Air pollution from these sources has been shown to cause thousands of asthma cases and other cardio-respiratory impairments. The proposed regulations have been termed the "transport rule" because it is designed to address the eastern United States, across which the pollution is transported.
The Rising Indian Ocean
July 13, 2010 04:33 PM - Andy Soos, ENN
Changing sea levels have happened before and will happen again in a dynamic world. Newly detected rising sea levels in parts of the Indian Ocean, including the coastlines of the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, Sri Lanka, Sumatra and Java, appear to be at least partly a result of human induced increases of atmospheric greenhouse gases, says a study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder. The study, which combined sea surface measurements going back to the 1960s and satellite observations, will threaten inhabitants of some coastal areas and islands.
EPA Proposes New Maximum Achievable Control Technology Standards for Boilers and Incinerators
July 13, 2010 09:47 AM - David A Gabel, ENN
The EPA has published new rules in the Federal Register regarding new Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) for boilers and incinerators. The target of the new rules is to limit toxic emissions and mercury, which is known to be extremely harmful to human health. The Federal Register is available to the public, and the EPA will be accepting public comments on these rules through August 3, 2010.
June Heat in the US
July 12, 2010 04:45 PM - Andy Soos. ENN
It is summer and it is traditional to complain about how warm it is. Weather also is always a popular subject. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) State of the Climate report shows the June 2010 average temperature for the contiguous United States was 71.4 degrees F, which is 2.2 degrees F above the long-term average (1901-2000). The average precipitation for June was 3.33 inches, 0.44 inch above the long-term average.
Integrated Modeling
July 9, 2010 02:17 PM - Andy Soos, ENN
Integrated environmental modeling is a discipline of developing a system of models where models from two or more academic disciplines are integrated such that they behave like a unit to external stimuli. At least one of the models in the system is from environmental domain while others may come from other academic disciplines such as the socio-economic domain. The models integrated into the system are usually developed in complete isolation from each other. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is launching a new on line tool for scientific collaboration and knowledge sharing that was built by Purdue University with support from the agency. The Integrated Environmental Modeling Hub allows environmental researchers to analyze environmental problems and combine environmental models so that a better understanding of the environment can be developed — everything from keeping beaches clean to predicting climate effects.
Elves and Sprites
July 8, 2010 03:19 PM - Andy Soos, ENN
Upper atmospheric lightning or upper atmospheric discharge are terms sometimes used by researchers to refer to a family of electrical breakdown phenomena that occur well above the altitudes of normal lightning. The preferred current usage is transient luminous events (TLEs) to refer to the various types of electrical discharge phenomena in the upper atmosphere, because they lack several characteristics of the more familiar lower atmospheric lightning. TLEs include red sprites, sprite halos, blue jets, gigantic jets, and elves.
Really High Pressures
July 7, 2010 03:33 PM - Andy Soos, ENN
Deep down in the earth are tremendously high pressures. What happens under high pressure is not the same as what happens at lower pressures. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory physicists are using an ultra fast laser based technique they dubbed nanoshocks for something entirely different. In fact, the nanoshocks have such a small spatial scale that scientists can use them to study shock behavior in tiny samples such as thin films or other systems with microscopic dimensions (a few tens of micrometers). In particular they have used the technique to shock materials under high static pressure in a diamond anvil cell.
Mammoth End
July 6, 2010 04:48 PM - Andy Soos, ENN
Over 10,000 years ago in the Americas, there were many more large mammals than today epitomized by the mammoth. The extinction of woolly mammoths and other large mammals more than 10,000 years ago may be explained by the same type of cascade of ecosystem disruption that is being caused today by the global decline of predators such as wolves, cougars and sharks, life scientists report July 1 in the cover article of the journal Bioscience.
Understanding Carbon Offsetting
July 6, 2010 11:27 AM - Karina Grudnikov, ENN, Sierra Club Green Home
Most of us know about carbon emissions and understand the idea of our own individual "carbon footprint," but here is a new concept that seems to be catching on: carbon offsetting. Carbon offsetting seems to be an indirect way to "reduce" one's carbon footprint - by paying someone else to support eco-friendly projects. Below is a fantastic article from Sierra Club Green Home that helps explain what carbon offsetting is, the projects it supports and other useful information, such as how to make a smart pick of company if you do want to support carbon-offseting. Win-win or pay to sin? To read more of this story, and to comment on it, visit the ENN Community Blog at http://blog.enn.com/