Enviromental Issues

NASA's global warming satellite falls to Earth

2009-02-24T12:30:00.000-08:00

Orbiting Carbon Observatory’s launch failure traced to balky rocket shroud

NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory, a new satellite dedicated to mapping Earth's carbon dioxide levels, crashed into the ocean near Antarctica just after launch Tuesday when a shroud designed to protect the spacecraft accidentally doomed its mission.

The glitch occurred just minutes after the $273.4 million spacecraft blasted off at 4:55 a.m. ET atop a Taurus XL rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

"Our whole team at a very personal level is disappointed in the events of this morning," John Brunschwyler, the Taurus project manager for the Dulles, Va.-based rocket manufacturer Orbital Sciences, said in a somber post-launch briefing. "It's very hard."

Read full story MSNBC

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Tropical Forests Recover From Clear-Cutting

2009-02-19T15:46:00.000-08:00

Feb. 18, 2009 -- Deforestation is generally considered to be bad news, especially in the tropics. But there may be some hope: In many places, trees are growing back, according to new research, and some of the new forests are nearly as diverse as the old ones were.

The work adds to a growing sense that tropical forests are more resilient than scientists previously thought and that second-growth forests are far from worthless.

Read full story Discovery News

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Global warming changing birds' habits

2009-02-10T12:02:00.000-08:00

Study: Many North American species spending winters farther north

WASHINGTON - When it comes to global warming, the canary in the coal mine isn't a canary at all. It's a purple finch.

As the temperature across the U.S. has gotten warmer, the purple finch has been spending its winters more than 400 miles farther north than it used to.

And it's not alone.

An Audubon Society study released Tuesday found that more than half of 305 birds species in North America, a hodgepodge that includes robins, gulls, chickadees and owls, are spending the winter about 35 miles farther north than they did 40 years ago.

Read full story MSNBC

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Silent Quakes Build Stress Along Mega Fault Line

2009-02-04T12:24:00.000-08:00

Feb. 2, 2009 -- A bizarre form of earthquake, which happens over the course of two to three weeks but makes barely a rumble, are lending important clues to the Cascadia subduction zone in the Pacific northwest, one of the most dangerous fault zones on Earth.

For the last decade, slow-slip earthquakes have been measured in fault zones all over the world, baffling scientists. Though the 'quakes' release as much energy as a normal earthquake between magnitude 6.0 and 6.5, they produce almost no shaking.

Read full story Discovery News

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Gore urges 'decisive action' on global warming

2009-01-28T15:17:00.000-08:00

Former VP tells lawmakers the economic crisis is an 'opportunity'

WASHINGTON - Arguing that recent climate signals are cause for greater alarm, former Vice President Al Gore testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday that lawmakers must "take decisive action this year" to curb carbon emissions.

Gore urged lawmakers not to be sidetracked by the current financial crisis, adding that a bill capping greenhouse gas emissions is needed this year if the United States is to play a leading role in negotiations for a new international climate treaty.

Read full story MSNBC

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Expect 1,000-year climate impacts, experts say

2009-01-27T11:48:00.000-08:00

Study: Stopping emissions won't prevent decreased rainfall, higher seas

WASHINGTON - Even if the world can cap carbon dioxide emissions tied to global warming, expect to see droughts and sea level rise that span centuries, not just decades, according to a new study sponsored by the U.S. government.

"People have imagined that if we stopped emitting carbon dioxide the climate would go back to normal in 100 years, 200 years; that's not true," lead author Susan Solomon told reporters.

Read full story MSNBC

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Natural Disasters Doomed Early Civilization

2009-01-21T07:52:00.000-08:00

Nature turned against one of America's early civilizations 3,600 years ago, when researchers say earthquakes and floods, followed by blowing sand, drove away residents of an area that is now in Peru.

"This maritime farming community had been successful for over 2,000 years, they had no incentive to change, and then all of a sudden, boom, they just got the props knocked out from under them," anthropologist Mike Moseley of the University of Florida said in a statement.

Moseley and colleagues were studying civilization of the Supe Valley along the Peruvian coast, which was established up to 5,800 years

Read full story Discovery News

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Human Hair: The Next Green Fertilizer?

2009-01-16T15:42:00.000-08:00

Jan. 15, 2009 -- Scientists are exploring an Earth-friendly way to use all that hair that piles up on salon floors -- as fertilizer.

A new study adds hair to a growing list of waste products that can boost crop growth. The list already includes cow manure, sewage sludge, and sheep wool.

"We concluded that human hair can release a sufficient amount of nutrients to support crops," said agricultural scientist Valtcho Zeliazkov of Mississippi State University in Verona. "This is a waste material with clear benefits for producers and the environment."

Read full story Discovery News

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Earth's Magnetic Field Changes Climate

2009-01-15T12:11:00.000-08:00

The Earth's climate has been significantly affected by the planet's magnetic field, according to a Danish study published Monday that is unlikely to challenge the notion that human emissions are largely responsible for global warming.

"Our results show a strong correlation between the strength of the Earth's magnetic field and the amount of precipitation in the tropics," one of the two Danish geophysicists behind the study, Mads Faurschou Knudsen of the geology department at Aarhus University in western Denmark, told the Videnskab journal.

Read full story Discovery News

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Grand Canyon, Loch Ness Vie for 'Wonder' Status

2009-01-09T08:05:00.000-08:00

Jan. 7, 2009 -- The Grand Canyon, Mount Everest and Loch Ness will vie with more than 200 other spectacular places in the next phase of the global competition for the New 7 Wonders of Nature, organizers said Wednesday.

The 261 nominees from 222 countries include some of the most famous mountain peaks, lakes, and other attractions, such as the Great Barrier Reef and Niagara Falls.

Over a billion people are expected to join in Internet voting that will nominate 77 semifinalists for the top natural wonders, which will share in the glory already enjoyed by the seven man-made wonders chosen 18 months ago.

Read full story Discovery News

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Timber company drops plan for forest roads

2009-01-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

Critics said U.S. Forest Service was willing to open areas to development

HELENA, Mont. - The nation's largest owner of timberland disclosed Monday that it will no longer pursue changes in agreements governing its use of U.S. Forest Service roads — changes that critics complained could transform forests into housing subdivisions.

Critics of the proposed changes had included President-elect Barack Obama and Montana's junior senator.

Changes in the agreements would benefit the public, but "given the lack of receptivity, we have decided not to go forward," Plum Creek Timber Co. Chief Executive Officer Rick Holley wrote in a letter to Missoula County, which opposed altering the agreements.

Read full story MSNBC

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Sprayed Aerosols Could Ease Climate Woes

2008-12-30T07:55:00.001-08:00

It won't solve global warming, but a group of scientists are calling for a focused research program to investigate ways to seed the atmosphere with chemicals that would let the heat out -- literally.

Geoengineering is not a new concept. Governments have changed how and where water flows, filled in lakes and other wetlands for construction, even attempted to control the weather. A project to counter climate change, however, would take geoengineering to an entirely new level.

Leaving aside what may be insurmountable political, cultural and ethical issues, scientists meeting at the American Geophysical Conference in San Francisco earlier this month focused on the practical aspects of releasing gases into the stratosphere that could open Earth's greenhouse.

Read full story Discovery News

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On Earth, Evolution Booms in Bursts

2008-12-30T07:43:00.000-08:00

Life on Earth went from single microscopic cells to blue whales and giant sequoias in 3.5 billion years in two distinct bursts tied to the planet's geological evolution, according to a new study.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, goes against the common hypothesis that life slowly evolved from a single-celled organism to complex multi-celled organisms.

"We were surprised to observe that nearly all of the increase in size occurred in two distinct time-intervals," said Michal Kowalewski, a co-author of the study and professor of geosciences at Virginia Tech.

"And what is more, those intervals followed two major oxygenation events."

Read full story Discovery News

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Earth's Magnetic Field Flawed

2008-12-23T12:11:00.000-08:00

Add particularly nasty solar storms to the list of woes facing the planet in the coming years.

Scientists have learned that it's not just the size and the strength of the sun's eruptions that threaten power grids, disable satellites and scramble radio signals on Earth. In a startling reversal of generally accepted theory, researchers using a fleet of solar-watching satellites have learned that thick gobs of solar plasma have easy and regular access into Earth's magnetosphere, thanks to a trick of nature.

Read full story Discovery News

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Tropics Cooled by Volcanic Eruptions

2008-12-22T15:43:00.000-08:00

Dec. 22, 2008 -- Volcanic eruptions have periodically cooled the tropics over at least the last 450 years by spewing out particles that girdle the world at high altitude and reflect sunlight, according to a study released Sunday.

The research adds a chunk of regional evidence to earlier work that found major eruptions -- such as Krakatoa, Indonesia, in 1883 and Huaynaputina, Peru, in 1600 -- contribute to cooling on a worldwide scale.

Read full story Discovery News

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Two Trillion Tons of Land Ice Melted Since 2003

2008-12-16T12:19:00.000-08:00

Dec. 16, 2008 -- More than 2 trillion tons of land ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska have melted since 2003, according to new NASA satellite data that show the latest signs of what scientists say is global warming.

More than half of the loss of landlocked ice in the past five years has occurred in Greenland, based on measurements of ice weight by NASA's GRACE satellite, said NASA geophysicist Scott Luthcke. The water melting from Greenland in the past five years would fill up about 11 Chesapeake Bays, he said, and the Greenland melt seems to be accelerating.

Read full story Discovery news

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North America Warming Unevenly

2008-12-16T12:06:00.000-08:00

Dec. 12, 2008 -- Climate change caused by greenhouse gases is warming the United States, though unevenly, government researchers said Thursday.

"The continent as a whole is warming, mostly as a result of the energy sources we are using," William J. Brennan, acting administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, asaid at a briefing on the nation's climate since 1951.

But there is a "warming hole" where no change occurred in the center of the country, roughly between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachians, added Martin Hoerling of NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory.

Read full story Discovery News

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Maxing Out on Oil Could Speed Up Climate Change

2008-12-10T11:35:00.000-08:00

Dec. 10, 2008 -- As humanity wrings ever more fossil fuels from our planet, the question of when the taps will start to run dry -- when "peak oil" will occur -- looms ever closer on the horizon. Some say a decade, maybe two. Some say it's already passed. No one is sure.

Whatever the answer, new research has come to the ominous conclusion that slackening oil and gas supplies could actually accelerate the pace of global warming.

Read full story: Discovery News

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Mega Wind Farms Could Steer Storms

2008-12-01T12:09:00.000-08:00

Nov. 25, 2008 -- Mega wind farms of the future could have a major impact on weather, clearing up cloudy skies and even steering storm systems, according to new research.

In the United States, wind power still only accounts for a little over 1 percent of electricity generation. But the industry is growing fast, from 17 gigawatts of installed capacity at the end of 2007 to 21 through the end of September.

Read full story Discovery news

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Ocean Acidity Rising at Surprising Pace

2008-12-01T12:05:00.000-08:00

Nov. 25, 2008 -- Measurements of ocean acidification in the U.S. Pacific Northwest show acidity is rising more than ten times faster than climate models have predicted.

The researchers can't yet say how widespread this trend is. But as the waters acidified over the eight years the team measured, the numbers of barnacles, mussels and algae inhabiting the area also changed.

Read full story Discovery News

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Himalaya glaciers melting much faster

2008-11-24T14:26:00.000-08:00

Warming appears to be having bigger impact on ice at higher elevations

Glaciers high in the Himalayas are dwindling faster than anyone thought, putting nearly a billion people living in South Asia in peril of losing their water supply.

Throughout India, China, and Nepal, some 15,000 glaciers speckle the Tibetan Plateau, some of the highest land in the world. There, perched in thin, frigid air up to 7,200 meters (23,622 feet) above sea level, the ice might seem secluded from the effects of global warming.

But just the opposite is proving true, according to new research published last week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Read full story MSNBC

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Plan B for a Warming Planet

2008-11-20T12:29:00.000-08:00

Nov. 10, 2008 -- Earth needs a "Plan B" in the fight against global warming, in case efforts to curb greenhouse emissions fail or are inadequate, said an American scientist in testimony Monday to the British government.

Such a backup plan would probably need to involve climate engineering projects to deliberately counteract the effects of global warming. The engineering ideas that have been floated in recent years include injecting sunlight-blocking compounds into the upper atmosphere or building a gigantic structure in space to filter sunlight reaching Earth.

Read full story Discovery News

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Dusty, Polluted Air Spawns Tornadoes

2008-11-11T12:25:00.000-08:00

Deadly twisters routinely rip across the American Midwest each spring, and the Southeast each fall and winter. Just how they form is a mystery, but a new study suggests dust pollution in the atmosphere may nudge supercell thunderstorms into spawning tornadoes.

David Lerach of Colorado State University and a team of researchers compared two computer models of supercell storms -- one in which the atmosphere was clean, and one in which it was riddled with microscopic dust particles.

In the clean model the telltale rotating cloud formed, but no twister ever materialized. In the polluted version, which had 10 times more dust, it did.

Read full story Discovery News

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A 'climate czar' in the Obama White House?

2008-11-07T09:36:00.000-08:00

Activists float the idea; Gore has 'no intention,' spokeswoman says

Environmental groups see Barack Obama’s presidential victory as a chance to undo the Bush legacy on global warming, and one idea they are discussing is the possibility of a White House “climate czar”.

Activists say such a post could oversee various government agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department, to focus on tackling global warming and fostering clean energy to jump-start the flagging economy.

“For the first time, candidates and voters are really connecting the dots between energy, the environment and the economy,” said Cathy Duvall, Sierra Club’s political director. She said at a news briefing that Obama had made it clear that investing in cleaner energy would be a top priority in his plan for economic recovery.

Read full story MSNBC

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Jurassic Plants Uncovered in Utah

2008-10-29T09:34:00.000-07:00

Oct. 29, 2008 -- Paleontologists are sifting through the soil of an excavated lot in search of ancient plants, the only ones from the early Jurassic period found so far in western North America.

The flora fossils date back 198 million years, Utah's state paleontologist Jim Kirkland said Tuesday. "Every plant they've identified has been new," he said.

Read full story Discovery News

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Tropical Cyclones Wash Away Carbon

2008-10-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

Oct. 21, 2008 -- Hurricanes and typhoons, normally seen as looming threats from global warming, are actually helping to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Each year humans emit approximately 7.2 billion tons of the greenhouse gas, trapping vast amounts of heat in the air and oceans. Tropical cyclones derive their energy from warm seas, and some scientists believe global warming will spawn more frequent and more intense storms unless drastic effort is undertaken to cut emissions.

Reaqd full story Discovery News

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Rock Shows Earth Got Off to Hot Start

2008-10-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

Oct. 20, 2008 -- A geological controversy over how a 2,700-million-year-old rock was formed has been solved using synchrotron technology, an international team reports.

A rare form of magmatic rock known as komatiite was formed in the Earth's mantle at temperatures around 1700 degrees Celcius in the Archaean age, more than 2,700 million years ago, according to report in the latest Nature journal.

Australian co-author Leonid Danyushevsky, at the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence in Ore Deposits at the University of Tasmania, said the finding settles a long-disputed controversy over the volcanic rock's origin.

Read full story Discovery News

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Ozone Pollution to Worsen Under Climate Change

2008-10-17T10:02:00.000-07:00

Surface-level ozone, a poisonous gas that claims tens of thousands of lives annually, could get much worse thanks to the effects of climate change, according to new research.

While international treaties like the Kyoto Protocol attempt to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit the effects of global warming, researchers say ozone is a silent killer that has stayed below the radar.

"It's the third most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide and methane," David Fowler of the National Environmental Research Council in the United Kingdom said. "But it's not the biggest one, and it's not the biggest threat to human health -- particulates in the atmosphere are worse. So it's a sort of Cinderella gas that has been mostly ignored."

Read full story Discovery News

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Crumbling Glacier Quakes as It Breaks

2008-10-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

On the west coast of Greenland, a glacier's crumbling edge is producing seismic groans.

As the Arctic warms, scientists are keeping a close eye the Jakobshavn glacier. Already one of the world's fastest moving ice streams, over the last decade scientists watched alarmed as it sped up further, sometimes sliding dozens of feet per day toward the Ilulissat Fjord.

Read full story Discovery News

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'Dramatic evidence' of Arctic melt, experts warn

2008-10-16T11:36:00.000-07:00

Federal report cites signals from Greenland ice sheet to reindeer herds

WASHINGTON - Autumn temperatures in the Arctic are at record highs, the Arctic Ocean is getting warmer and less salty as sea ice melts, and reindeer herds appear to be declining, researchers reported Thursday.

"Obviously, the planet is interconnected, so what happens in the Arctic does matter" to the rest of the world, Jackie Richter-Menge of the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N.H., said in releasing the third annual Arctic Report Card for the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"There continues to be widespread and, in some cases, dramatic evidence of an overall warming of the Arctic system," the experts stated in their report.

Read full story MSNBC

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Whale autopsy: Trash clogged its intestine

2008-10-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

Plastic bag, rope and bottle cap appear to have killed 3-ton female

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A beached whale has died in Malaysia after swallowing a plastic bag, a rope and a bottle cap, a marine researcher said Wednesday.

The 30-foot-long Bryde's whale got stranded in eastern Pahang state Monday and died a day later despite villagers' efforts to save it, said Mohamad Lazim Mohamad Saif, a researcher with the Turtle and Marine Ecosystem Center, who was at the scene.

Mohamad Lazim said the preliminary findings of an autopsy showed the female had swallowed a black plastic bag, a rope and a bottle cap, which clogged its intestine.

Read Full Story MSNBC

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Doubt, anger over dams on Amazon tributary

2008-10-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

Many in Brazil question human, environmental costs of projects

PORTO VELHO, Brazil - It is quiet here on the wrong side of progress. Hot wind blows dust across the dry bluffs. The brown river runs wide and placid.

In his painted wooden skiff, Francisco Evangelista de Abreu, a fisherman, motors up-current. Two river dolphins crest and submerge. His mind is elsewhere. The dam is coming.

"I don't know what's going to happen," he said. "I don't have any experience outside of this."

Read full story MSNBC

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Economic woes could curtail action on warming

2008-10-13T09:50:00.000-07:00

Focus shifts from capping greenhouse gases to stabilizing economy

WASHINGTON - The economic free fall gripping the nation may bring down one of the main environmental objectives: capping the greenhouse gases that are blamed for global warming.

Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate, and both presidential candidates, continue to rank tackling global warming as a chief goal next year. But the focus on stabilizing the economy probably will make it more difficult to pass a law to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. At the very least, it will push back when the reductions would have to start.

As one Republican senator put it, the green bubble has burst.

Read full story MSNBC

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Canada government faces suit over killer whales

2008-10-10T09:23:00.000-07:00

Activists want the Pacific Coast mammal protected by law

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Environmentalists are taking the Canadian government to court, demanding it use the country's Species at Risk Act to protect killer whales off British Columbia.

Ecojustice, on behalf of eight environmental organizations, filed notice Wednesday in Federal Court of a lawsuit to force officials to use the legislation to safeguard the habitat of southern and northern resident killer whales, listed as endangered and threatened, respectively.

The move is in reaction to a notice posted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans on the Species at Risk Act registry last month contending that orcas, commonly known as killer whales, are already protected by other laws, regulations and guidelines.

Read full story MSNBC

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Arctic stormier as Earth warms, study finds

2008-10-08T10:13:00.000-07:00

Pace of sea ice also quickens, which could help climate by churning ocean

The Arctic has become more stormy in the past 50 years due to the warming climate, which in turn has quickened the pace of drifting sea ice, a new NASA study finds.

Based on model results, climate scientists had long predicted that a warming climate would increase the frequency and intensity of Arctic storms as ocean waters became progressively warmer.

Now, a team of climate scientists has analyzed 56 years on data of the paths that storms took, as well as annual data on general storm activity, which confirmed an accelerating trend in Arctic storm activity 1950 to 2006.

Read full story MSNBC

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N.J. vows to 'race to the sea' for wind power

2008-10-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

Governor leads cause; $1 billion offshore plan may power 125,000 homes

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - New Jersey is powering up an ambitious plan to become a world leader in the use of wind-generated energy.

Gov. Jon Corzine wants the Garden State to triple the amount of wind power it plans to use by 2020 to 3,000 megawatts. That would be 13 percent of New Jersey's total energy, enough to power between 800,000 to just under 1 million homes.

"We want to create this generation's race to the moon, but this time, a race to the sea, to harness this potential wind source off of our coasts, and bring economic development, environmental benefits, and new, green jobs to the Garden State," Corzine said Monday.

Read Full Story MSNBC

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'Chemical Equator' Keeps Polluted Air in the North

2008-10-01T15:18:00.000-07:00

Sept. 26, 2008 -- Wrapping around Earth's equator like a belt, a boundary of air is keeping the polluted atmosphere of the Northern Hemisphere separate from the relatively pristine south.

A team of researchers led by Jacqueline Hamilton of York University in the United Kingdom have dubbed the peculiar wall of air the "chemical equator." And while scientists have known about the feature for decades, Hamilton's team has just discovered an odd new wrinkle in its behavior.

Read full story Discovery News

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Curb sprawl to help climate? California will try

2008-10-01T15:14:00.000-07:00

New law encourages cities to locate homes near job centers

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Tuesday that attempts to ease greenhouse gas emissions by giving priority to transportation projects that limit commutes and curb urban sprawl.

Supporters said the legislation is needed to help implement a 2006 law that requires California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

The bill requires the state Air Resources Board to set regional targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks and directs regional planning agencies to develop land-use strategies to meet those targets.

Read full story MSNBC

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Surprise rise in warming gases worries experts

2008-09-26T08:53:00.000-07:00

Growth exceeds U.N. scenario; China led with 7.5 percent increase in 2007

WASHINGTON - Worldwide industrial emissions of carbon dioxide — the main gas tied to manmade global warming — jumped 3 percent last year, international scientists said in a new report Thursday.

That means the world is spewing more carbon dioxide than the worst case scenario forecast by U.N. experts in 2007. Scientists said if the trend does not stop, it puts the world potentially on track for the highest predicted rises in temperature and sea level.

Read full story MSNBC

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Hitch in getting cleaner trucks at So. Cal ports

2008-09-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

Federal agency says pollution plan might violate Shipping Act

LOS ANGELES - Federal authorities said they are investigating whether a plan to ban older trucks from entering the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach imposes unfair regulations and fees on truckers and shippers.

The Federal Maritime Commission said Wednesday certain aspects of the clean truck program might violate the Shipping Act, which prohibits ports from giving "unreasonable preferences or imposing any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage." It urged port authorities to delay implementing the program, which is scheduled to begin Oct. 1, until the details of the plan have been properly evaluated.

The ports vowed to proceed with the program.

Read full story MSNBC

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House approves offshore drilling bill

2008-09-18T16:35:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON - The House voted late Tuesday to open waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to oil and gas drilling but only 50 or more miles out to sea and only if a state agrees to energy development off its shore.

Democratic leaders called it a step toward energy independence, but Republicans labeled it a "sham" because most of the estimated 18 billion barrels of oil believed to lie below off-limits coastal waters are within 50 miles of land and will remain out of bounds.

The measure passed in a largely party-line vote of 236-189. It now goes to the Senate, where energy will be the topic later in the week. Thirteen Democrats bucked their leadership and voted against the measure.

Read full story: MSNBC House approves offshore drilling bill

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Maine offers testbed for power from tides

2008-09-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

Electricity produced from bay with greatest tide change in continental U.S.

EASTPORT, Maine - Workers spent the past winter tinkering with high-tech turbines slung beneath a barge in the cold waters off the Maine coast before getting them to produce a modest 20 kilowatts, enough electricity to power a half-dozen homes.

Far from discouraged, Ocean Renewable Power Co. is spending the summer preparing to deploy larger turbines capable of producing up to 5 megawatts. Or, enough electricity to power 5,000 houses.

Read full story on MSNBC: Main offers testbed for power from tides

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Grand Canyon sandbars have rapidly eroded

2008-09-12T16:42:00.000-07:00

PHOENIX - Newly built-up sandbars crucial to wildlife in the Grand Canyon have rapidly eroded in the last four months, some shrinking back to the size they were before a costly manmade flood.
Torrents of water were released from the Glen Canyon Dam on the Arizona-Utah line in March to mimic natural flooding and rebuild sandbars along the 277-mile river in the Grand Canyon, where the ecosystem was forever changed by the dam's construction more than four decades ago.
Officials had expected erosion following the three-day flood, but they hadn't expected so much so fast.

Read full story on MSNBC Grand Canyon sandbars have rapidly eroded

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