MicroHawk's NewsScan

Relationship of Landslides and Tectonics

When do mountain landslides occur? Mountain ranges are formed with sharp and steep ridges due to tectonics. When do they become unstable? Some of the steepest mountain slopes in the world got that way because of the interplay between terrain uplift associated with plate tectonics and powerful streams cutting into hillsides, leading to erosion in the form of large landslides. The work, presented May 27 in Nature Geoscience, shows that once the angle of a slope exceeds 30 degrees — whether from uplift, a rushing stream carving away the bottom of the slope or a combination of the two — landslide erosion increases significantly until the hillside stabilizes.

Read more at www.enn.com

Harvard law professor criticizes Spruce ruling | Appalachian Mountain Advocates

In an article in the latest edition of The Environmental Forum, Harvard law professor Richard Lazarus slammed the ruling by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson overturning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s veto of the Spruce No. 1 mine permit. Lazarus teaches   environmental law, natural resources Law, Supreme Court advocacy and torts at Harvard.

via www.appalmad.org

Nukespeak: The Selling of Nuclear Technology from the Manhattan Project to Fukushima | | AlterNet

In the end, the answer to the mystery of why nuclear power in the United States is still afloat comes down to money.

via www.alternet.org

Banyan: The Fukushima black box | The Economist

A dangerous lack of urgency in drawing lessons from Japan’s nuclear disaster

via www.economist.com

Wildfires devastate Chilean wilderness - The Independent

 

Wildfires sweeping through one of South America's most famous national parks are devastating thousands of acres of pristine habitat. So far, more than 21,000 acres of Torres del Paine have been destroyed by blazes that have yet to be brought under control.

The park is one of Chile's major wilderness attractions, drawing 200,000 tourists a year, and the government has described the fires as a major environmental disaster. Torres del Paine is a Unesco Biosphere Reserve and home to rare wildlife including pumas, pygmy owls, flamingo, Andean condors and 14 other birds of prey. In southern Chilean Patagonia, it is famous for its birdlife, soaring granite pinnacles and lakes vividly coloured by different hues of rock flour.

 

via www.independent.co.uk

JAPAN: Mothers Rise Against Nuclear Power - IPS ipsnews.net

Japan’s nuclear power industry, which once ignored opposition, now finds its existence threatened by women angered by official opaqueness on radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after it was struck by an earthquake- driven tsunami on Mar. 11.

via ipsnews.net

Green Tech Drives Search for Rare Earths in Argentina - IPS

Argentina could meet part of the rising world demand for "rare earth" metals, required for a variety of green technologies, advanced electronic devices and medical diagnostic equipment. The challenge lies in mining them in a sustainable fashion.

via ipsnews.net

Forest health versus global warming: Fuel reduction likely to increase carbon emissions

There may be valid reasons to thin forests -- such as restoration of forest structure or health, wildlife enhancement or public safety -- but increased carbon sequestration is not one of them, scientists say.

via www.sciencedaily.com

Arctic Sea Ice Shrinking at 'Unprecedented' Levels | Common Dreams

The recent loss of sea ice in the Arctic is greater than any natural variation in the past 1½ millennia, a Canadian study shows.

According to the leading science journal Nature, Arctic sea ice is disappearing on a pace and magnitude unlike anything the Earth has experienced in the past 1,450 years. (Photograph by: HO, Reuters) "The recent sea ice decline … appears to be unprecedented," said Christian Zdanowicz, a glaciologist at Natural Resources Canada, who co-led the study and is a co-author of the paper published Wednesday online in Nature.

"We kind of have to conclude that there's a strong chance that there's a human influence embedded in that signal."

via www.commondreams.org

USGS: Elevated Nitrogen and Phosphorus Still Widespread in Much of the Nation’s Streams and Groundwater

Elevated concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus, nutrients that can negatively impact aquatic ecosystems and human health, have remained the same or increased in many streams and aquifers across the Nation since the early 1990’s, according to a new national study by the U.S. Geological Survey.

“This USGS report provides the most comprehensive national-scale assessment to date of nitrogen and phosphorus in our streams and groundwater,” said Marcia McNutt, USGS Director. “For years we have known that these same nutrients in high concentrations have resulted in ‘dead zones’ when they reach our estuaries, such as during the spring at the mouth of the Mississippi, and now we have improved science-based explanations of when, where, and how elevated concentrations reach our streams and aquifers and affect aquatic life and the quality of our drinking water.”

via www.usgs.gov