Rushing Rivers Blog

A small Canadian firm, Element Four, in contact with United Nations  developed the WaterMill, a novel electricity-powered machine that takes moisture from the air and purifies it into clean drinkable water, going on sale this Spring. It will be available to many third-world countries such as Zimbabwe, currently facing severe water scarcity for 1.8 billion people. As a result from poor sanitation and lack of clean, sufficient water, Zimbabwe is also experiencing a serious outbreak of cholera. The company is currently working on the WaterWall, several water-creating appliances and attaching them to a wall, allowing more regions to be supplied with drinkable water.
However, the machine only functions at 35% percent relative humidity levels, thus in very dry climates WaterAid is focusing more on harvesting rainwater and hand-dug wells to help communities in more than 17 countries reach water. This 10-person company has revolutionary technology that may greatly help serious global water-shortages.
Read more here!

Having lost 90% of its glaciers due to global warming, Spain faces drought in rivers that threaten the water supply of residents living at the foothills and south of the Pyrenees Mountains. Only 390 of 3,300 hectares of land remain covered by glaciers on this 267 mile mountain range which separates Spain from France. Glaciers feed rivers and provide sufficient water for agriculture, when they melt after the winter they also provide the correct temperature and water levels to sustain life in rivers such as the Gállego, Cincia and the Garona, particularly during the dry season. The rate at which the glaciers are disappearing is alarming, unseen for 5,000 years, as reported by the World Glacier Monitoring Service. Like major glacial melts in history, there is an extreme likelihood that they will disappear completely.
“Even the Alps, though, stand to lose up to 75% of its glacial area by mid-century.”
Read more here! 

The President of the United States, Barack Obama, has laid a plan on the table to introduce a cap and trade approach to emissions regulation to the US. Europe already has such a scheme in place. Looking at European cap and trade gives us a glimpse of what such a plan may mean in the US. One of the drawbacks to their system has been the decline in the value of pollution permits in the face of the global recession. There is simply less production and less demand for the permits, or the expensive alternative energy offsets. Still some think that cap and trade may be the face of things to come in the global response to the threat of global climate change.

Read more here!

We need to know how fast artic ice is melting, and there is one sure way to do that, mount an expedition to the North Pole. That is exactly what a group of intrepid British explorers have set out to do. The effort will give scientists the on the ground knowledge of how soon we can expect an ice-free summer.

Read more here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7917266.stm 

Hello Everyone!

More press has been generated on the Russell Biomass case.  Today’s Valley Advocate contains this article

http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=9240

which exposes the exclusion of Dr. Parasiewicz’s testimony to the public.  His involvement, as well as that of many other concerned citizens, advocates, and scientists, is detailed.

This quote,

“The DEP ruled that testimony from all those sources was “irrelevant” because it related to discharges of pollutants regulated under federal law, not to water withdrawal, the subject of the state permit. But that mischaracterizes Parasiewicz’s testimony, which analyzes the withdrawal in detail. And Margaret Sheehan, an attorney (…) and the other river activists, says the ruling misrepresents the pertinent state law. In an email Sheehan told the Advocate, “The Water Management Act, Mass. General Laws, Chapter 21G, Section 7, says in granting a permit for someone to take water from the river, DEP ’shall consider& reasonable protection of water quality, fisheries, wildlife, recreation,’ and the ability of the river to absorb wastewater from the plant that is taking the water.”

Gives an idea of the flavor of the article. 

Please, support our effort in the Russell Biomass case by submitting your letters to the editor at the above link, or posting on our blog.

Also, our affiliates at the Ocean River Institute have initiated a call to action to stop the destruction of the Westfield River on their site,

http://oceanriver.org/WestfieldRiverRussellMA.php

It only takes a moment to help us preserve these wonderful natural areas. 

Thank you so much for your support.  Have a wonderful day.

In recent years the warnings from climate scientists have been dire. They have been telling us that the build up of Greenhouse Gases in the atmosphere has been causing a vast array of changes all over the globe from the polar icecaps to the arid Australian outback. Now it seems that their warnings weren’t dire enough. Greenhouse Gases are collecting faster than previously thought.
Read more here:

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bay_environment/blog/2009/02/climate_changing_faster_than_p.html

For the first time in nearly a decade the world’s greatest polluter, the US has a leader committed to cleaning up its act. Professor Jacqueline McGlade, of the European Environment Agency, thinks it is the people themselves who need to lead. McGlade feels that we, as the citizens of advanced nations, need to take control of our local environment by observing changes in our local areas and making use of current data to conserve and protect our vital resources. Paired with this, the European Environmental Agency and the EU are making the complex data available to citizens the way weathermen have been making complex meteorological data available for years.
It will also be up to citizens to help to gather this data, making use of the European Environmental Agencies new web portal. Models that depict the effects of cuts in CO2 emissions will also be made available to the public.
With all of this new responsibility to collect and use the growing body of climate data, we will finally get to see if we can be the leaders we have been waiting for.

Read more here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7893230.stm

Much of California is facing severe drought which is shuttering farms and costing the state over a billion dollars and 40,000 jobs. A solution to the current crisis will take a complex public private partnership. Increasing the challenges are environmental concerns, business concerns and past conflict over water availability.

Read the whole story:
Response to drought is dry run for a response to climate change

The British government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change has run afoul of Northern Ireland’s Environment minister, a staunch climate change denier. The central governments Department of Energy and Climate Change had been running ads informing the people of Northern Ireland about energy saving measures and global climate change. The ads have been ceased based on legal advice given to the British government.

http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090210/NEWS07/302109955/-1/NEWS

Northern China is already facing a serious water crisis. New news reports from the BBC indicate that the relief system put in place by the Chinese government is facing it’s own problems. China had planned to divert water from its southern region to the arid north. The cause of the delay is being disputed by officials, one saying the cause is environmental; the other says it is a problem relocating peasant farmers.
What is not disputed is the need for the water diversion program. In 35% of China’s population lives in the northern region subsisting on 7% of China’s water resources. The planned central route is such a massive undertaking that it will require tunneling under the Yellow River in three places as well as enlarging several dams along the route. This is causing concern that there will be massive negative effects in the area of these new and larger dams and waterways; these concerns are slowing construction.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7864390.stm