International experts are alarmed. Methane release due to thawing permafrost in the Arctic can enter the atmosphere and cause abrupt changes in the climate that would likely be irreversible.
Methane has more than 20 times the heat-trapping effect of carbon dioxide. As warmer air thaws Arctic soils, the methane that could be released from beneath Siberian lakes alone, would amount to 10 times the amount currently in the atmosphere. Read the story at BuffaloNews.com and see a brief video of methane fire on Arctic ice here
Hopes [and Fears] rise for Coal Plant in JamestownThe economic stimulus package includes $800 million for the Department of Energy’s funding of 'clean' coal projects. Supporters of the Jamestown project think this increases the chance that the project will be able to get the funding it needs to get started.
Others, including Walter Simpson, doubt that it makes economic and environmental sense to build a coal-fired power plant that developers hope will ease global warming by capturing its carbon dioxide emissions and storing it safely and securely more than a mile below the earth’s surface. Read David Robinson's story at BuffaloNews.com
New Book about our Local Waterways
Over half of the world’s lakes and estuaries are now too contaminated for fishing and swimming. Even our Great Lakes are not immune to these problems. In her new book, author Margaret Wooster wrote about many such problems, including “a young beluga whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence with ten times the level of PCBs in its body than what would qualify as a hazardous waste site by Canadian law.” The book is "Living Waters: Reading the Rivers of the Lower Great Lakes". See Nature Watch by Gerry Rising at BuffaloNews.com
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