 Dirty air is also very warming, new study finds. (Image Source: Benutzer/Creative Commons) A new study finds that soot, smoke and smog — black carbon — is the second largest contributor to climate change, after carbon dioxide. These results are surprising, and may point the way to some immediate paths for climate change mitigation. JISAO‘s Sarah Doherty and ATMOS‘ Stephen Warren are co-authors; read more here or check out the paper! A review of oceanographic literature by Washington state researchers suggests Alaska could see the greatest mass of debris from last year’s tsunami in Japan. WSG’s Ian Miller is a co-author; read more here! A new report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Washington Department of Ecology concludes that existing studies fail to show conclusively that nitrogen from septic systems, fertilizers and other human sources have caused Hood Canal’s oxygen levels to drop by 0.2 milligrams per liter — the threshold for legal enforcement. OCEAN‘s Jan Newton is quoted; read more here. Fish-consumption rates are more controversial than they sound, because they affect how much pollution industrial and municipal plants are allowed to discharge into lakes, rivers and Puget Sound. Business and local-government interests reacted with alarm after the Washington Department of Ecology suggested last year that its revised regulations would require that people need to be safe eating 157 to 267 grams per day, or 11 to 18 pounds per month. Current rates are set between 6.5 and 54 grams per day. Read more here. After years of legal wrangling, the Colville Tribe will face Teck Resources, one of the river’s major polluters, in federal court in September. The trial is a bid to hold the Canadian company responsible for dumping pollution into the upper Columbia River. Read more about this here. We’ve all seen rooftop gardens and are learning about their associated benefits. But what about vertical gardens? Students at the UW are doing research on this topic to see what we might learn – check out the coverage they received here on King5.com. Minute amounts of copper can make salmon easily eaten by predators, says Washington State University researcher Jenifer McIntyre. McIntyre’s research found that the metal affects salmon’s sense of smell so much that they won’t detect a compound that ordinarily causes them to be still and wary. McIntyre conducted her research at CoEnv-affiliated Big Beef Creek Research Station. Read more here! |
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