Day: June 22, 2017

A third of the world’s people already face deadly heat waves. It could be nearly three-quarters by 2100.

Read the full story in the Washington Post.

Nearly one-third of the global population suffers deadly levels of heat for at least 20 days during the year, new research suggests. And by the end of the century, thanks to climate change, this number could climb above 70 percent.

Certain parts of the world, the researchers note, will be harder hit than others. Tropical regions, where temperatures are already high for much of the year, will see many more days of deadly heat than other parts of the world. Under a business-as-usual climate scenario, they may face these conditions almost year-round by 2100.

The new study, published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, underscores the growing threat that rising temperatures pose to public health. The research focuses specifically on heat and humidity conditions known to increase the risk of human mortality — generally speaking, that’s when temperatures climb above 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (the average human body temperature), but can also include cooler conditions with higher levels of humidity.

Precise Soil, Climate, and Weather Data Help Dairy Optimize Water Use

Read the full story in the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit.

For irrigated crops, knowing when and how much water to apply has long been a matter of experience and guesswork. In a changing climate, new technology can reduce this uncertainty, enabling farmers to make every drop of water count.

Inexpensive Organic Material Gives Safe Batteries a Longer Life

Read the full story from the University of Houston.

Modern batteries power everything from cars to cell phones, but they are far from perfect – they catch fire, they perform poorly in cold weather and they have relatively short lifecycles, among other issues. Now researchers from the University of Houston have described a new class of material that addresses many of those concerns in Nature Materials.

How Vermont tackled farm pollution and cleaned up its waters

Read the full story from FERN and Eating Well.

From Vermont’s Lake Champlain to rivers and oceans across the nation, waterways are being overloaded with pollution from farms. But Vermont took an approach that could be a model for states – especially now that the federal government is in regulatory retreat.

How to kill a Louisville stream? Build a city around it

Read the full story in the Louisville Courier-Journal (WARNING: Page has a video that autoplays).

Floyds Fork is at a defining moment as development pressure mounts. But it looks like the stream can’t take any more sewage plant effluent – in fact, substantial cuts appear needed to make it healthy.

IFTTT’s powerful new initiative connects up with government data streams

Read the full story at TechCrunch.

Today, all around cool internet thing IFTTT is hooking all kinds of useful public data into its powerful platform. With the launch of its new Data Access Project, IFTTT will add support for a broad selection of government agencies, organizations and research and cultural groups. That includes public data from federal and state government feeds on down to municipal transit information.

Geospatial information and the 2018 Federal budget

Read the full post from the Stanford Libraries.

President Trump released the proposed 2018 Federal budget, A New Foundation for American Greatness, on May 23, 2017.  The budget request for the Department of Interior is $11.7 billion, 12 percent ($1.6 billion) below the Continuting Resolution baseline level.  The proposed cuts to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) are 13% or $137.8 million below the 2017 Continuing Resolution baseline level.  As noted in the Bureau Highlights,

“The request emphasizes energy and mineral development, sustaining hazards monitoring, and providing scientific information to support decision making by resource managers and policy makers. The budget maintains support for nationwide networks of more than 8,000 streamgages and nearly 3,000 earthquake sensors. It provides for nationwide efforts to counter invasive species and wildlife diseases such as white-nose syndrome and highly pathogenic avian influenza, and it maintains 40 cooperative research units that support State-specific needs, particularly related to fish and game species. It continues acquisition of modern elevation data for Alaska and the three-year cycle of topographic map updates for the contiguous United States. It also funds the development of the Landsat 9 ground systems, supporting a launch date in early fiscal year 2021 to replace the Landsat 7 satellite, which is reaching the end of its usable life.”

Major U.S. corporations among leading buyers of renewable energy

Read the full story in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Major U.S. corporations such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and General Motors Co. have become some of America’s biggest buyers of renewable energy, driving growth in an industry seen as key to helping the United States cut carbon emissions.

Business leaders want Pittsburgh to become leader in sustainability

Read the full story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Chief executives of 17 Pittsburgh-area companies engaged in a wide range of industries — from chemicals producers Covestro and Lanxess to the Pittsburgh Pirates and Eat’n Park Hospitality Group — have launched an initiative to promote and collaborate on sustainable practices they say will improve their corporate bottom lines and attract more businesses to the region.