John Hennessy III,
P.E.
Computer simulations by Professor Mark Z. Jacobson have shown that offshore wind farms with thousands of wind turbines could have sapped the power of three real-life hurricanes, significantly decreasing their winds and accompanying storm surge, and possibly preventing billions of dollars in damages. –StanfordUniversity on YouTube
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After years of fighting against the often-flooded Cedar River, Charles City used land acquired through Federal Emergency Management Agency flood buyouts to create an inviting riverfront park with a whitewater course. Capitalizing on the river’s natural features to help prevent future flooding, Charles City turned the river from an obstacle into an ecological and social benefit. Members of the community were involved in the park’s design and construction. Riverfront Park is a model of how to strategically use flooded properties to create a sustainable and economically valuable amenity.
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OPENLANDS PROJECT
CENTER FOR NEIGHBORHOOD TECHNOLOGY
Green infrastructure is the interconnected network of land and water that supports native species, maintains natural and ecological processes, sustains air and water resources, and contributes to the health and quality of life of people and communities…The need to protect the region’s green infrastructure is greater than ever. Rapid changes in land use, increases in non-native species, and other threats imperil the region’s natural heritage. Green infrastructure should serve as the strategic framework for conservation and development so that linkages and key natural areas can be preserved before development occurs.
Keep an eye on your area’s carbon consumption and compare it to the rest of the country with these new interactive maps from UC Berkeley. Linked to their CoolClimate Carbon Footprint Calculator, this new tool visualizes the nation’s carbon consumption in a fresh way and invites new comparisons–pit the East Coast against the West, mountains again valleys or cities against suburbs. Additional maps break down carbon usage into household energy and transportation.
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U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE
The cumulative effects of losses in the freshwater system have had consequences for hydrologic and ecosystem connectivity. In certain regions, profound reductions in wetland extent have resulted in habitat loss, fragmentation, and limited opportunities for reestablishment and watershed rehabilitation.
Thanks to oceanographer Greg Johnson, you don’t have to read all 2,000 pages of this recent IPCC report to get up to speed on climate change. Outlining the full scope of climate change, from history and causes to possible solutions, Johnson’s 19 hand-painted watercolor images and haiku convey the spirit of the IPCC report in full color without the dense jargon and statistics.
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CALIFORNIA NATURAL RESOURCES AGENCY
The Safeguarding California Plan provides policy guidance for state decision makers, and is part of continuing efforts to reduce impacts and prepare for climate risks. This plan, which updates the 2009 California Climate Adaptation Strategy, highlights climate risks in nine sectors in California, discusses progress to date, and makes realistic sector-specific recommendations.
NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY
A prime example of an MLP in today’s public marketplace is an energy pipeline operator that
moves crude oil, natural gas, and refined petroleum products through its network of pipelines.
The MLP is paid fees based on pipe capacity and volumes transported, not on the price of the
underlying commodity in the pipe. P
DOWNSTREAM STRATEGIES
SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY
This report focuses on the extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. While conventional gas production has been conducted here for decades, unconventional wells that utilize advances in horizontal drilling have grown considerably more common in the past decade. Nearly nine thousand horizontal Marcellus Shale natural gas wells have been permitted in these two states from 2005 to 2012, and more than eleven thousand such wells will likely be permitted by the end of 2013.
ENVIRONMENT TEXAS
Investing in water efficiency and conservation measures will help protect Texas’ rivers and is a better choice for meeting the state’s water needs than building new reservoirs and adding pipelines to transfer water to distant consumers.
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