As a result of the opening of the Don Pedro spillway, the Tuolumne river continues to rise and has surpassed the flood stage as of Tuesday. Modesto is experiencing effects of the flood currently. There are no mandatory evacuations but some residents that live near the river have begun packing in case of one. At one point, two men on the west edge of Legion Park had to be rescued as it began to flood. Don Pedro is at a steady release of 16,000 to 17,000 CFS for the next nine to ten days until the reservoir is at 815 feet. Those living close to the river in mobile homes have been hit hard by the flooding and some areas are without power. Authorities are aware but due to high water levels, they are on standby until conditions are safe. The flooding that has occurred as a result of multiple storms is unfortunate and has the potential to harm some ecosystems but the same storms have also taken any parts of the state out of a drought state and have added to the snow pack. It is a give and take that comes with nature. It will be interesting though to see how this flooding effects the local areas in the upcoming months. http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2017/02/21/rare-releases-from-don-pedro-spillway-reach-modesto/
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African penguins are facing a new challenge of becoming stuck, foraging for food in poor places due to fishing and climate change. The young endangered penguins leave the colony for the first time, traveling long distances searching for signs of plankton, and the feed that feed on the species. However, the penguins are led to destinations with plankton but no fish due to over fishing and climate change, and are instead replaced with low energy fish and jelly fish. Richard Shirley and his colleagues at the University of Exeter made this discovery when they were using satellites to track the movement of newly leaving African penguins. What they found was that they still travelled to the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME) and in the past it was one of the most abundant ocean areas in the world, with anchovies and sardines available fro penguins and humans. Now, fish numbers are low but penguins still travel to where the plankton are. Researchers suggest that penguins respond to a substance given off by phytoplankton when they are under stress, which to the fish means there are fish. As a result, the penguins often fail to survive. Breeding numbers are are about 50% lower than if the penguins found other feeding locations but precautions are beginning to take place. Possible protection is to translocate chicks to an area that the penguins will not get trapped. Although this is temporary relief, if climate change does not slow down and if fishing is not more closely regulated, the penguins will run out of places they can be moved to. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170209133516.htm The Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) may be disassembled in the near future, by the hand of President of Donald Trump. The pro- coal, global warming skeptic does not see the need for the EPA and also wants to back out of the Paris Treaty, a global deal between 200 countries created to cut greenhouse greenhouse gases. Myron Ebell, the man who headed Trump's RPA transition team claims that Trump will be removing the US from the treaty either by executive order or may withdraw later on as a part of a bigger plan. Although any country who wants to remove themselves from the Paris agreement must wait four years, Trump and his team are currently looking for quicker alternatives.
Trump's push for this change is fueled(pun intended) by his involvement in the gas drilling and coal mining industry and with lesser regulations or even no regulations by the EPA, profits will increase. This scenario is quite frightening. With the EPA at a stand still, scientists and engineers are silenced and there will be much conflict in the near future regarding the nation's environmental standings. The coal industry is losing its power as renewable and clean energies are becoming more accessible, which is why Trump is limiting the EPA, the obstacle in the way of his vision for coal. http://fortune.com/2017/01/30/donald-trump-paris-agreement-climate-change-withdraw/ |
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April 2017
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