(From Science Daily) A new article published in the 29 July issue of the journal Nature reveals for the first time that microscopic marine algae known as “phytoplankton” have been declining globally over the 20th century. Phytoplankton forms the basis of the marine food chain and sustains diverse assemblages of species ranging from tiny zooplankton to large marine mammals, seabirds, and fish. Says lead author Daniel Boyce, “Phytoplankton is the fuel on which marine ecosystems run. A decline of phytoplankton affects everything up the food chain, including humans.” (more…)

(From the sacbee.com) California and 10 other Western states and Canadian provinces took a key step forward Tuesday with plans to create a regionwide market for buying and selling pollution allowances. The Western Climate Initiative unveiled the framework for its cap-and-trade system – the cornerstone of its effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent in the Western region over the next decade. (more…)

In June of 2009, I attended an Army Corp of Engineers meeting held at the Rancho Pico Jr. High School to comment on the Newhall Ranch development. It was a painful meeting to sit through not because of the dry material but because there were a number of individuals from outside of Santa Clarita who drove their SUV’s and Luxury cars here to speak out against the Newhall Ranch Project. The problem was that most of them didn’t know what the hell they were talking about! (more…)

(From the sacbee.com) A few hundred bucks for new, energy-efficient refrigerators, clothes washers and room air conditioners was not enough to send recession-pinched Californians rushing to appliance stores. So the state is going to sweeten the offer. When it meets next Wednesday, the California Energy Commission is expected to approve a major expansion of the state’s Cash for Appliances program, adding energy-efficient dishwashers, freezers, water heaters and heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. (more…)

(From Science Daily) Can light-colored rooftops and roads really curb carbon emissions and combat global climate change? The idea has been around for years, but now, a new study by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that is the first to use a global model to study the question has found that implementing cool roofs and cool pavements in cities around the world can not only help cities stay cooler, they can also cool the world, with the potential of canceling the heating effect of up to two years of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions. (more…)

(From Science Daily) A tiny, little-understood plant pore has enormous implications for weather forecasting, climate change, agriculture, hydrology, and more. A study by scientists at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, with colleagues from the Research Center Jülich in Germany, has now overturned the conventional belief about how these important structures called stomata regulate water vapor loss from the leaf-a process called transpiration. They found that radiation is the driving force of physical processes deep within the leaf. (more…)

Well they’re baaaaaack!!! Yes the wacko, nut case environmentalists who have been relatively quiet for the last year or so are back in full force. After being caught distorting figures, altering statistics to fit their preconceived ideas, ignoring facts and truths and just plain outright lying, one would thing that these people would slink back into the darkness whence they came and just keep quit. Well one would be wrong. (more…)

(From Science Daily) Switching off lights, turning the television off at the mains and using cooler washing cycles could have a much bigger impact on reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power stations than previously thought, according to a new study published this month in the journal Energy Policy. The study shows that the figure used by government advisors to estimate the amount of carbon dioxide saved by reducing people’s electricity consumption is up to 60 percent too low. (more…)

(From the sacbee.com) Along with grocery carts and check stands, California’s supermarket shopping experience is marked by a simple question: Paper or plastic? Soon the answer may be neither. California would become the first state to ban grocery, liquor and drug stores from providing free paper or plastic bags under legislation pushed by Democrats and supported by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. (more…)

Say goodbye to used motor oil, dirty oil filters, unwanted electronics, and old paint cans by saying hello to a County-sponsored household hazardous waste collection event.   Disposing of oil and paint improperly can be devastating to a community. In fact, one gallon of motor oil—the amount of a typical auto oil change—can pollute nearly one million gallons of drinking water! By properly disposing unwanted household hazardous waste items, County residents can help prevent stormwater pollution, protect the environment, and safeguard local groundwater supplies. (more…)

(From Science Daily) Consumers shouldn’t assume that, because a product is organic, it’s also environmentally friendly. A new University of Guelph study reveals some organic pesticides can have a higher environmental impact than conventional pesticides because the organic product may require larger doses. (more…)

(From the latimes.com) California headed for a high-stakes battle over global warming Tuesday, as an oil industry-backed measure to suspend the state’s aggressive climate-change law qualified for the November ballot. The fight will pit the state’s powerful environmental organizations and clean-tech businesses against the oil and manufacturing industries. (more…)

(From Science Daily) New results from an investigation into Antarctica’s potential contribution to sea level rise are reported by scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) and the National Oceanography Centre in the journal Nature Geoscience. (more…)

(From Science Daily) Researchers have discovered a new strain of bacteria that can produce non-toxic, comparatively inexpensive “rhamnolipids,” and effectively help degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs — environmental pollutants that are one of the most harmful aspects of oil spills. (more…)

(From Science Daily) Hurricanes, air quality and Arctic ecosystems are among the research areas to be investigated during the next five years by new NASA airborne science missions announced recently. The five competitively-selected proposals, including one from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., are the first investigations in the new Venture-class series of low-to-moderate-cost projects established last year. (more…)

(From the AP) It could soon cost California shoppers at the checkout if they forget to bring their own bag to the grocery store. Legislation passed Wednesday by the California Assembly would prohibit grocery stores, pharmacies, liquor stores and convenience stores from giving out plastic bags. It would also charge customers for using store-issued paper bags. (more…)

(From Science Daily) Scientists have found the possible source of a huge carbon dioxide ‘burp’ that happened some 18,000 years ago and which helped to end the last ice age. The results provide the first concrete evidence that carbon dioxide (CO2) was more efficiently locked away in the deep ocean during the last ice age, turning the deep sea into a more ‘stagnant’ carbon repository — something scientists have long suspected but lacked data to support. (more…)

(From Science Daily) How high is the sky? Scientists have a pretty good handle on that one, what with their knowledge of the troposphere, stratosphere an the other “o-spheres.” Now, thanks to new work headed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), they are closing in on the other half of that age-old query: How deep is the ocean? (more…)