Connecticut-Sized Dead Zones Are Killing Off Fish Worldwide By Lauren Rothman - Vice.comJanuary 28, 2015 It’s a bleak time to be a seafood lover. It seems like every day, reports of worldwide overfishing clog our news feed, warning us that soon, we’ll no longer be able to enjoy tasty halibut steaks, crispy battered cod, and lunchtime spicy tuna [...]
Climate change could mean massive ocean dead zones By Josh Dzieza January 29, 2015Record of past climate change indicates abrupt loss of oxygen In 2002, fishermen off the Oregon coast pulled up their traps to find them full of dead crabs. Baby octopuses were climbing up their lines, seemingly struggling to get out [...]
Business Leaders Say Midwestern Agriculture Threatened by Climate Change By Alison Rice - Ag WebJanuary 26, 2015 ‘Heat in the Heartland’ report suggests corn production in Illinois, Iowa could be at risk from rising temperatures. Even with a bumper crop in the bin, Midwestern farmers can’t afford to ignore the risks that climate change poses [...]
Report: Three-pronged approach needed to battle dead zone-causing nutrients By Amy Wold - Baton Rouge AdvocateFebruary 4, 2015 Photo provided by NASA -- A satellite image shows the Mississippi River drainage, carrying vast quantities of sediment and depositing it along the shore of Louisiana and into the Gulf of Mexico. Careful management of fertilizers [...]
Past water dispute shows opportunity to fix nitrate problem By Dick Goodson - Des Moines Register OpinionFebruary 8, 2015Over the past few weeks a number of articles and editorials have been written about the Des Moines Water Works suing three northern Iowa counties because of high levels of nitrates, creating a huge cost to the [...]
World-Herald editorial: Nitrate issue confronts Iowa By Omaha World-HeraldJanuary 29, 2015Rain is a welcome sight to Midlands farmers. But that rainfall, along with melting snow, poses a problem when drainage carries away agricultural nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus that can build up to environmentally harmful levels. Perhaps the nation’s most troubling example is the [...]
Magnificent blue glow of Hong Kong seas also disturbing By Seth Borenstein, Associated PressJanuary 23, 2015 Eerie fluorescent blue patches of water glimmering off Hong Kong's seashore are magnificent, disturbing and potentially toxic, marine biologists say. The glow is an indicator of a harmful algal bloom created by something called Noctiluca scintillans, nicknamed [...]
Topsoil changes get first round of approval By Donnelle Eller, Des Moines RegisterJanuary 21, 2015 (photo: The Register) The debate over how much topsoil should be in Iowans’ yards continued Wednesday as a state commission moved closer to giving homebuilders more discretion over the amount of dirt they must return. State rules require builders to [...]
Des Moines Initiates Clean Water Act Lawsuit to Stem Farm Pollution By Brett Walton - Circle of BlueJanuary 20, 2015 Iowa’s largest city will sue three upstream counties to reduce nitrate contamination. Photo © Flickr/Creative Commons user w4nd3rl0st Des Moines, the Iowa capital, sits at the confluence of the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers. The [...]
Will Des Moines water lawsuit change farming rules? By Donnelle Eller - Des Moines RegisterJanuary 19, 2015 (Photo: Michael Zamora/The Register) A Des Moines utility's plan to sue three northwest counties for polluting central Iowa's drinking water supply may have broad ramifications for state and U.S. farmers, who environmentalists complain have been too slow [...]
