Weather, Water, Energy 10-16-06

Rather than summarize all the great stories Terra Daily has up right now and deny them well-deserved hits, I'll just link you to this one on what drought has done to worldwide wheat production and price, this other one on drought and debates on global warming and nuclear power in Australia (hint: as usual, PM Howard is a tool), this one on the death of another lake in the former Soviet Union (gotta luv what communism did for that place, don't you?), and this really amazing one on how ocean plankton exert chemical power strong enough to affect global climate. . . . Science Daily has two good stories up itself, one on the significant impact Central American fires can have on US air quality and climate and another on the first direct evidence that human activity is linked to ice shelf collapses in Antarctica. . . . Nuclear industry experts are assuring us that increasing well-secured nuclear power plant usage will not increase risk of materials being used for weapons, by governments or terrorists. It's those medical facilities we need to worry about, they tell us. Uh-huh. . . . Climate Progress alerts us to the Wall Street Journal proclaiming that conservation is more effective than building new power plants. Call the paramedics!! . . . This article describes how increasing child asthma and lead poisoning are greening Hispanic groups into activism, despite the mutual antipathy of Latinos and environmentalists (which I didn't really know about until this). . . . And this CA story details how the state's gubernatiorial election will determine the future of liquefied natural gas there, with a good description of how it's made and why it's an issue that could go past CA. . . . On the other side of our continent, NH may see a 25% population increase by 2025, with subsequent demands on water supply which may even affect that water-rich state. If they have trouble, we'll all have trouble.