Journal of Biogeography (Early online version published Sept. 14 2011; DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02595.x) / by David M. J. S. Bowman, et al. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02595.x/full [From Abstract] …Greenhouse gas-induced warming and changes in the hydrological cycle may increase the occurrence of large, severe fires, with potentially significant feedbacks to the Earth system. Improved understanding of human fire regimes … Continue reading »
Posted on September 15, 2011 …
Disaster Recovery: Federal Contracting in the Aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
Government Accountability Office http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-942T [Summary] Small businesses located in four Gulf Coast states (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas) received about $2.7 billion (13.3 percent) of the $20.5 billion federal agencies directly awarded nationwide in contracts for hurricane recovery between fiscal years 2005 and 2011. Small businesses in the rest of the United States received about … Continue reading »
WorldRiskReport 2011
United Nations University | Institute for Environment and Human Security http://www.ehs.unu.edu/file/get/9018 [Website] The WorldRiskReport 2011 helps to evaluate the vulnerability of societies to natural hazards. Using world maps to visualize, it shows on the one hand where the probability of a natural hazard to occur is particularly high; on the other hand it is shown … Continue reading »
Social Media and Disasters: Current Uses, Future Options, and Policy Considerations
Congressional Research Service http://bit.ly/qcFyjp Social media has become an integral component of emergency and disaster response efforts, but these sources of emergency information could also be used maliciously, finds a Sept. 6 Congressional Research Service report made public Sept. 13 by the Federation of American Scientists’ blog Secrecy News. From the report summary: The development … Continue reading »
Progress in Disaster Planning and Preparedness Since 2001
JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association (Published online September 8, 2011. doi: 10.1001/jama.2011.1359) / Thomas V. Inglesby http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/early/2011/09/06/jama.2011.1359.full The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the anthrax letters of 2001 were followed by a decade of major domestic and international disasters. Whether wrought by terrorist attacks, nuclear or chemical incidents, rapidly moving pandemics, record-breaking … Continue reading »
Flood Damage Related to Army Corps of Engineers Projects: Selected Legal Issues
Congressional Research Service http://bit.ly/nG58DA [Description] Over the past century, the federal government has undertaken a number of civil works projects to prevent widespread damage from flooding of various waterways. These flood control projects generally have been designed and constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). Despite the existence of these flood control structures, … Continue reading »
Water Markets in Europe
Water Resources Impact (Sept. 2011, v13 n5, p15-18) / by David Zetland http://www.kysq.org/pubs/Water_Markets_Europe.pdf My short paper on this topic is now published. Abstract: Water markets in Europe are underdeveloped because they are difficult to implement within existing institutional constraints or inefficient from a transaction cost perspective. This article describes Europe’s nascent water markets, explores the … Continue reading »
Using Electric Vehicles to Meet Balancing Requirements Associated with Wind Power
US DOE Pacific Northwest National Laboratory / by Frank Tuffner and Michael Kintner-Meyer http://energyenvironment.pnnl.gov/pdf/PNNL-20501_Renewables_Integration_Report_Final_7_8_2011.pdf [From Press Release] Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) or battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have the potential to serve as a resource—under certain market scenarios and penetration levels—to meet the significant energy imbalances on the power grid that can be created by … Continue reading »
Accelerating Low Carbon Growth
Carbon Disclosure Project https://webadmin.cdproject.net/en-US/Pages/global500.aspx [Yale Environmtment 360] A new survey conducted by the UK-based Carbon Disclosure Project finds that for the first time a majority of the world’s largest public corporations are including steps to combat climate change as part of their business strategies. In a survey of 396 of the world’s 500 largest companies, … Continue reading »
