Climate Change
(Chemical & Engineering News) The call to at least consider audacious geo-engineering steps that would fill the stratosphere with globe-cooling aerosols to check global warming got louder last week. In Science, Tom M. L. Wigley of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Boulder, Colo., writes that reducing carbon dioxide emissions is the long-term solution to global warming but that nearer term engineering of the atmosphere might provide "additional time to address the economic and technological challenges faced by a mitigation-only approach"

World water demand surging
(Trade Arabia) Surging demand for irrigation to grow crops for food and biofuels will add to pressure on water supplies in a world where one in three people already suffer from shortages. Following is an interview with Frank Rijsberman, the Dutch director-general of the UN-backed International Water Management Institute, which issued an assessment of world water resources in late August based on the work of 700 researchers.

Investors bet on rising costs for scarce water
(Reuters Canada) Investors who have seen energy prices rocket due to scarce supplies are starting to wager that forecasted shortages will cause the value of water to skyrocket, offering big gains to companies active in the sector. Unlike globally traded commodities like oil, gold or wheat, water tends to be priced locally by authorities who provide it as a public good, generally drawing from nearby sources such as lakes or river basins.

Western states join in effort to improve Pacific Ocean health
(Seattle Times) Western states join in effort to improve Pacific Ocean health The Associated Press PORTLAND - The governors of Oregon, Washington and California announced an agreement today to work together to improve Pacific Ocean health, saying "oceans should be managed on an ecosystem level." "Polluted waters, declining populations of fish and other marine life, degraded nearshore habitats, risks of severe storms and tsunamis and impacts related to climate change" were among the threats cited by the governors of the three ocean-dependant states.

State's fauna reshaped by global warming
(Daily Democrat) When Berkeley biologist Chris Conroy and colleagues went looking in Yosemite for the alpine and shadow chipmunks, they had trouble finding mammals that an earlier generation of Berkeley scientists found everywhere in the park. The California pocket mouse, ordinarily making its home in chaparral, was found 2,000 feet higher than where it was 90 years ago. Scientists likewise had to hike 1,000 feet higher to find the wood rat and California vole. The pinon mouse, typically found on dry, eastern Sierra slopes and never in Yosemite, today is found all over the park, along with another new arrival, the harvest mouse. Something is rearranging California's flora and fauna, and climatic shifts are topping the list of explanations.

Scientists baffled by decline in water levels of upper Great Lakes
(Canada.com) Canada and the United States are launching a $17.5-million study to determine why water levels in the upper Great Lakes have declined to near-record lows. The study by the International Joint Commission will consider a number of possible causes, from climate change to erosion caused by dredging in the St. Clair River. Environment Minister Rona Ambrose announced $500,000 for the study last week. But officials say that is just the first installment in what will be a major, five-year research effort. Ambrose noted that water levels in Georgian Bay together with Lakes Huron and Michigan were as much as 45 centimeters below average this summer.