Page 12 - System Engineer News Today

AUSTIN—Famous for being the biggest, longest, wildest birdwatching tournament in the country, this year’s Great Texas Birding Classic raised $45,000 for projects to benefit birds and other wildlife.

Mining clumps of metal at the bottom of the ocean could address critical shortages, but the damage to the seabed may deter attempts to make this process mainstream.

Despite the risks of building on barrier islands, developers kept constructing homes on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Now, as sea level rises and storms become more frequent and powerful, the famed vacation spot is fighting an increasingly difficult battle to keep from washing away.

The hot and dry start to the summer in Yukon and Alaska has sparked record-breaking wildfires across the Taiga (Boreal Forests) and the tundra. Over 5000 lightning strikes from June 21 through June 30 have threatened indigenous villages in the far north with incineration and unhealthy smoke. Fire fighting resources are stretched thin in both Alaska and Yukon. So far, the fires have consumed 2 million acres so far in 2022. That is ten times greater than all of 2021.

Questions have been raised over a new seawall accessway after the West Coast Regional Council received a $90,000 bill for work it can “find no agreement for”.

In Toledo, Ohio, monitoring and treating algae-contaminated water from Lake Erie costs $100 per family per year

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court this week handed state environmental regulators a new assignment to revamp how waterfront developments are reviewed and approved, potentially affecting zoning frameworks in coastal communities from Beverly to Provincetown.

ECRU – John Adam Nowlin wants the world to know what killed his cows.

Kelp has been in the headlines lately as a seaweed with significant carbon-sequestering capability. So far, farmed kelp has gotten most of the spotlight, but whether wild or farmed, the discoveries scientists make today could assist all kinds of kelp in thriving in a rapidly climate-changing world.

President Biden is in the kingdom this week to strengthen ties. Meanwhile, a U.S.-Saudi joint venture on the Texas coast is pumping out toxic chemicals and greenhouse gases.