Each week, we review the papers, studies, reports, and briefings posted at the “indispensable” RFF Library Blog, curated by RFF Librarian Chris Clotworthy.
McKinsey on Sustainability & Resource Productivity — Issue 2, Summer 2014
In this second issue of McKinsey on Sustainability & Resource Productivity, we seek to establish the value of sustainability and to demonstrate how these opportunities can (and are) being captured in a range of industries... – via McKinsey & Company
Scorecard: Conserving the Greater Sage Grouse
[From Press Release] Six conservation organizations today released a detailed scorecard for grading the Obama administration on following federal scientists’ recommendations for conserving greater sage grouse across more than 60 million acres of public land in the American West. The groups also sent a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack urging them to follow specific measures for protecting these imperiled birds as they approve a series of upcoming federal land “management plans” from the Bureau of Land Management and USDA Forest Service... – via Center for Biological Diversity
[Website] The purpose of the Addendum is to provide additional information to the public regarding the potential environmental impacts of unconventional natural gas exploration and production activities. DOE has received many comments related to concerns about the potential impacts from increased development of unconventional natural gas resources in the United States, particularly production that involves hydraulic fracturing. While not required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), DOE has prepared this Addendum in an effort to be responsive to the public and provide the most current information available... – via US Dept. of Energy
[Think Progress] Fracking in Maryland would pose a risk of harmful air pollution and would bring jobs that could be dangerous for workers, a new report has found. The report, published by the University of Maryland and commissioned by a 2011 executive order by Gov. Martin O’Malley, looked at the risks that fracking would bring to Maryland, a state that so far doesn’t have any natural gas wells. The report ranked the likelihood that several risks associated with fracking, including dangers to air quality and occupational health as well as the prospect of worsening noise and the threat of earthquakes, will pose problems in Maryland... – via Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park
100 Years of California’s Water Rights System: Patterns, Trends and Uncertainty
For 100 years, California’s State Water Resources Control Board and its predecessors have been responsible for allocating available water supplies to beneficial uses, but inaccurate and incomplete accounting of water rights has made the state ill-equipped to satisfy growing societal demands for water supply reliability and healthy ecosystems. Here, we present the first comprehensive evaluation of appropriative water rights to identify where, and to what extent, water has been dedicated to human uses relative to natural supplies. The results show that water right allocations total 400 billion cubic meters, approximately five times the state’s mean annual runoff. In the state’s major river basins, water rights account for up to 1000% of natural surface water supplies, with the greatest degree of appropriation observed in tributaries to the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and in coastal streams in southern California... – via Environmental Research Letters
