1. Baby, It’s Cold Outside! Baby, It’s Cold Outside! SAFETY TIPS FOR HOME HEATING -With overnight SAFETY TIPS FOR HOME HEATING -With overnight temperatures in the 30s in Tucson this week, the Tucson Fire Department is urging people to be careful when heating their homes. Capt. Barrett Baker says space heaters should be placed at least 3 feet from anything flammable and not be plugged into extension cords or left unattended. If your furnace is up and running, Baker suggests you check and change the filter 3-4 times during the season and keep the area around the furnace clean and unobstructed. It’s also a good idea to have working carbon monoxide detectors in your home. Source: Tucson News Now: http://bit.ly/1PMw0Su
2. Protect Your Pipes From Freezing Temperatures. With freezing overnight temperatures in the weather forecast, Tucson Water is urging its customers to protect their outdoor pipes. Tips include using foam or wrap insulation from hardware stores (blankets or towels also will work) and letting cold water drip from a faucet. If a pipe freezes, blow warm air from a hair dryer or vacuum cleaner canister on the frozen section to begin warming. Do not pour hot water over a frozen pipe or do anything to cause a rapid rise in temperature. More tips are available at the link below. Tucson Water’s winter prep tips: http://1.usa.gov/1PKDEwB
3. Plan To Attend FREE Asbestos Seminar In December. Join The Arizona Environmental Information Association in Tucson on December 11, 2015 for a FREE asbestos seminar. Learn all you need to know to be compliant when making renovations or demolition projects.
4. Check Your Holiday Decorations. As we approach the holiday season, many will bring out the artificial garland, wreaths and trees to decorate our homes and offices. If the artificial decorations have lost their deep green shimmer, you may want to toss them into the trash. A loss of the shine means that the surface applied lead is/has come off the decore. Clean your hard surfacefloors with a disposable Swifter and your carpets with a HEPA filter vacuum. . As we approach the holiday season, many will bring out the artificial garland, wreaths and trees to decorate our homes and offices. If the artificial decorations have lost their deep green shimmer, you may want to toss them into the trash. A loss of the shine means that the surface applied lead is/has come off the decore. Clean your hard surfacefloors with a disposable Swifter and your carpets with a HEPA filter vacuum.
5. Watershed Planning In The Upper Gile Alternatives Workshop: Closing the Water Supply and Demand Gap
December 2nd, 2015
WHEN:10:00 a.m. to 4:00 pm, Wednesday, December 2nd
WHERE: Discovery Park Campus, Eastern Arizona College
1651 W. Discovery Park Blvd., Safford, AZ 85546
Join the Water Resources Research Center (WRRC), Arizona Cooperative Extension, and the Gila Watershed Partnership in a regional workshop to review water supply and demand now and into the future and develop water management alternatives.
For more information, contact: Kelly Mott Lacroix, Senior Research Analyst klacroix@email.arizona.edu or visit our website: https://wrrc.arizona.edu/waterrapids
6. Join Us At The November 19th Green Chamber Meeting
Coffee with the Board 19 Nov 2015 at 8:00 AM Cartel Coffee – 225 W University Dr., Tempe AZ 85281
Want to be better connected in sustainability circles? Want to find out what’s going on behind the scenes at The Green Chamber? Here’s your chance!
Let’s keep the monthly topic going! This month we are focusing on Green Agriculture!
Share a cup of joe with members of The Green Chamber’s Board of Directors and get connected.
7. 35. Number of days until Christmas! WOW!
8. Gauging Honeybees’ Status Via Vibrations. When it comes to the working class in the U.S., honeybees are pulling their weight. According to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), the flying insects contribute over $15 billion to the value of U.S. crop production. They pollinate apples, cranberries, melons and broccoli. Almonds depend entirely on honeybees for pollination, and blueberries and cherries are 90% dependent
Yet something inexplicable is occurring. Immense losses of honeybee populations are being reported. Managed honey bee colonies have decreased from 5 million in the 1940s to 2.5 million today. The problem is known colony collapse disorder, a “syndrome defined as a dead colony with no adult bees or dead bee bodies but with a live queen and usually honey and immature bees still present,” according to the USDA.
When it comes to the working class in the U.S., honeybees are pulling their weight. According to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), the flying insects contribute over $15 billion to the value of U.S. crop production. They pollinate apples, cranberries, melons and broccoli. Almonds depend entirely on honeybees for pollination, and blueberries and cherries are 90% dependent.
Of particular interest to the researchers is any vibration signals sent out prior to swarming events. “Swarming occurs when the queen bee and a large cohort of worker bees leave the hive in search of a new home,” according to the Acoustical Society of America. It’s something potentially problematic for beekeepers.
Unpacking the honeybees signals may eventually help governments track honeybee epidemics, and allow beekeepers the ability to monitor the state of their hives, according to Bencsik.
9. Kyl says Arizona has no water crisis if it acts now. Arizona isn’t facing a water crisis — at least, not if it takes steps now, according to former U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl.
Speaking at the opening dinner of the Arizona Town Hall, Kyl said Arizona’s bipartisan efforts 35 years ago in pushing through the Groundwater Management Act are what keeps urban areas from rationing water today.“Our population has increased fourfold since 1980 when the Groundwater Management Act was passed,” he told the more than 150 participants in the fall Town Hall program at the Hilton Phoenix/Mesa Hotel. “But the amount of water we’re using is less than what was used in 1957.”
The challenge, he told the gathering, is that in 50 years, Arizona’s population is going to double again. “Conservation is not enough,” he said. “It’s worked to put us where we are. We’ve managed to survive a 15-year drought without rationing or needing to take draconian measures like California.”
Kyl said the key is going to be resolving conflicts with thousands of riparian water rights. The senior adviser to Covington & Burling LLP said right now those challenges are in Arizona state courts.
“We’re dealing with Arizona water issues where we need to do so, in the Arizona legal system,” he said. “It’s just that the process is taking forever and needs to be expedited before it becomes a federal case.” In an interview following he speech, Kyl said legislation is needed to allow courts to address these water rights based on the scale of the claim. Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2015/11/16/exclusive-kyl-saysarizona-has-no-water-crisis-if.html
10. Climate Change.
Precipitation:
In the past 30 days, much of Arizona and New Mexico recorded below-average precipitation, although isolated areas received above-average precipitation.
This is consistent with the variable nature of the monsoon, especially during the seasonal transition. Water year precipitation to date (since Oct 1, 2014) offers hope in terms of drought relief, with much of Arizona and New Mexico recording above-average precipitation for the water year
Temperature: After a record warm start to 2015, much of the Southwest cooled off in July, especially in Arizona. This respite was short-lived however, as temperature anomalies in the past 30 days were between 0 and 6 degrees F above normal across most of New Mexico and most of Arizona. Globally, 2015 likely will challenge 2014 for warmest year on record, a trend that could affect temperature trends in the Southwest.
Monsoon: The highly variable nature of the monsoon in terms of when and where rain falls poses a serious challenge to anyone attempting to characterize the monsoon. That said, summer 2015 has been relatively typical, with average to above-average rainfall across much of Arizona and more consistent and sustained above-average precipitation in New Mexico. We also have seen expected breaks in storm activity as the monsoon ridge moves, affecting regional patterns of precipitation—or lack thereof—across the region.
Drought & Water Supply:
The U.S. Drought Monitor continues to emphasize drought conditions across the West, with particularly severe conditions in California and Nevada. Arizona and New Mexico continue to grapple with years of accumulated drought and water deficits, but recent sustained and widespread precipitation has helped slightly scale back drought conditions, particularly in New Mexico.
Reservoir Health
Wildfire: As of July 31, wildland fires had burned approximately 120,000 acres in Arizona and about 40,000 acres in New Mexico. One notable blaze was the Finger Rock fire, which ignited in the Santa Catalina Mountains in southern Arizona and was visible from Tucson for a number of days. Favorable weather conditions allowed fire managers to let the fire burn out naturally, despite proximity to residential areas. This fire season, well above-average precipitation in Arizona in June and in New Mexico in July tamped down fire risk across the region, resulting in limited regional fire and fire suppression activity, and favorable weather conditions permitted a number of fires to be left to burn, benefitting forest health.
11. The State of the Verde Watershed. This year’s monsoon season is going down in the record books as a typical year with near to slightly below normal rainfall being recorded across the Verde River Watershed.
This fall, we are already seeing some wet weather throughout the Verde River Watershed. What can we expect to see for the rest of the fall and winter? All indicators point to a greater likelihood of above normal valley rain and mountain snow. The strongest climate indicator, El Niño, is currently in a favorable state and for a wet fall and winter. It will continue to be favorable through the spring. Some similar El Niño analogue years are the fall and winter of 1972/73, 1982/83, and 1997/98, in which the Verde received above normal precipitation. Article by James Walter, Salt River Project.
Owning a cat can increase a person’s risk of developing the eye disease glaucoma, experts have warned. In contrast, however, having a pet dog could protect against the disease, which can cause blindness. Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, discovered those people diagnosed with glaucoma had ‘significantly higher levels’ of immunoglobulin E. This is a type of allergic antibody produced by the body in response to cats and cockroaches. Levels of the allergic antibody are elevated in those people who suffer hay fever and asthma.
Researchers said their findings raise the possibility that the immune system plays a role in glaucoma. The condition is the second-leading cause of blindness across the world. Often affecting both eyes, it develops when fluid, which is constantly produced by the eye, cannot drain properly and pressure builds up in the eyeball.
The pressure can cause damage to the optic nerve – which connects the eye to the brain – and the nerve fibres from the retina.
As part of the study, experts examined data from 1,678 people, aged in their 50s and 60s. Each volunteer underwent an allergy test for dust mites, cats, dogs, cockroaches and rodents, the Wall Street Journal reported. Around five per cent of those taking part were diagnosed as having the eye disease.
Of those, 14.3 per cent had significantly higher levels of immunoglobulin E, to cats and 19.1 per cent to cockroaches. That was compared with 10 per cent in non-glaucoma patients.
Levels associated with dogs were elevated in just six per cent of glaucoma patients, compared with nine per cent of those without the eye disease.
The report stated: ‘Participants with glaucoma had significantly higher odds of sensitisation to the cockroach and cat allergens compared to those without glaucoma.’
The authors suggest that the difference in cat and cockroach allergens and those of dogs may have different effects because dogs spend more time outdoors.
The study was published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology.
Glaucoma is the second-leading cause of blindness across the world and is caused by a build up of pressure in the eye, damaging the optic nerve or nerve fibres from the retina
