Environment

Summer Family Evenings At Los Alamos Nature Center – Rattlesnake Museum

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Visit the Los Alamos Nature Center on June 15 to learn more about rattlesnakes. Photo by Bob Myers
 
PEEC News:
 
Living in New Mexico means sharing the outdoors with many different kinds of reptiles.
 
To help explain how humans can cohabitate with our scaly neighbors, join Bob Myers, Director of the International Rattlesnake Museum, at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday June 15, at the Los Alamos Nature Center. He will bring snakes from the museum and be available to share his knowledge. This event is part of Pajarito Environmental Education
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Growing Trend Of Abandoned Campfires Alarms Officials

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Fifty campfires have been left unattended or abandodned since Memorial day weekend on the Santa Fe National Forest. Courtesy photo

SFNF News:

Fire managers are alarmed by the growing trend of campfires abandoned on the Santa Fe National Forest.

Fifty campfires have been left either unattended or abandoned on the Santa Fe National Forest from Memorial Day weekend to present.

There also have been three human caused fires due to abandoned campfires. Fire crews quickly extinguished the flames from these abandoned campfires, however if the conditions had been drier, those fires could Read More

Chicken Little And The Sitting Ducks: On The Question Of Planetary Defense

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In 2014, the spectacular Comet Ison grazed the sun and disappeared. Courtesy/Hubble Space Telescope

 

By ROGER SNODGRASS
LOS ALAMOS DAILY POST

Glen Wurden, LANL plasma physicist, has conceived an insurance policy for planetary defense. Courtesy/LANL

Glen Wurden, a plasma physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. has an idea about how the world could end: he thinks there is agood chance it maybe more with a bang, than a whimper.

Also an amateur astronomer, Wurdenis especially focused onasteroids and comets, random missiles whizzing around the solar system and occasionally colliding Read More

Documented Safety Analysis Implemented And Cold Operations Begin

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WIPP News:

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has reached a major milestone that cleared the way for the start of Cold Operations at the facility.

Implementation of the Documented Safety  Analysis (DSA) revision 5, which defines the safety parameters under which WIPP operates, was declared complete May 29, following several weeks of intense work by the federal and contractor workforce.

Cold Operations, the phase of WIPP’s restart that involves conducting facility operations with simulated waste containers, got underway June 1, beginning an eight-week Read More

How The Hen House Turns: Living Peacefully With Others

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By Carolyn A. (Cary) Neeper, Ph. D
Longtime Los Alamos Resident
Now residing in California

As a metaphor for our relationship with animals, the Hen House is Turning, in significant in several ways. We housed and loved many animals in our 46 years in Los Alamos. They added more than one dimension to our lives.

We humans have been both friends and users of our fellow creatures over many thousands of years. Domestication has been a mixed blessing for some, like silk worms, and a remarkable partnership for others—the dog and its genetic modification from wolves, through kindness and eye-contact, being Read More

Unattended Campfires Pose Unnecessary Risks

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SFNF News:
 
SANTA FE ― A rash of unattended and abandoned campfires on the Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest over the long Memorial Day weekend could have caused a major headache for fire crews already overseeing a human-caused fire on Rowe Mesa.
 
Fortunately, none of the 25 identified campfires sparked or spread before they were discovered and extinguished. But as the New Mexico fire season gets underway, it’s important to remember that unattended campfires are the leading human cause of wildfire.
 
Visitors to national forests
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Nine Women Receive C3E Awards

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C3E News:
 
STANFORD, Calif. ― At the fifth annual Clean Energy Education & Empowerment (C3E) Women in Clean Energy Symposium today, nine distinguished women across multiple disciplines will be honored for outstanding leadership and accomplishments in clean energy.
 
The Symposium is being held at Stanford University and is hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), and Stanford University Precourt Institute for Energy.
 
Dr. Sarah Kurtz, a Research Fellow with the National Center for Photovoltaics and a Principal Scientist
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Plant Sale At Master Gardeners Garden Fair June 11

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Perennial mound. Photo by Bob Walker
 
LAMG News:
 
Starting a garden, need more plants, can’t resist another plant, looking for a good bargain – all good reasons to attend the Los Alamos Master Gardeners’ Demonstration Garden Fair 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, June 11 on Central Avenue (across the street from Mesa Public Library). 
 
More than 400 plants for your landscape and vegetable gardens, as well as plants for your home, all grown by Los Alamos Master Gardeners, will be for sale.
 
In addition to the Plant Sale, three
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‘A Climate For Change’ With Cynthia Scharf Monday

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Senior Officer Cynthia Scharf
 
UN News:
 
Cynthia Scharf, senior officer and speechwriter to the United Nations Secretary-General on climate change and sustainable energy is presenting the lecture, “A Climate for Change: What the Paris Agreement Means for Us, for our Children, and the Future of Climate Action”.
 
 Scharf’s talk is 7-9 p.m. Monday, June 6, at United Church of Santa Fe (corner of St. Michael’s Drive and Arroyo Chamiso) at 1804 Arroyo Chamiso Road.
 

This lecture is free and open to the public.  Read More