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Archive for June, 2012
Colorado fire near Pikes Peak forces 11,000 from homes
Posted by Reuters: Keith Coffman on June 25th, 2012
Reuters: A fast-growing wildfire in Colorado forced 11,000 people from their homes at least briefly on Sunday and threatened popular summer camping grounds beneath Pikes Peak, whose vistas helped inspire the patriotic tune "America the Beautiful."
Live summit video from the 14,115-foot (4,302-metre) peak showed plumes of dark smoke billowing in the air, and a cog railway that ferries tourists up the side of the famous mountain was shut down because of the wildfires.
The blaze in the Pike National Forest,...
Scientists criticise lack of urgency in Rio+20 accord
Posted by SciDev.Net: Aisling Irwin on June 25th, 2012
SciDev.Net: The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) ended last Friday (22 June) with an international agreement on the need for all countries to commit themselves to achieving sustainable development.
The agreement immediately came under fire from several quarters for its lack of detail about how this will be done, and the absence of new financial commitments from the developed world.
Critics in the scientific and technical communities also said it lacked adequate recognition...
It’s Happening, but Not in Rio
Posted by New York Times: Jim Leape on June 25th, 2012
New York Times: For the past two weeks, representatives from around the world met here for Rio+20, the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, to define a global plan of action that would take humanity toward a cleaner, greener future. They failed. The text they agreed upon on Friday is a caricature of diplomacy. It “acknowledges” many challenges and “encourages” action, but there are few real commitments. We are living way beyond our means. We are using 50 percent more resources than the Earth can provide;...
Alaska Glacier Studied For Clues On Water Supply
Posted by National Public Radio: Annie Feidt on June 25th, 2012
National Public Radio: Anchorage is one of the few North American cities that depend on a glacier for most of their drinking water. The Eklutna glacier also provides some of the city's electricity, through hydro power. So a team of researchers is working to answer a very important question: How long will the glacier's water supply last?
To get that answer, those researchers have to shovel a lot of snow. "It gets to be the consistency of really strong Styrofoam once you get down, maybe six or eight feet," glaciologist...
Goodbye to Mountain Forests?
Posted by New York Times: Hillary Rosner on June 25th, 2012
New York Times: When the smoke finally clears and new plant life pokes up from the scorched earth after the wildfires raging in the southern Rockies, what emerges will look radically different than what was there just a few weeks ago. According to Craig Allen, a research ecologist with the United States Geological Survey in Los Alamos, N.M., forests in the region have not been regenerating after the vast wildfires that have been raging for the last decade and a half.
Dr. Allen, who runs the Jemez Mountains Field...
United Kingdom: Badger cull ‘not legal or scientific’, high court will hear
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 24th, 2012
Guardian: The bitter battle over the government's plan to kill thousands of badgers reaches the high court on Monday, when the Badger Trust will tell a judicial review that the action is neither legal nor scientifically justified.
Caroline Spelman, the secretary of state for environment, believes the cull is necessary to curb the rising number of tuberculosis infections in cattle, which led farmers to slaughter 25,000 animals in 2010 alone.
Cull opponents are also attacking the "undue influence" of the...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on United Kingdom: Badger cull ‘not legal or scientific’, high court will hearWestern skies thick with smoke, political rhetoric, evidence of climate change
Posted by Colorado Independent: Troy Hooper on June 24th, 2012
Colorado Independent: Fears that Colorado`s snow-starved winter would fuel one of the worst wildfire seasons in history have been realized as the High Park Fire has grown into the state`s second-biggest while home-wrecking fires popped up in Estes Park and Colorado Springs bring the total to at least nine. Waves of evacuations have plagued subdivisions north of Fort Collins since High Park Fire began burning June 9, destroying nearly 200 homes. But while crews gained ground Saturday, containing 45 percent of that 82,000-acre...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Western skies thick with smoke, political rhetoric, evidence of climate changeClimate change and the South Asian summer monsoon
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 24th, 2012
ScienceDaily: The vagaries of South Asian summer monsoon rainfall impact the lives of more than one billion people. A review in Nature Climate Change (June 24 online issue) of over 100 recent research articles concludes that with continuing rise in CO2 and global warming, the region can expect generally more rainfall, due to the expected increase in atmospheric moisture, as well as more variability in rainfall.
In spite of the rise in atmospheric CO2 concentration of about 70 parts per million by volume and...
Study: Southern California to Get Hot, Hot, Hot
Posted by Patch: None Given on June 24th, 2012
Patch: Southern California - from Orange County and the Inland Empire to north of Los Angeles - will heat up over the next 50 years, with more 95-plus degree days in store, according to a new UCLA report compiled with forecasting models generated by a supercomputer.
The study, which contains data 2,500 times more detailed than previous studies, predicts weather patterns from 2041 to 2060. All kinds of maps and city breakdowns show tempurate changes. (See pdf attached reports)
It shows that the number...
Scientists warn US east coast over accelerated sea level rise
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 24th, 2012
Guardian: Sea level rise is accelerating three to four times faster along the densely populated east coast of the US than other US coasts, scientists have discovered. The zone, dubbed a "hotspot" by the researchers, means the ocean from Boston to New York to North Carolina is set to experience a rise up a third greater than that seen globally.
Asbury Sallenger, at the US geological survey at St Petersburg, Florida, who led the new study, said: "That makes storm surges that much higher and the reach of the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Scientists warn US east coast over accelerated sea level rise