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Archive for July, 2012
How summer thunderstorms could be punching new holes in the ozone layer
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 27th, 2012
Christian Science Monitor: Global warming could open new holes in Earth's ozone layer at latitudes that until now have seemed immune to the ozone destruction that recurs over Antarctica and the Arctic, a new study warns.
Jonathan Shanklin, Meteorologist at the British Antarctic Survey, was one of the team that discovered the ozone hole in 1985.
The underappreciated keys to this conundrum: water vapor and temperatures in the lower stratosphere, where the ozone layer appears. Both, the researchers say, reach summertime...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on How summer thunderstorms could be punching new holes in the ozone layerNew initiative to help 10 central African countries in monitoring: FAO
Posted by FNB News: None Given on July 27th, 2012
FNB News: A new regional initiative will help 10 central African countries to set up advanced national forest monitoring systems, FAO announced on Thursday. The 10 countries are part of the Congo Basin and include Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda and São Tomé and Principe.
The forestry project will be managed jointly by the Central Africa Forests Commission (COMIFAC) and FAO in close collaboration...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on New initiative to help 10 central African countries in monitoring: FAOCanada, of all places, should understand climate change
Posted by Globe and Mail: Jeffrey Simpson on July 27th, 2012
Globe and Mail: The United States is experiencing the hottest year on record. Most of the country's warmest years have come in the past decade. Worldwide, the 13 warmest years on record (record keeping began in the 1880s) have come in the past 15 years.
And so on, year after year. Weather changes yearly do equate to a changed climate, but when a pattern takes hold over a sustained period of time, as it has, then something is happening. And that something is of course climate change, which among other effects...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canada, of all places, should understand climate changeFierce storms in Northeast, yes, but probably not a derecho
Posted by LA Times: Michael Muskal on July 27th, 2012
LA Times: The Northeast, and New York in particular, had to deal with some fierce storms this week, but the event most likely wasn't a true derecho, officials said Friday.
Though the storms carried strong winds that brought down power lines and led to the deaths of at least two people, meteorologists were reluctant to characterize them as a derecho, a series of wind storms over a large area.
"There is no official proclamation,' Joey Picca , a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said in a...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fierce storms in Northeast, yes, but probably not a derechoUnited States: Court Rejects a Ban on Local Fracking Limits
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 27th, 2012
New York Times: A Pennsylvania court on Thursday struck down a provision of a state law that forbade municipalities to limit where natural gas drilling could take place within their boundaries.
The law, known as Act 13 and approved in February, required that drilling be allowed in all zoning districts, even residential areas, although with certain buffers. The law had been sought by drillers who have been fracking in the Marcellus Shale and wanted uniformity in rules on where they could drill.
But an appellate...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United States: Court Rejects a Ban on Local Fracking LimitsWhy science is a non-issue in the US presidential election – again
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 27th, 2012
National Public Radio: IRA FLATOW, HOST:
This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow.
A flurry of extreme weather events, including wildfires, heat waves and droughts may have convinced more Americans that the planet is warming. A poll by the Brookings Institute found that 62 percent of Americans now believe in global warming, and nearly half of them have cited warmer temperatures or change in weather patterns as the reason for their belief.
But will climate change be on the agenda during the upcoming presidential...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Why science is a non-issue in the US presidential election – againUS drought: gasoline prices rise as corn stalks shrivel
Posted by Christian Science Monitor: Ron Scherer on July 27th, 2012
Christian Science Monitor: Since the beginning of July, the price of gasoline has risen about 16 cents a gallon, according to AAA. Energy analysts say at least some of that rise can be attributed to the severe drought scorching the Midwest plains because about 10 percent of each gallon of fuel is made from ethanol. One of the main ingredients of ethanol is corn.
Because of the drought, the price of corn has soared. It is now just under $8 a bushel, up about 23 percent on the year and up 39 percent over the past five weeks....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on US drought: gasoline prices rise as corn stalks shrivelDid Keystone XL really drive Canada-China coziness?
Posted by EnergyWire: Elana Schor on July 27th, 2012
EnergyWire: This week's bid by a Chinese state-owned oil company to take over a Canadian oil sands crude producer seemed to hand Republicans a perfect talking point for their efforts to fast-track the Keystone XL pipeline: China is already taking advantage of America's delay in approving new heavy fuel imports from its northern neighbor, the GOP argued.
"It's very clear," Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said yesterday, citing Ottawa's public courtship of Chinese investment after President Obama punted a ruling...
Pakistan: Changing monsoon patterns posing new threat
Posted by The News International: Rasheed Khalid on July 27th, 2012
The News International: The changing monsoon patterns and increased frequency of disasters with bigger magnitude are posing new threats and challenges linking climate change with disasters.
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chairman Dr. Zafar Qadir stated this in a consultation on "˜Climate Change Policy and Pre-Monsoon Institutional Response' jointly organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) in collaboration with the United Nations...
Rainforest wildlife havens on brink of collapse
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 26th, 2012
Independent: The health of protected tropical forests and their rich wildlife, from exotic frogs and freshwater fish to tigers and forest elephants, is on the brink of collapse, researchers have warned.
Wildlife havens set up to protect tropical forest species have suffered badly as a result of the huge deforestation and habitat destruction going on around them, a large international study concluded.
The rich biodiversity of the tropical rainforests has seen a significant decline over the past 20 or 30...