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Archive for August 3rd, 2012
Climate change is here — and worse than we thought
Posted by Washington Post: James E. Hansen on August 3rd, 2012
Washington Post: When I testified before the Senate in the hot summer of 1988 , I warned of the kind of future that climate change would bring to us and our planet. I painted a grim picture of the consequences of steadily increasing temperatures, driven by mankind's use of fossil fuels.
But I have a confession to make: I was too optimistic.
My projections about increasing global temperature have been proved true. But I failed to fully explore how quickly that average rise would drive an increase in extreme...
The implications of overpopulation are terrifying. But will we listen to them?
Posted by Guardian: Ian Jack on August 3rd, 2012
Guardian: Sitting on my own in the bar of the Royal Court theatre on Wednesday with my orange juice and lightly sea-salted packet of crisps, I remembered that I was first here more than 50 years ago, as a teenager down on holiday from Scotland and determined to witness England's cultural revolution. In 1961 that still meant John Osborne, whose new play, Luther, had just opened at the Court with Albert Finney. I queued at the box office and got two tickets to stand at the back of the stalls, where my brother...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on The implications of overpopulation are terrifying. But will we listen to them?Oklahoma Is OK if You Like Sizzling Temperatures
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on August 3rd, 2012
Climate Central: Oklahoma has one more day of record heat to endure before temperatures are forecast to cool to more comfortable levels. Well, that is if you consider the upper-90s to low-100s to be "comfortable,' anyway.
Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and all points in between have seen record-breaking or near-record-breaking heat during the past week or more. The high temperature in Oklahoma City on Wednesday and Thursday reached 112°F, the hottest it's been there since Aug. 10, 1936, and just 1°F shy of the city's all-time...
Opinions on Global Warming Shift with the Weather
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 3rd, 2012
LiveScience: A heat wave is not proof of global warming, but it does seem to help convince people that global warming is real, survey data indicates.
On the flip side, surveys show cool temperatures can make Americans less convinced there is "solid evidence" the planet is heating up.
The new study based on five national surveys of American adults sponsored by the Pew Research Center in June, July and August 2006, January 2007 and April 2008. Respondents were asked: "From what you've read and heard, is there...
Mexican Communities Fight Mini-Dams
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 3rd, 2012
Inter Press Service: Small-scale hydroelectric dams with a capacity of under 30 MW are seen by the authorities in Mexico as an important alternative for generating energy. But local communities reject them on the argument that they would cause social, economic and environmental damages.
On the front line of the struggle are communities in the southern states of Puebla, Tabasco, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, where there is great potential to harness hydro energy with small dams.
"They claim the so-called mini-hydroelectric...
Drought dries up stretch of Platte River, slows barges on lower Mississippi
Posted by NBC News: Miguel Llanos on August 3rd, 2012
NBC News: It's not just on land where drought is taking a toll: a 100-mile stretch of the Platte River has dried up, while barges along the lower Mississippi are having to carry less cargo in order to navigate shallower water.
The Mississippi impact is one that goes far beyond the immediate area: About 60 percent of the nation's grain, 22 percent of its oil and gas, and 20 percent of the nation's coal goes down the river. Lighter barges mean longer waits for those products.
The Army Corps of Engineers...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Drought dries up stretch of Platte River, slows barges on lower MississippiClimate-Battered South Asia Looks to Rio+20 Formula
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 3rd, 2012
Inter Press Service: Far-flung South Asian communities, from the high Himalayan slopes to the Indian Ocean coasts, united in the face of extreme and uncertain weather, continue to hold out hope that the Rio+20 focus on disaster risk reduction (DRR) will positively influence national policies.
"There is hope in India, the biggest country in the region, that the final statement at the Rio+20 summit titled "˜The Future We Want' gets translated into national policy before it is too late," Vinod Chandra Menon, former...
NASA Study Quantifies Vast Amount of Dust Reaching North America
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 3rd, 2012
Yale Environment 360: A new NASA study calculates that nearly 64 million tons of dust, pollution, and other tiny particles enter the atmosphere above North America from other continents each year, nearly as much as the 69 million tons of aerosols produced domestically through natural processes and human activities. The vast majority of the particles entering the atmosphere, scientists say, consist of natural dust and not pollutants. In a first-of-its-kind study, NASA researchers used satellite data and wind speed estimates...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on NASA Study Quantifies Vast Amount of Dust Reaching North AmericaFirst U.N. climate fund board meeting set for August 23
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 3rd, 2012
Reuters: The first board meeting of the United Nations' Green Climate Fund will be held on August 23 to 25, an official at the fund's interim secretariat confirmed on Thursday, five months later than it was originally planned.
The fund is designed to help channel up to $100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020 to help developing countries adapt to climate change.
However, the fund is an empty shell after last year's U.N. climate talks failed to make solid progress on sources of finance and the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on First U.N. climate fund board meeting set for August 23More than 100 sickened in Peru toxic mining spill
Posted by Associated Press: Carla Salazar on August 3rd, 2012
Associated Press: More than 100 rural Peruvians have been sickened by the spill of a toxic copper concentrate produced at one of the Andean country’s biggest mines, authorities said Friday.
The Ancash state regional health office said 140 people were treated for ‘‘irritative symptoms caused by the inhalation of toxins’’ after a pipeline carrying the concentrate under high pressure burst open in their community.
Most of the injured had joined in efforts to prevent liquid copper slurry from reaching a nearby river...