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Archive for October, 2012
New UN “atlas” links climate change, health
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 29th, 2012
Associated Press: Two U.N. agencies have mapped the intersection of health and climate in an age of global warming, showing that there are spikes in meningitis when dust storms hit and outbreaks of dengue fever when hard rains come.
Officials said Monday that their ''Atlas of Health and Climate'' is meant to be a tool for leaders to use to get early warning of disease outbreaks.
Though the data or conclusions aren't necessarily new, the way in which they are presented may sharpen governments' ability to respond...
Hurricane Sandy barrels toward Northeast; ‘Get out before you can’t’
Posted by LA Times: Richard Simon, Tina Susman and David Zucchino on October 29th, 2012
LA Times: Hurricane Sandy churned the Atlantic Ocean as it barreled northward bringing fierce winds, drenching rains and flooding to the nation's Northeast, where officials warned residents to stay home and ordered those along coastlines to head to high ground.
"Get out before you can't,' Connecticut's governor, Dannel Malloy, told residents of his state early Monday.
New Jersey's Gov. Chris Christie was more blunt: "Don't be stupid. Get out.'
Christie said Monday that there was already flooding along...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Hurricane Sandy barrels toward Northeast; ‘Get out before you can’t’Slow-moving hurricanes such as Sandy on the rise
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 29th, 2012
New Scientist: Parts of New York City are already underwater as Hurricane Sandy bears down on the US east coast, bringing intense winds, torrential rain and a dangerous storm surge.
Sandy is merging with a winter storm from the west and an Arctic weather system, to become a hybrid "Frankenstorm". Its winds have strengthened, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), reaching sustained speeds of 150 kilometres per hour. Tropical-storm-force winds extend 780 kilometres from the storm's centre.
According...
Beating Rural Poverty in South America
Posted by Inter Press Service: Fabíola Ortiz on October 29th, 2012
Inter Press Service: The development of agriculture through the adoption of technological innovations will help Latin America leave behind its status as the most unequal region in the world, and will especially benefit the Southern Cone, one of the planet's largest food reserves.
"The Southern Cone is being watched with great interest as a food reserve, but we still can't precisely say how far the potential of our region will reach," Emilio Ruz, executive secretary of the Cooperative Programme for the Development...
Robert Redford Cuts 5 Anti-Fracking Ads
Posted by EcoWatch: Catskill Citizens For Safe Energy on October 29th, 2012
EcoWatch: Academy Award winning director and actor Robert Redford hopes that more people will turn their attention to one of the most contentious environmental issues of our time--fracking. Fracking is the process of injecting millions of gallons of chemically laced fluids into underground rock formations to release natural gas or oil. To that end, this summer he taped a series of ads on the issue.
Abundant shale gas reserves have been touted as a safe, clean energy supply that can help prevent climate...
Shallow Waters and Unusual Path May Worsen the Surge
Posted by New York Times: Kenneth Chang and Henry Fountain on October 29th, 2012
New York Times: Like a hand pushing water in a bathtub, the winds of a hurricane push the water of the Atlantic Ocean. When the windblown water runs up against land, the water piles up and flows inland. That describes a storm surge. “It’s almost a little bit like a tsunami,” said Klaus H. Jacob, a scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. When Hurricane Sandy makes landfall late Monday or early Tuesday, the pulse of windblown water will be “in a word, bad,” Dr. Jacob said. “It’s of course...
United Kingdom: 20 Climate Change Activists Shut Down UK’s Gas-Fired Power Plant
Posted by EcoWatch: No Dash For Gas on October 29th, 2012
EcoWatch: This morning, more than 20 climate change activists evaded security to shut down the UK’s newest gas-fired power station. They climbed two smokestacks at EDF Energy’s West Burton plant in Nottinghamshire, England, and have abseiled down the insides of the chimneys. They are now setting up camp in tents suspended from ropes inside the flues. As long as they hold their position above the furnaces the plant is unable to operate.
The occupation fires the starting gun on a huge nationwide battle over...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: 20 Climate Change Activists Shut Down UK’s Gas-Fired Power PlantPinpoint global warming impacts on South Pacific rainfall
Posted by Summit Voice: None Given on October 29th, 2012
Summit Voice: While some weather observations and climate models suggest specific global warming impacts to southern hemisphere weather patterns, a new study by the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa suggests rainfall will be affected by two competing factors.
In the South Pacific, these two effects -- an increase due to overall warming and a decrease due to changes in atmospheric water transport -- may cancel each other out, resulting in highly uncertain rainfall projections....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Pinpoint global warming impacts on South Pacific rainfallShale gas benefits called into question
Posted by Financial Times: None Given on October 29th, 2012
Financial Times: The US shale gas boom is not curbing global greenhouse gas emissions as much as some of its proponents claim, according to a study by British climate change researchers.
The reason is that although the so-called shale revolution has led to the US burning less coal, a far dirtier fossil fuel than natural gas, more American coal is being exported, so the overall benefits of switching fuels is not so great.
The report is the latest in a stream of studies examining the environmental impact of natural...
Thawing permafrost could lead to massive carbon release
Posted by TG Daily: Kate Taylor on October 29th, 2012
TG Daily: As much as 44 billion tons of nitrogen and 850 billion tons of carbon stored in arctic permafrost could be released into the environment over the next century by the effects of global warming.
This is roughly the amount of carbon stored in the atmosphere today, and its release could have a serious impact onecosystems, the atmosphere, and water resources including rivers and lakes.
"This study quantifies the impact on Earth's two most important chemical cycles, carbon and nitrogen, from thawing...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Thawing permafrost could lead to massive carbon release