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Archive for June 29th, 2013
California’s Sierra a ‘living lab’ for climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 29th, 2013
Associated Press: In parts of California's Sierra Nevada, marshy meadows are going dry, wildflowers are blooming earlier and glaciers are melting into ice fields.
Scientists also are predicting the optimal temperature zone for giant sequoias will rise hundreds and hundreds of feet, leaving trees at risk of dying over the next 100 years.
As indicators point toward a warming climate, scientists across 4 million acres of federally protected land are noting changes affecting everything from the massive trees that...
Europe’s Largest Glacier Comes to New York
Posted by National Geographic: Rena Silverman on June 29th, 2013
National Geographic: By the time Olafur Eliasson came up with the idea to display chunks of glacier as an art exhibit, he had already spent a lot of time at the mouth of the Icelandic glacier Vatnajökull, the largest ice cap in Europe, watching it melt.
"Vatnajökull is the only place in the world where you can stand off on the sand and watch big chunks of glacier break," said Eliasson.
The Danish-Icelandic artist believes most people are disconnected from the effects of climate change because they can't physically...
Southland’s heat wave just getting started
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 29th, 2013
LA Times: The first day of a heat wave produced extreme temperatures Friday across Southern California, but forecasters say the real broiling will come this weekend.
Heat records in Palmdale and Lancaster, which stand at 113 and 114 degrees, respectively, could be broken, National Weather Service specialist Stuart Seto said.
The last significant heat wave to hit Southern California was five years ago, Seto said. The 2009 heat wave baked the region for about two weeks.
In Los Angeles, the hot weather...
Alberta floods a wake-up call to dangers of extreme weather: Experts
Posted by Ottawa Citizen: JONATHAN HAYWARD on June 29th, 2013
Ottawa Citizen: The Alberta floods are Canada’s Hurricane Sandy moment, and should be a catalyst for badly needed changes to limit future damage from extreme weather, say experts on climate change adaptation.
“In many cases, the standards for where and how we build are completely out of date with a climatically changed future,” said Ian Mauro, Canada Research Chair in human dimension and environmental change at Mount Allison University. The Alberta floods, he said, should be a wake-up call that “we need to seriously...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Alberta floods a wake-up call to dangers of extreme weather: ExpertsECOLOGY SCIENCE: Terrestrial Ecosystem Loss and Biosphere Collapse
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on June 29th, 2013
By Dr. Glen Barry
Independent Political Ecology and Data Scientist
glen.barry@gmail.com
+1 608 332 5650
Manuscript submission under review by Management of Environmental Quality*
June 16, 2013
Abstract
Planetary boundary science defines key thresholds in the Earth System's biogeochemical conditions that precede ecosystem collapse and threaten human well-being. Terrestrial ecosystems enter into the nine originally defined planetary boundaries only indirectly, through boundaries such as biodiversity and land use. This study proposes a measurable terrestrial ecosystem boundary to answer the question: what extent of landscapes, bioregions, continents, and the global Earth System must remain as connected and intact core ecological areas and agro-ecological buffers to sustain local and regional ecosystem services as well as the biosphere commons? Two preeminent considerations are connectivity of large ecosystem patches, enabling them to persist as the matrix for the landscape, and critical collapse of the dominant large habitat patch or "percolating cluster" into smaller, more isolated habitats, amid a matrix of human development. This transition, found to occur at about 40% habitat loss in landscapes and bioregions, is likely to be similar at continental and global scales.
A new planetary boundary threshold is proposed based on ecologys percolation theory: that across scales 60% of terrestrial ecosystems must remain, setting the ...
Posted in Uncategorized Comments Off on ECOLOGY SCIENCE: Terrestrial Ecosystem Loss and Biosphere CollapseCalif.’s Sierra a ‘living lab’ for climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 29th, 2013
Associated Press: In parts of California's Sierra Nevada, marshy meadows are going dry, wildflowers are blooming earlier and glaciers are melting into ice fields.
Scientists also are predicting the optimal temperature zone for giant sequoias will rise hundreds and hundreds of feet, leaving trees at risk of dying over the next 100 years.
As indicators point toward a warming climate, scientists across 4 million acres of federally protected land are noting changes affecting everything from the massive trees that...
Fracking faces tough foes in leafy Sussex
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 29th, 2013
Telegraph: You could call it a tale of two countrysides. On one side of the B2036 at Lower Stumble, near the leafy West Sussex village of Balcombe, stands a high, newly erected metal fence guarding the site where Cuadrilla -- Britain's main fracking firm -- plans to drill. To get in, you have to pass through two heavily padlocked gates, festooned with signs: No Access; No Admittance; Authorised Personnel Only; Guard Dogs on Patrol: even Danger, Firearms in Use -- though this may refer to shooting on the nearby...