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Archive for July 2nd, 2013
United States: How suburban sprawl makes wildfires more deadly
Posted by Grist: Claire Thompson on July 2nd, 2013
Grist: Last year’s wildfire season was one of the worst on record, and whether or not this year`s tops it (a likely outcome), it’s already off to a horrifically tragic start: 19 elite firefighters perished in a blaze outside Prescott, Ariz., on Sunday - the most to die fighting a single wildfire in 80 years. Even before the deadly Yarnell Hill blaze began, the usual suspects were asking: What does climate change have to do with wildfires? James West of Climate Desk addressed this maddening question a couple...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on United States: How suburban sprawl makes wildfires more deadlyWildfire Season So Far: Tragic, Destructive And Below Average
Posted by National Public Radio: Howard Berkes on July 2nd, 2013
National Public Radio: It may seem like wildfire Armageddon out there, given the tragic deaths of 24 wildland firefighters this year, more than 800 homes and businesses burned to the ground, nearly 1.6 million acres scorched and over 23,000 blazes requiring suppression.
But as dramatic as it's been, the 2013 wildfire season has yet to kick into high gear.
The 2013 Wildfire Season By The Numbers (as of July 2)
Acres burned to date: 1,592,042
Wildfires to date: 23,389
Ten-year average for acres burned to date:...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Wildfire Season So Far: Tragic, Destructive And Below AverageFukushima Operator TEPCO Seeks to Restart Reactors at World’s Largest Nuclear Power Station
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on July 2nd, 2013
Nature World News: Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of Japan’s stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, said Tuesday it plans to ask the country's nuclear watch group for permission to restart two of its offline nuclear reactors at a different location. (Photo : Reuters)
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, said Tuesday it plans to ask the country's nuclear watch group for permission to restart two of its offline nuclear...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fukushima Operator TEPCO Seeks to Restart Reactors at World’s Largest Nuclear Power StationThe Friends and Foes of Organic Food
Posted by Environmental Working Group: Alex Formuzis on July 2nd, 2013
Environmental Working Group: The Alliance for Food and Farming (AFF), which is run out of a P.O. box in Watsonville, CA, claims to extol the health benefits of consuming both conventional and organic produce and maintains that its members include both conventional and organic farmers.
However, the AFF’s own website is nothing short of an online shrine to man-made pesticides and foods that delivers those toxic residues directly to the consumer, making clear that it’s an agribusiness front group and hardly an outfit that most...
Does Climate Change Make Western Firefighting More Dangerous?
Posted by Mother Jones: Chris Mooney on July 2nd, 2013
Mother Jones: In the wake of the tragic news that 19 heroic members of an elite "Hotshot" firefighting team were killed in Arizona, there's been renewed discussion about climate change and how it is worsening wildfires. In particular, there's considerable evidence that western fire seasons are getting longer and more destructive, and that this is tied to more extreme heat and drought.
But does the same dynamic make the act of wildland firefighting riskier? There are reasons to suspect that it does.
Nick...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Does Climate Change Make Western Firefighting More Dangerous?Hawaiians fight back against GMO experiments
Posted by Grist: John Upton on July 2nd, 2013
Grist: The state of Hawaii has become a lot like the island of Dr. Moreau. Except that instead of Dr. Moreau - the mad scientist in H.G. Wells`s 1896 novel who vivisected animals into beast-people - Hawaii is ruled by the GMO industry.
Monsanto, Dow AgroSciences, Syngenta, DuPont Pioneer, and BASF use the Pacific archipelago as open-air testing grounds for their experimental genetically modified crops, and they spray those crops with herbicides and other chemicals to test how they respond.
But now...
Yes, wildfires are connected to climate change. Here’s how.
Posted by Treehugger: Chris Tackett on July 2nd, 2013
Treehugger: The American West is currently suffering from a record-setting heat wave and deadly wildfires. Tragically, 19 fire fighters died Sunday in Prescott, Arizona fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire, one of the many fires that are currently burning through the west. As we've come to see following events such as this, people are asking if or how this is related to global warming. Below are some good explanations of how fires and heatwaves are or are not related to climate change. ">Seth Borenstein at Wunderground...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Yes, wildfires are connected to climate change. Here’s how.Florida Keys prepare for sea level rise
Posted by Associated Press: Jennifer Kay on July 2nd, 2013
Associated Press: Hurricane storm surge can inundate the narrow, low-lying Florida Keys, but that is far from the only water worry for officials.
A tidal gauge operating since before the Civil War has documented a sea level rise of 9 inches in the last century, and officials expect that to double over the next 50 years. So when building a new Stock Island fire station, county authorities went ahead added a foot and a half over federal flood planning directives that the ground floor be built up 9 feet.
Seasonal...
How Hotshot firefighters made one last desperate bid for survival
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 2nd, 2013
Associated Press: With no way out, the 19 elite firefighters did what they were trained to do when trapped by a raging fire: they unfurled their foil-lined, heat-resistant tarps and rushed to cover themselves on the ground.
The glue holding the layers of the tarp together begins to come apart at about 500 degrees, well above the 300 degrees that would almost immediately kill a person.
But that last, desperate line of defence couldn't save the "Hotshot" crew from the flames that swept over them in the small town...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on How Hotshot firefighters made one last desperate bid for survivalHeat reaches triple digits, strains power grids
Posted by USA Today: Gregg Zoroya and Doyle Rice on July 2nd, 2013
USA Today: High temperatures brought sweaty discomfort to much of the Southwest on Sunday with no break in the sizzling temperatures likely until Tuesday. The thermometer reached 117 in Las Vegas. Triple-digit temperatures were recorded n the valleys and desert regions of Southern California, while metropolitan Phoenix saw just a slight drop in temperatures after experiencing record-breaking heat a day earlier. In Pasadena, Calif., six half-marathon runners were hospitalized Sunday for heat-related illnesses....