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Archive for September, 2013
Can dams help buffer global warming impacts?
Posted by Summit County: Bob Berwyn on September 27th, 2013
Summit County: For all the environmental mayhem they`ve caused in the past, dams may help buffer some aquatic ecosystems from future global warming impacts, according to a new study from Oregon State University.
Specifically, the researchers said dams could provide “ecological and engineering resilience” to climate change in the Columbia River basin.
“The dams are doing what they are supposed to do, which is to use engineering – and management – to buffer us from climate variability and climate warming,”...
Living in a flood zone? Check your insurance. It may be about to go up.
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2013
Christian Science Monitor: If you live on a coastline or in a river flood plain, check your flood insurance and where your home or business sits on the latest federal flood maps. As of Oct. 1, the final stages of a 2012 flood-insurance reform law kick in, aimed at substantially reducing subsidies for federal flood insurance. Premiums charged to most once-subsidized policyholders are slated to rise over the next four years, until the premiums reach the rate that reflects the true flood risk their properties face. The Federal...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Living in a flood zone? Check your insurance. It may be about to go up.Ireland set for warmer, drier summers and wetter winters
Posted by Irish Times: None Given on September 27th, 2013
Irish Times: Ireland will become a balmier place as a result of climate change but the summertime benefits will come at a cost. The warmer, drier summers will be followed by wetter autumns and winters with floods an almost certainty, according to new climate research released last night.
International effortMet Éireann co-ordinated a major international study looking specifically at how climate change would alter the picture here. It draws on its own data sets collected over decades but also on expertise available...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Ireland set for warmer, drier summers and wetter wintersAs Rim Fire landscape shows signs of new life, scientists begin to assess forest management
Posted by Associated Press: Tracie Cone on September 27th, 2013
Associated Press: In the midst of a foreboding canyon scorched bare by the Sierra Nevada's most destructive fire in centuries, tiny ferns unfurl along a spring, black oaks push through charred soil normally blanketed with pine needles and a hawk soars above towering dead and denuded trees.
Just four weeks after the most intense day of California's Rim Fire -- when wind and extremely arid conditions created a conflagration that turned 30,000 acres of dense conifers and oaks into a moonscape -- life is returning...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on As Rim Fire landscape shows signs of new life, scientists begin to assess forest managementWhile Keystone XL still enjoys broad approval, issue divides Democrats
Posted by Washington Post: Scott Clement and Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2013
Washington Post: As the Obama administration continues to weigh whether to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, a Pew Research Center poll released Thursday finds Americans` broad support for the project has not wavered even as the issue continues to fracture the Democratic Party’s liberal and moderate wings.
The survey finds a public of two minds on energy issues: Americans have a clear preference for expanding alternative energy over fossil fuels – by a 58 to 34 percent margin, and they support curbing greenhouse...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on While Keystone XL still enjoys broad approval, issue divides DemocratsIPCC climate report: six things we’ve learned
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2013
Guardian: * Scientists are more certain than ever that humanity is to blame for rising temperatures. The head of the United Nations' World Meteorological Organisation, Michel Jarraud, said "it is extremely likely that changes in our climate system in the past half century are due to human influence." The report says: "Human influence on the climate system is clear. This is evident from the increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, positive radiative forcing, observed warming, and understanding...
Working poor hit hard by Colorado flooding
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2013
Reuters: Victoria Varela shook her head in disbelief as she surveyed the wreckage of the trailer she had fled minutes before flood waters rushed through her mobile home park in the hardscrabble town of Evans, Colorado destroying everything in its path. "We didn't think it would be so bad, so I just grabbed some of the kids' clothes and left, but it turns out everything in there is ruined," the mother of four said, as her husband Jesus pulled mud-encased items from inside their home. The Valeras are among...
Key findings of IPCC report on climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2013
Associated Press: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an international body established by the U.N. in 1988, presented a summary of its latest assessment on climate change on Friday. Here are the key findings:
Global warming is "unequivocal," and since the 1950's it's "extremely likely" that human activities have been the dominant cause of the temperature rise.
Concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have increased to levels that are unprecedented in at least...
Thanks, Global Warming–Mosquito-Borne Diseases Are on the Uptick
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2013
Scientific American: Dear EarthTalk: Is there a link between the recent spread of mosquito-borne diseases around the world and environmental pollution?--Meg Ross, Lantana, Fla.
If by pollution you mean greenhouse gas emissions, then definitely yes. According to Maria Diuk-Wasser at the Yale School of Public Health, the onset of human-induced global warming is likely to increase the infection rates of mosquito-borne diseases like malaria, dengue fever and West Nile virus by creating more mosquito-friendly habitats....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Thanks, Global Warming–Mosquito-Borne Diseases Are on the UptickIPCC report: Scientists are 95% certain humans are responsible for climate change
Posted by Independent: Tom Bawden, James Legge on September 27th, 2013
Independent: Scientists are more certain than they have ever been that humans are causing global warming, according to the most comprehensive report ever conducted into climate change, which predicts "with 95 per cent certainty" that people’s greenhouse gas emissions are heating the world.
This is the main finding of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) fifth assessment report, known as AR5, which was published in Stockholm this morning.
The degree of certainty leaves little doubt that...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on IPCC report: Scientists are 95% certain humans are responsible for climate change