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Archive for November, 2013
Does climate change mean less ice on Lake Superior?
Posted by WDIO: None Given on November 17th, 2013
WDIO: Representative Rick Nolan and nearly 100 residents filled a UMD lecture hall for a climate change forum on Saturday.
Lake Superior hasn't seen significant ice yet this year, and local scientists said it will see less ice in the future.
"We have our cold winters. We have our warm winters, but progressively, steadily we're going to see more of the warm and less of the cold. We're going to see overall a decrease in the ice cover on Lake Superior,' Professor Tom Johnson said.
Johnson is a regent...
Who will become the world’s first climate change refugee?
Posted by Globe and Mail: Robert McLeman on November 17th, 2013
Globe and Mail: Ioane Teitiota was not seeking fame when he moved to New Zealand, but he is now getting it. He is the first person, so far as is known, to request asylum in a common-law country on the basis of being a climate change refugee.
A native of Kiribati - a small island state in the South Pacific - Mr. Teitiota went to New Zealand several years ago as a legal guest worker, but he stayed on and his visa expired. He has now asked the New Zealand government to refrain from sending him and his family back...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Who will become the world’s first climate change refugee?Climate rallies held across Australia
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on November 17th, 2013
Guardian: An estimated 60,000 people have attended rallies across Australia in one of the largest ever displays of support for action on climate change.
Labor and Greens politicians, alongside volunteer firefighters and environmental activists, took turns at the Climate Action Day to lambast the Coalition government, which will table bills in parliament on Monday to dismantle carbon pricing.
Around 25,000 people gathered on Sunday in the Melbourne sunshine, with Labor's environment spokesman, Mark Butler,...
Villagers mob U.S. aid choppers as Philippine relief effort spreads
Posted by Reuters: Aubrey Belford on November 17th, 2013
Reuters: Mobbed by hungry villagers, U.S. military helicopters dropped desperately needed aid into remote areas of the typhoon-ravaged central Philippines, as survivors of the disaster flocked to ruined churches on Sunday to pray for their uncertain future.
The Philippines is facing up to an enormous rebuilding task from Typhoon Haiyan, which killed at least 3,974 people and left 1,186 missing, with many isolated communities yet to receive significant aid despite a massive international relief effort....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Villagers mob U.S. aid choppers as Philippine relief effort spreadsAustralia: Protesters brave rain for climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 17th, 2013
AAP: The federal government was "sacrificing the planet for politics" by not taking stronger action to combat climate change, a rally in Sydney has been told.
Outlaw bikie shot in parents' driveway 36 minutes ago Shot Vic bikie has Hells Angels links 38 minutes ago Passenger jet crashes in Russia, kills 50 One hour ago Dinosaurs brought to life by parents Victoria's Secret angels take flight Victim writes hilarious apology letter to burglars
Thousands of protesters, many in plastic ponchos or huddling...
Water is too precious a resource to be squandered
Posted by Guardian: Richard Benyon on November 17th, 2013
Guardian: As environment minister in the spring of 2012, I was warned that the chance of avoiding a massive drought was about 3%. The two preceding winters were so dry that levels in reservoirs and the aquifers were dangerously low. Anything approaching normal summer rainfall that year meant a huge economic, social and environmental nightmare. We had been planning for the impact of the drought for 18 months before this conversation but as the summer drew near I started to wonder how we were going to keep the...
United Kingdom: ‘Jubilee deluge saved us from drought,’ reveals Tory ex-minister
Posted by Guardian: Daniel Boffey on November 16th, 2013
Guardian: It was the defining image of last year's jubilee celebrations – a drenched Queen Elizabeth II, then 86, and Prince Philip, then 91, standing on a barge sailing down the Thames on a wet summer's day that was more like November than June.
Now the image has taken on a new significance, with the revelation that the south-east was saved from a drought that would have forced residents to get their water from standpipes on street corners by the rain that soaked the royal couple.
Richard Benyon MP,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: ‘Jubilee deluge saved us from drought,’ reveals Tory ex-ministerOil drilling wastes, long buried under Canada’s permafrost, leak into environment
Posted by ClimateWire: Henry Gass on November 16th, 2013
ClimateWire: For decades, companies exploring for oil and gas in the Arctic's remote southern reaches have disposed of their drilling waste in the cheapest and most convenient way possible: by digging massive pits to hold the waste and then capping them with frozen permafrost. And for decades, the waste harmlessly sat in the frozen tombs.
Then climate change, which scientists say is caused by burning fossil fuels, set in, causing the permafrost to begin melting.
A "sump" of oil drilling mud, supposedly...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Oil drilling wastes, long buried under Canada’s permafrost, leak into environmentFishing communities will face warmer, acid oceans
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 16th, 2013
Inter Press Service: Eating fish has been an integral part of the Caribbean`s cultural traditions for centuries. Fish is also a major source of food and essential nutrients, especially in rural areas where there are scores of small coastal communities.
"That is the protein that they have to put in their pot, and sometimes it has to stretch for very many mouths," Dr. Susan Singh-Renton, deputy executive director of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), told IPS."Globally we have to be prepared for significant...
Brown releases proposed rules fracking
Posted by LA Times: Marc Lifsher on November 16th, 2013
LA Times: The Brown administration has released much-anticipated proposed rules for fracking, a controversial technique for drilling for oil and natural gas reviled by environmentalists.
The process, formally known as hydraulic fracturing, involves pumping water, sand and a mixture of chemicals into geological strata to free trapped hydrocarbons.
Supporters say that it is opening up a vast new energy source and creating high-paying jobs. Opponents contend that fracking could pollute underground drinking...