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Archive for December, 2013
Planet likely to warm by 4C by 2100 scientists warn
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 31st, 2013
Guardian: Temperature rises resulting from unchecked climate change will be at the severe end of those projected, according to a new scientific study.
The scientist leading the research said that unless emissions of greenhouse gases were cut, the planet would heat up by a minimum of 4C by 2100, twice the level the world's governments deem dangerous.
The research indicates that fewer clouds form as the planet warms, meaning less sunlight is reflected back into space, driving temperatures up further still....
Madagascar battles locust swarms save rice & maize crops
Posted by Guardian: Sébastien Hervieu on December 31st, 2013
Guardian: A pair of farmers in Madagascar are struggling to drive off hundreds of thousands of locusts heading for their rice plantation, equipped with no more than a branch and a plastic bag. "It's the third time in a month that these bugs have come near here and I'm terrified we may lose everything," says Razafindradaoro.
For this father of four, salvation could come from the heavens. Flying about 10 metres above the ground, a helicopter will soon be spraying insecticide in the area around Tsiroanomandidy,...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Madagascar battles locust swarms save rice & maize cropsNorth Dakota train crash prompts call for evacuation
Posted by Grand Forks Herald: Erik Burgess and Kyle Potter on December 31st, 2013
Grand Forks Herald: Officials urged people in Casselton and the surrounding area to evacuate their homes as they dealt with the fallout from a massive fire when two trains collided Monday. The fire started about 2:10 p.m. when a westbound grain train derailed about a half-mile west of Casselton and slammed into an eastbound 106-car train carrying crude oil. More than 10 oil cars exploded, pumping thick clouds of black smoke into the air. Fire officials expected the flames to rage overnight in the oil cars that had...
Florida’s mangroves head northwards
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on December 31st, 2013
Climate News Network: The mangroves of Florida are on the move. Mangrove forests in the north of the state have doubled in area in the last 28 years, thanks not to global warming as such, but because the number of sharply frosty days has dropped.
The discovery is in itself not a surprise – mangrove growth is limited by temperature – but once again it confirms a pattern of climate change and species migration in response to man-made global warming.
Kyle Cavanaugh and colleagues report in the Proceedings of the National...
Mangroves in Florida Expanding Due to Climate Change
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on December 31st, 2013
Nature World News: Fewer cold snaps in Florida are helping mangroves extend their territory, according to a new study. Mangroves thrive in warm, salty areas and are known to form complex ecosystems. Their presence in the Sunshine State was limited due to freezing temperatures during winter. However, from the past few years, there has been a decline in the number of days that see temperatures dipping below negative 4 degrees Celsius (25 degrees Fahrenheit). Fewer cold days have led mangroves to getting a foothold...
North Dakota Train Explosion Adds Fuel to Keystone XL Pipeline Debate
Posted by Bloomberg: Jim Snyder, Lynn Doan and Bradley Olson on December 31st, 2013
Bloomberg: The derailment and fire that led to the evacuation of a North Dakota town has renewed the debate over whether it’s safer to ship oil by rail or pipeline as the U.S. completes a review of the Keystone XL project.
“Any time there is an incident, you have heightened talk and scrutiny on oil transportation,” Brigham McCown, a former director of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, said yesterday in an interview. “It will add to the conversation.”
Public safety officials urged...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on North Dakota Train Explosion Adds Fuel to Keystone XL Pipeline DebateWithout Winter Freezes, Mangroves Are Marching North, Scientists Say
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 31st, 2013
New York times: Much of the Florida shoreline was once too cold for the tropical trees called mangroves, but the plants are now spreading northward at a rapid clip, scientists reported Monday. That finding is the latest indication that global warming, though still in its early stages, is already leading to ecological changes so large they can be seen from space. Along a 50-mile stretch of the central Florida coast south of St. Augustine, the amount of mangrove forest doubled between 1984 and 2011, the scientists...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Without Winter Freezes, Mangroves Are Marching North, Scientists SayCalifornia ‘King Tides’ Hit; Are Rising Sea Levels A Sign Of Climate Change?
Posted by International Business Times: None Given on December 30th, 2013
International Business Times: Starting Monday, Californians can expect high tides to reach higher than normal. The arrival of the West Coast’s annual “king tides,” a twice-yearly phenomenon that brings occasional flooding, signals the alignment of the sun and moon, which creates maximum pull on the Earth’s oceans.
From Dec. 30 until about Jan. 2, California’s high tides will peak at an estimated 7.1 feet above average low tide, a National Weather Service representative told KPCC Radio. That’s about 1.5 feet higher than Los...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on California ‘King Tides’ Hit; Are Rising Sea Levels A Sign Of Climate Change?Climate change drives Florida mangroves northward
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 30th, 2013
Mongabay: A decline in the frequency of extreme cold weather in Florida has allowed coastal mangrove forests to expand northward, finds a study published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The research, based on analysis of satellite and temperate data, found that mangroves in the Miami area and northward have expanded by 1,240 hectares since 1984.
"Between Cape Canaveral National Seashore and Saint Augustine, mangroves doubled in area," noted a statement issued by the University...
Florida’s Mangrove Forests Expand with Climate Change
Posted by LiveScience: Tia Ghose on December 30th, 2013
LiveScience: Fewer deep freezes, attributable to Earth's warming climate, have caused mangrove forests to expand northward in Florida over the past three decades, new research suggests.
"Mangroves showed the largest increases in regions where cold snaps became less frequent over the past 30 years," study co-author Kyle Cavanaugh, an ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Maryland, wrote in an email.
The findings, published today (Dec. 30) in the journal Proceedings of the National...