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Archive for December, 2013
European Cities Hesitant to Adapt to Climate Change
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on December 8th, 2013
Climate News Network: European governments might have national targets to meet the demands of climate change. Many European cities, however, may not be in the mood.
Diana Reckien of Columbia University in the U.S. and 11 European colleagues report in the journal Climatic Change that one in three cities have no plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and seven out of 10 cities have no formal plans to adapt to climate change.
Sunrise on the waterfront at Liverpool, a city with a big stake in tackling climate change....
Let’s not be an ostrich with the Salton Sea
Posted by Desert Sun: Ben McCall on December 8th, 2013
Desert Sun: It is poetic that Texas and Oklahoma should feel greatest impact of climate change being that these two most strongly represent the denialism of Red State America. In case anyone hasn’t noticed, it is Red State America, the land of the climate change denialists, that has been hit hardest by droughts, heat, wildfires, floods, and devastating storms. An amazing 87 percent of Texas remains under some form of water restrictions as drought persists, pushing the cost of beef to all-time highs in our local...
Keystone backers await report vital to pipeline’s fate
Posted by Bloomberg: Jim Snyder on December 8th, 2013
Bloomberg: Supporters and foes of TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline are bracing for the release of an environmental analysis from the U.S. government that could determine the $5.4 billion project’s fate.
While the report isn’t the final step, it’s eagerly anticipated because it will answer a question central to whether President Barack Obama approves the project: would Keystone contribute significantly to climate change? Obama has said he wouldn’t support the pipeline if it were found to substantially...
More evidence that geo-engineering is likely to have unintended consequences
Posted by Summit Voice: None Given on December 8th, 2013
Summit Voice: When it comes to global warming nothing is simple -- and that includes proposals to mitigate the effects of heat-trapping greenhouse gases with planetary scale geo-engineering schemes. One of the ideas that`s been floated is to seed the atmosphere with material in order to reflect some of the sun`s incoming heat.
But a recent study by German researchers suggests that it probably won`t work -- and could have unexpected consequences for the global water cycle. In their model, based on an energy...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on More evidence that geo-engineering is likely to have unintended consequencesChevron halts Romania shale work after protest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 8th, 2013
Reuters: U.S. oil major Chevron halted exploration works for shale gas in eastern Romania for the second time in two months on Saturday after anti-fracking protesters broke through wire mesh fences around the site.
Thousands of people have rallied across Romania in recent months to protest against government support for shale gas exploration and separate plans to set up Europe's largest open cast gold mine in a small Carpathian town.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates Romania could...
Reducing sunlight ‘will not cool Earth.’
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on December 8th, 2013
Climate News Network: Two German scientists have just confirmed that you can’t balance the Earth’s rising temperatures by simply toning down the sunlight. It may do something disconcerting to the patterns of global rainfall.
Earlier this year a US-led group of scientists ran sophisticated climate models of a geo-engineered world and proposed the same thing. Now Axel Kleidon and Maik Renner of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany, have used a different theoretical approach to confirm the conclusion,...
UK can benefit from shale revolution
Posted by Scotsman: None Given on December 8th, 2013
Scotsman: IT IS almost impossible to overstate the impact of the shale gas and shale oil boom in the United States.
Here are some numbers: the US has increased its oil production by 23 per cent in the last two years; gas production has increased by 30 per cent in the last five years; US wholesale gas prices have dropped 75 per cent in five years. At the same time, the US has reduced its CO2 emissions, while emissions have increased in both Germany and Japan.
This transformation did not happen overnight....
Chevron resumes shale work in Romania despite protests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 8th, 2013
Agence France-Presse: Chevron on Sunday said it has resumed activities to build its first shale gas exploration well in Romania, a day after protests forced the US energy giant to suspend work.
"Chevron can confirm that it has resumed activities in Pungesti commune," in northeastern Romania, the company said in a statement.
On Saturday, hundreds of protesters, mainly villagers from Pungesti, broke through wire mesh fences around Chevron's site to protest against its plans to drill for shale gas.
Chevron was forced...
Arctic thaw tied to European, U.S. heatwaves and downpours – study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 8th, 2013
Reuters: A thaw of Arctic ice and snow is linked to worsening summer heatwaves and downpours thousands of miles south in Europe, the United States and other areas, underlying the scale of the threat posed by global warming, scientists said on Sunday.
Their report, which was dismissed as inconclusive by some other experts, warned of increasingly extreme weather across "much of North America and Eurasia where billions of people will be affected".
The study is part of a drive to work out how climate change...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Arctic thaw tied to European, U.S. heatwaves and downpours – studyIn Sandy’s wake, houses are raised higher, but roads still could flood
Posted by Press of Atlantic City: Sarah Watson on December 8th, 2013
Press of Atlantic City: Raising houses in flood-prone areas has been a key part of rebuilding efforts following Hurricane Sandy.
As the sea level continues to rise, however, experts warn there will come a time when, while the houses are safer from flooding, the roads and land around them could be inundated by twice-daily tides.
Many of the lowest-lying communities along the South Jersey coast already see this when the moon is new or full. Examples include North Surrey and Harvard avenues in Ventnor Heights, or the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on In Sandy’s wake, houses are raised higher, but roads still could flood