RSS Feed
Archive for May 31st, 2014
How will climate change affect the Sahara?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 31st, 2014
Wall Street Journal: At the end of the last ice age, about 11,000 years ago, northern Africa became a grassland, home to fish, elephants and thousands of people. Then, 5,000 years ago, scientists say, it abruptly turned into an enormous wasteland--the vast desert that we now call the Sahara. The shift from savanna to sand was the result of natural climate change, triggered by a cyclical alteration in the sun's orbit. The decline in rainfall pushed residents south and east and perhaps contributed to the rise of the Egyptian...
Obama says to prepare now for hurricane season
Posted by Eagle-Tribune: None Given on May 31st, 2014
Eagle-Tribune: President Barack Obama is urging Americans to prepare for this year’s hurricane season. Emergency response officials are briefing Obama on hurricane preparedness at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters. Obama says states have the primary response role, but it’s a team effort. Obama says it is every citizen’s responsibility to be prepared for emergencies. He’s urging every family and business to explore digital tools that can help. He says there are apps that can help people plan...
Earth head toward another mass extinction
Posted by Al Jazeera: Renee Lewis on May 31st, 2014
Al Jazeera: Species are now disappearing at a rate of up to 1,000 times faster than they did before humans started walking the earth, a new study says.
“The Biodiversity of Species and their Rates of Extinction, Distribution, and Protection” was published Thursday in the journal Science, and it warned that the world is on the brink of its sixth great extinction.
Mass extinctions have wiped out the majority of life on Earth at least five times. About 66 million years ago, a mass extinction killed off the...
Some banks stop funding mountain top removal
Posted by Livingo on Earth: None Given on May 31st, 2014
Livingo on Earth: Coal companies have stripped the tops of mountains in Appalachia in search of the fuel. But as Amanda Starbuck tells host Steve Curwood, the Rainforest Action Network has helped convince some of the world's biggest banks to stop funding companies that practice destructive Mountain Top Removal. Transcript CURWOOD: It's Living on Earth, I'm Steve Curwood. The coal industry is under fire in the US from several directions, ranging from calls to pull investments from fossil fuels to proposed federal...
Greens plan huge push President Obama climate plan
Posted by Politico: None Given on May 31st, 2014
Politico: President Barack Obama's new climate rule is getting a major push from his green allies, who plan to blitz the airwaves next week with the start of a summer-long campaign to champion the administration's attack on carbon.
Obama's fiercest critics, meanwhile, are largely holding their fire for now.
That means environmental, public health and religious groups may be waging a mostly one-sided publicity onslaught -- at least in nationwide paid media -- after the White House and the EPA unveil their...
Oilsands: Desmond Tutu stresses quick action against controversial project
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 31st, 2014
Canadian Press: South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu says he has come to Fort McMurray not as a “know-it-all” about climate change but hoping to be a catalyst for change. Tutu says he doesn’t want to tell Canadians what to do about the environment. But he told reporters in the northern Alberta oilsands city that the world is sitting on a powder keg if something isn’t done quickly. Tutu is in Fort McMurray for a two-day conference on aboriginal treaties and climate change. The archbishop, who won the Nobel Peace...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Oilsands: Desmond Tutu stresses quick action against controversial projectWhy Natural Gas is a Bridge to Nowhere
Posted by EcoWatch: Brandon Baker on May 31st, 2014
EcoWatch: Though the president and federal Environmental Protection Agency are on the brink of issuing new rules for existing coal-fired power plants, a Cornell University professor says natural gas deserves a bit of attention, too.
Robert Howarth has maintained for three years that natural gas was capable of emitting more greenhouse gases than coal. Now, the professor of ecology and evolutionary biology has new research to back it up.
Published in the Energy Science & Engineering journal this month,...
World ‘On The Brink Of A Sixth Great Extinction’
Posted by Design and Trend: Carrie Weisman on May 31st, 2014
Design and Trend: A new study has revealed that plant and animal species are becoming extinct at least 1,000 times faster than they did before humans entered the picture.
The study claims the world is "on the brink of a sixth great extinction"
The study compared past and present rates of extinction, and found a lower rate of extinction in the past than scientists had thought. Species are in fact disappearing from the planet about 10 times faster than previously believed.
Stuart Pimm of Duke University, and...
UK Weather: spring set to be third hottest on record
Posted by Blue and Green: None Given on May 31st, 2014
Blue and Green: The Met Office has predicted that this year’s spring will be the third warmest on record in the UK. Scotland could also see its warmest spring since records began in 1910, with the UK experiencing six months of above average temperatures. The predictions are supported by an average March-May temperature which is third only to 2007 and 2011. Whilst England has seen the warmest average temperatures of 9.76C, Wales is not too far behind at 9.04C and Scotland at 7.63C. The UK overall has seen average...
Record low river flows show need for improved water planning
Posted by Banner-Herald: Lee Shearer on May 31st, 2014
Banner-Herald: There’s not as much water in the Oconee River as there once was, and there’s going to be less in the future, according to a Georgia Tech professor’s study.
The amount of water going down the Oconee River has declined about 20 percent in the past 50 years, according to Aris Georgakakos, director of the Georgia Water Resources Institute at Tech.
He’s recorded similar declines in the Chattahoochee-Flint and other Georgia river basins.
And the declines area likely to be even steeper in coming...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Record low river flows show need for improved water planning