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Archive for June, 2014
How Will We Know When El Niño Finally Arrives?
Posted by Climate Central: Andrea Thompson on June 3rd, 2014
Climate Central: El Niño, El Niño, El Niño. Because of the implications it has for weather around the world, it's been the talk of the meteorological and climatological community since the first signs it might be developing emerged back in the winter. It's like the Marcia Brady of climate phenomena.
For example, hurricane forecasters expect it to tamp down on tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin this season, while drought-weary officials in California hope it will finally bring them some rain. El Niño could...
Dramatic flood sweeps through residential area in China as reservoir bursts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 3rd, 2014
Telegraph: A huge downpour has battered Pingba County in Guizhou Province, southwest China, with rainfall over 7 inches (188 millimeters).
Heavy rain started to batter Pingba Monday night, inundating roads and residential areas.
Rain-triggered flood trapped more than 1,000 vehicles across the county, and rescuers are busy freeing the vehicles out. It is not known if there are any casualties.
To make matters worse, a nearby reservoir burst during the rainstorm, bringing the water level to about 4 foot...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Dramatic flood sweeps through residential area in China as reservoir burstsFukushima Disaster Still Global Nightmare
Posted by EcoWatch: Harvey Wasserman on June 3rd, 2014
EcoWatch: The corporate media silence on Fukushima has been deafening even though the melted-down nuclear power plant’s seaborne radiation is now washing up on American beaches.
Ever more radioactive water continues to pour into the Pacific.
At least three extremely volatile fuel assemblies are stuck high in the air at Unit 4. Three years after the March 11, 2011, disaster, nobody knows exactly where the melted cores from Units 1, 2 and 3 might be.
Amid a dicey cleanup infiltrated by organized crime,...
10 Reasons Why Must Save Indonesian Peatlands
Posted by EcoWatch: Joao Talocchi, Greenpeace on June 3rd, 2014
EcoWatch: For years, this is known as a smoky, hazy time of year in Sumatra, Indonesia. And each year it’s getting worse. It’s the dry season, and hundreds of thousands of hectares of Indonesian peatland fires will burn for months. Those fires are a direct result of decades of forest and peatland destruction. Peat is partially decayed, dead vegetation, which has accumulated over thousands of years. It is typically saturated with water and therefore virtually impossible to set alight. But when peatlands are...
New Desalination Technologies Spur Growth Recyling Water
Posted by Yale Environment 360: Cheryl Katz on June 3rd, 2014
Yale Environment 360: A ferry plows along San Francisco Bay, trailing a tail of churned up salt, sand, and sludge and further fouling the already murky liquid that John Webley intends to turn into drinking water. But Webley, CEO of a Bay Area start-up working on a new, energy-skimping desalination system, isn’t perturbed.
“Look at the color of this intake,” he says, pointing to a tube feeding brown fluid into a device the size of a home furnace. There, through a process called forward osmosis, a novel solution the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on New Desalination Technologies Spur Growth Recyling WaterClimate Change and Lake Michigan
Posted by Urban Milwaukee: Bruce Murphy on June 3rd, 2014
Urban Milwaukee: Comedian John Oliver recently did a hilarious piece on the issue of global climate change, culminating in a “statistically representative” debate on the issue, with 97 scientists arguing that climate change is occurring and 3 scientists disputing this who got drowned out by the throng. His point was that climate change was a fact on which there was an overwhelming scientific consensus, yet the media continues to treat this as a “belief” about which scientists disagree. Oliver had fun ridiculing...
Dead heat: Climate change brings killer heat waves
Posted by Grist: Sarah Laskow and Melinda Tracy Boyce on June 3rd, 2014
Grist: This comic was produced by Years of Living Dangerously and Symbolia Magazine. You can read more of their comics exploring the impacts of climate change here.
India: 90% of people in 8 cities feel climate change occuring: Study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 3rd, 2014
Press Trust of India: Every nine of 10 Indians in eight cities felt that climate change was occurring, average temperatures had risen and rainfall levels had gone down over time, a study said. Moreover, around 86 per cent of respondents felt that polythene bags should be banned, while 80 per cent of them were aware of the problem of e-waste, and most respondents either repaired or re-used electronic goods, the study by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) said. Over 70 per cent of respondents were aware of water...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on India: 90% of people in 8 cities feel climate change occuring: StudyBritain’s Urban Rivers Are the Cleanest They Have Been in Two Decades
Posted by Softpedia: None Given on June 3rd, 2014
Softpedia: Scientists who have taken the time to assess the cleanliness of urban rivers in Britain are happy to announce that, according to evidence at hand, these water courses are now the least polluted they have been in over two decades. EurekAlert tells us that, about 21 years ago, urban rivers across Britain were home to very few so-called clean-river invertebrates, i.e. insects, snails, and other small creatures that don't get along all that well with pollutants. However, it appears that, in recent...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Britain’s Urban Rivers Are the Cleanest They Have Been in Two DecadesCalifornia Governor Applauds Global Warming Fight
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 2nd, 2014
Associated Press: Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday welcomed President Barack Obama`s global warming initiative, saying it shows the administration is willing to confront climate change.
The Democratic governor touted the state`s aggressive energy-saving programs, saying they already generate billions of dollars in savings and more than a million jobs as a result of clean-energy efforts.
"While others delay and deny, the Obama administration is confronting climate change head-on with these new standards," Brown said...