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Archive for August 31st, 2014
Rich nations have moral duty to help island nations as climate change shifts weather patterns
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on August 31st, 2014
Sydney Morning Herald: Small island nations, particularly those in the Pacific, are already experiencing "extreme effects" from global warming, and rich nations including Australia have a "moral responsibility" to help them cope with future unavoidable threats, a senior World Bank executive said.
Atoll nations including Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands are seeing shifting rainfall patterns, rising sea-levels and ocean acidification that are forcing islanders to move, said Rachel Kyte, the World Bank's special...
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Comments Off on Rich nations have moral duty to help island nations as climate change shifts weather patterns‘Ban Fracking in North Carolina’
Posted by Stokes News: Jess Moore on August 31st, 2014
Stokes News: An occasionally raucous crowd of nearly 450 sent a message to Raleigh Monday: Ban Fracking in North Carolina.
In rapid sequence, with no breaks, for four solid hours, 84 speakers appeared before the members of the NC Mining and Energy Commission in Reidsville, to comment on the state`s proposed rules on Oil and Gas exploration.
The theme was apparent: Either ban oil and gas drilling entirely, or write a better set of rules to protect citizens more than drillers. Or, as one speaker said, "Make...
A climate for change
Posted by Berkshire Eagle: Editorial on August 31st, 2014
Berkshire Eagle: Modest efforts to confront human-caused global warming are being overwhelmed by the pace of climate change, according to a draft of a major United Nations report to be released this fall. This conclusion is hardly surprising given what was already known. What would be surprising if there was meaningful reaction to it not sabotaged by politics. A copy of the draft report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was obtained by The New York Times, and while the report could change in the weeks...
Fires and drought have transformed New Mexico forests
Posted by Las Cruces News: Heath Haussamen on August 31st, 2014
Las Cruces News: Gambel oak and other shrubs whose roots survived a lightning-sparked wildfire in 2013 sprout on many slopes once dominated by ponderosa pines. Black, mangled masses of wood and dead barley plants loom over the new growth, which also includes aspens, grass and wildflowers. The barley grew last fall from seeds the U.S. Forest Service dropped to minimize erosion after the Silver Fire.
Pines survived in many areas within the 139,000-acre burn scar. But in other places, the trees were incinerated --...
Local salamanders could shed light on life under climate change
Posted by Richmond Times-Dispatch: Rex Springston on August 31st, 2014
Richmond Times-Dispatch: Does a rough life as a youngster foretell hard times as an adult? A Virginia Commonwealth University researcher wants to know if that’s true -- for salamanders.
Doctoral student Julie Charbonnier is studying whether deprivation in early life affects how the little amphibians might fare in a world changed by global warming.
“How does your childhood impact you later in life?” asked Charbonnier, summarizing the work.
The object of her attention is the spotted salamander, a dark little cigar...
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