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Archive for September, 2014
Climate detectives reveal handprint of human caused climate change in Australia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 30th, 2014
ScienceDaily: Australia's hottest year on record in 2013 along with the accompanying droughts, heat waves and record-breaking seasons of that year was virtually impossible without the influence of human-caused global warming.
New research from ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science (ARCCSS) researchers and colleagues, over five different Australian papers in a special edition of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS), has highlighted the powerful influence of global warming...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Climate detectives reveal handprint of human caused climate change in AustraliaWorld’s wildlife declined by 50% in 40 years
Posted by Blue and Green: Ilaria Bertini on September 30th, 2014
Blue and Green: The number of wild animals living on the planet has halved over the past four decades because of unsustainable consumption and reckless human activities that have destroyed habitats, according to the latest figures from WWF and the Zoological Society of London.
The Living Planet Index (LPI) measures the state of the world`s biological diversity based on population trends. In the 2014 report, the two organisations have urged a shift to more sustainable ways of consumption and living, to reverse...
Greenland Ice Sheet more vulnerable to climate change than previously thought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 30th, 2014
ScienceDaily: A new model developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge has shown that despite its apparent stability, the massive ice sheet covering most of Greenland is more sensitive to climate change than earlier estimates have suggested, which would accelerate the rising sea levels that threaten coastal communities worldwide.
In addition to assessing the impact of the increasing levels of meltwater created and spilled into the ocean each year as the climate continues to warm, the new model also...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Greenland Ice Sheet more vulnerable to climate change than previously thoughtCalifornia drought link greenhouse gases, climate change
Posted by San Jose Mercury News: Lisa M. Krieger on September 30th, 2014
San Jose Mercury News: The stubborn high-pressure systems that block California rains are linked to the abundance of human-caused greenhouse gases that heat the oceans, according to a major paper released Monday by Stanford scientists.
But two other new studies disagree -- saying there's no evidence that warming ocean waters are to blame for our drought.
The dispute comes at the end of the state's official "water year," which closes Tuesday with less than 60 percent of average precipitation. California's major reservoirs...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on California drought link greenhouse gases, climate changeStanford scientists say greenhouse gases worsen California drought
Posted by Reuters: Joaquin Palomino on September 30th, 2014
Reuters: California’s catastrophic drought has most likely been made worse by man-made climate change, according to a report released Monday by Stanford University, but scientists are still hesitant to fully blame the lack of rain on climate change.
The research, published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society as part of a collection of reports on extreme weather events in 2013, is one of the most comprehensive studies linking climate change and California's ongoing drought, which has...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Stanford scientists say greenhouse gases worsen California droughtAustralia ranked 13 by WWF for ecological footprint
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on September 30th, 2014
Guardian: Australians require a huge ecological “footprint” in order to sustain their lifestyles, with just 12 nations in the world using up more arable land and carbon-burning generation, according to new figures.
WWF’s Living Planet Index, which is conducted once every two years, has found that Australia requires 6.25 global hectares per person per year. A global hectare is a unit which averages out what productive land and ocean, such as cropland, forests and fishing grounds, can generate over the course...
Global wildlife populations down 1/2 since 1970: WWF
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2014
Reuters: The world populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles fell overall by 52 percent between 1970 and 2010, far faster than previously thought, the World Wildlife Fund said on Tuesday.
The conservation group's Living Planet Report, published every two years, said humankind's demands were now 50 percent more than nature can bear, with trees being felled, groundwater pumped and carbon dioxide emitted faster than Earth can recover.
"This damage is not inevitable but a consequence...
Human-Related Climate Change Led to Extreme Heat, Scientists Say
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 29th, 2014
New York Times: The savage heat waves that struck Australia in 2013 were almost certainly a direct consequence of the human release of greenhouse gases, researchers said Monday. It is perhaps the most definitive statement climate scientists have made that ties a specific weather event to global warming.
Five groups of researchers, using distinct methods, analyzed the heat that baked Australia for much of last year and continued into 2014, shutting down the Australian Open tennis tournament at one point in January....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Human-Related Climate Change Led to Extreme Heat, Scientists SayThe fingerprint of climate change on the California drought, extreme weather in 2013
Posted by Washington Post: Angela Fritz on September 29th, 2014
Washington Post: Researchers studying the fingerprint of human-caused climate change on extreme weather events in 2013 have found that it played a role in half of the events that they looked at, including the California drought and extreme heat events.
Climate change attribution — figuring out what role climate change is playing in our weather events — is a very difficult science. There are so many moving parts: ground-level weather conditions, large-scale atmospheric patterns, and global teleconnections, like...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on The fingerprint of climate change on the California drought, extreme weather in 2013Floods, forest fires, expanding deserts: the future has arrived
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2014
Guardian: Climate change is no longer viewed by mainstream scientists as a future threat to our planet and our species. It is a palpable phenomenon that already affects the world, they insist. And a brief look round the globe certainly provides no lack of evidence to support this gloomy assertion.
In Bangladesh, increasingly severe floods – triggered, in part, by increasing temperatures and rising sea levels – are wiping out crops and destroying homes on a regular basis. In Sudan, the heat is causing the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Floods, forest fires, expanding deserts: the future has arrived