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Archive for December, 2014
California Droughts Could Have Dangerous Ripple Effects
Posted by LiveScience: Laura Poppick on December 31st, 2014
LiveScience: Epic droughts like the one gripping California for three years now may become more frequent in the future due to climate change, according to new research. This will not only strain the drinking-water supplies for California's 38 million people, but will also induce a cascade of other hazards — including fires, floods and poor water quality — as populations continue to grow statewide, scientists say. Despite heavy rains this month, 78 percent of California is still experiencing either exceptional...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on California Droughts Could Have Dangerous Ripple EffectsIn Migrant Camp, Calif Drought Brings Familiar Desperation
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 31st, 2014
National Geographic: "They were hungry, and they were fierce. And they had hoped to find a home, and they found only hatred.-The Grapes of Wrath
Like the fictional Joad family in The Grapes of Wrath, I'd dreamt of eating fresh peaches picked from a tree. Inspired by pastoral pictures on food labels, I'd imagined wading deep into the avocado orchards, tomato fields, and lettuce farms of California's Central Valley.
Instead, as my family drove the roads bisecting Highway 99 during a hot week in July, we passed unplanted...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on In Migrant Camp, Calif Drought Brings Familiar DesperationHimalaya future is warmer, not brighter
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 31st, 2014
CNN: As snow layered the trail before him, Hari Chaudhary thought it was odd. The veteran trekking guide had never seen snow on the trail in early October. The popular 21-day Annapurna Circuit takes trekkers in a horseshoe-shaped route around a majestic segment of the Himalayas in Nepal. On the 10th day of the tour, Chaudhary and his clients, two young Israeli women, were descending from the highest point of the trail, Thorung La Pass, to the next destination, a walk that would normally take about seven...
Here’s How Fast Different Animals Disappearing From Earth
Posted by Business Insider: Chelsea Harvey on December 30th, 2014
Business Insider: The red panda is ranked "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
From red pandas to golden-striped salamanders, Earth's wildlife is in trouble.
Many scientists believe our planet is in the early stages of a mass extinction, an event defined by a loss of 75% of species on Earth. It will be the sixth one to occur in the planet's 4.5 billion year history — and the first to be caused by humans.
But just how fast are species disappearing from Earth, and how much should...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Here’s How Fast Different Animals Disappearing From Earth2014 was the year of the melting ice sheet
Posted by Quartz: None Given on December 30th, 2014
Quartz: Just as the planet swivels on the poles, so too does the fate of its coastlines. The disaster movie effects of climate change--drowning coastlines and raging blizzards, for instance--are tied to thawing ice sheets and glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctica. Research published throughout 2014 made this all the clearer--and scarier.
Here's a roundup of what we learned this year about melting ice sheets:
The melt rate in West Antarctica has trebled in the past decade
Though scientists have known...
Global warming will cut wheat yields, research shows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 23rd, 2014
Guardian: Global wheat yields are likely to fall significantly as climate change takes hold, new research has shown .
The researchers found that wheat production would fall by 6% for every 1C increase in temperatures. The world is now nearly certain to warm by up to 2C compared with pre-industrial levels, with political efforts concentrated on holding the potential temperature rise to no higher than that limit. But some analyses suggest that if greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow at current rates...
NASA CO2 map reveals impact of forest clearance
Posted by RTCC: Megan Darby on December 22nd, 2014
RTCC: Early data has come in from the first satellite dedicated to monitoring levels of carbon dioxide in the air -- with some surprising results.
The patch of dense carbon dioxide above China was to be expected, as factories churn out emissions.
But the biggest swathes of red -- signifying a high concentration of the greenhouse gas -- appeared over the southern hemisphere.
"Preliminary analysis shows these signals are largely driven by the seasonal burning of savannas and forests," explained...
Obama expresses scepticism over Keystone pipeline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 22nd, 2014
Guardian: US President Barack Obama has delivered his most sceptical remarks yet on the future of the Keystone oil pipeline, claiming its controversial extension from Canada to Nebraska would do little to reduce American energy prices and generate only a limited number of US jobs, but could add to the infrastructure costs of climate change.
Speaking during an end-of-year press conference just one day after Republicans promised fresh legislation designed to force the project’s approval, the president departed...
Australia: Great Barrier Reef at risk from ‘rushed’ sediment dumping plan at Abbot Point
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 22nd, 2014
Guardian: A plan to dump dredged sediment onto a sensitive wetlands area beside the Great Barrier Reef near Abbot Point would lead to much more slurry being pumped into the waters of the reef than officially estimated, a report has warned.
In its submission to the federal government, the environment group WWF cites expert advice that the project’s modelling underestimates by nearly 30% the amount of sediment and water that would be discharged into the ocean through a pipe from the wetlands ponds.
A total...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: Great Barrier Reef at risk from ‘rushed’ sediment dumping plan at Abbot PointNew climate change culprit: Beavers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 21st, 2014
USA Today: We were just trying to help. Turns out the efforts of humankind to save beavers from extinction over the past century have had an eco-unfriendly side effect: The animals, whose population has rebounded, are contributing to climate change, researchers say at EurekAlert.
Beaver dams create shallow ponds, which can host growing levels of carbon as biological material accumulates on the floor. The result is methane, a greenhouse gas that doesn't dissolve in the ponds; instead, it travels into the...