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Archive for January 26th, 2015
Climate Forecast: More Southwest Droughts & Australia Flood
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2015
National Geographic: People living around the Pacific Ocean, including in parts of Asia, Australia, and western North and South America, should expect wilder climate swings in the 21st century.
Extreme versions of El Niño and La Niña, the sibling Pacific weather patterns that can translate into torrential rains or searing droughts, will likely occur nearly twice as often—approximately once every decade—if greenhouse gases continue increasing on their current trajectory, an international team of scientists has concluded....
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Climate Forecast: More Southwest Droughts & Australia FloodAccounting for natural capital on financial exchanges
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2015
Mongabay: Last month, Norway's stock exchange, the Oslo Børs, introduced a way for investors to use their money to promote sustainability. A new list by the stock exchange highlights green bonds, financial products issued by companies to raise capital for environmentally friendly projects. Notably, the list requires that issuing companies obtain and publicize outside opinions on the projects' environmental features. Børs executives said they expect the new list to attract investors and make companies aware...
Risk of extreme weather ‘doubles’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2015
BBC: Extreme weather arising from a climate phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean will get much worse as the world warms, according to climate modelling.
Parts of the world will have weather patterns that switch between extremes of wet and dry, say scientists.
The US will see more droughts while flooding will become more common in the western Pacific, research suggests.
The study, in Nature Climate Change, adds to a growing body of evidence over climate change and extreme weather.
The latest data...
Yep, Climate Change Is Still Causing Insane Storms
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2015
Bloomberg: Forecasters are projecting "crippling snowfall amounts and life-threatening blizzard conditions" throughout the Northeast. They may as well toss in a 100 percent likelihood of jokes from American conservative media about how snow invalidates the idea of global warming.
Cue headlines, such as these early hits from the Drudge Report, about the "’Snowiest decade’ on record…," with a link to the conservative website Climate Depot. Or this FLASHBACK NYT: ‘The end of snow?’ headline, which points with...
Atmospheric Rivers Add to Antarctica’s Ice Sheets
Posted by Environmental News Network: KU Leuven on January 26th, 2015
Environmental News Network: Extreme weather phenomena called atmospheric rivers were behind intense snowstorms recorded in 2009 and 2011 in East Antarctica. The resulting snow accumulation partly offset recent ice loss from the Antarctic ice sheet, report researchers from KU Leuven. Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow water vapour plumes stretching thousands of kilometres across the sky over vast ocean areas. They are capable of rapidly transporting large amounts of moisture around the globe and can cause devastating precipitation...
UK State Environmental Watchdog Calls for Moratorium on Fracking
Posted by Sputnik: None Given on January 26th, 2015
Sputnik: Fracking is the process of extracting gas and oil from shale rock by drilling into the earth.
"We cannot allow Britain's national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty to be developed into oil and gas fields ... Parliament should protect the rights of citizens by throwing these changes [eased fracking laws] out when they are debated later today,' EAC head Joan Walley, was quoted as saying in a statement published on the parliament's website.
According to the report, the proposed infrastructure...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on UK State Environmental Watchdog Calls for Moratorium on FrackingObama Seeks Wilderness Designation for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Posted by EcoWatch: Stefanie Spear on January 26th, 2015
EcoWatch: President Obama’s Administration moved to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, known as one of the most wild and remote areas in the world. The Department of the Interior announced yesterday the release of a conservation plan that recommends additional protections for the Refuge that asks Congress to designate core areas—including its Coastal Plain—as wilderness, the highest level of protection available to public lands. This is the first time in history that a Wilderness recommendation...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Obama Seeks Wilderness Designation for Arctic National Wildlife RefugeObama push to expand Alaskan refuge
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2015
BBC: President Barack Obama is to propose setting aside the majority of Alaska's national wildlife refuge as a wilderness area.
This would halt the possibility of fossil fuel exploration in the refuge's potentially oil-rich coastal plain.
The proposal drew an angry response from top state-elected officials.
Some 2.8 million hectares (7 million acres) of the refuge are managed as wilderness.
The new plans would see a further 4.8 million hectares (12.3 million acres) hectares set aside.
The...
Last year tied with 2010 as warmest on record: British data
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2015
Reuters: Last year tied with 2010 as the hottest on record, in a new sign of long-term global warming stoked by human activities, according to British data on Monday that back up U.S. findings of record-breaking heat in 2014.
The worldwide data, compiled by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia from records stretching back to 1850, showed average surface temperatures last year were 0.56 degree Celsius (1.0 Fahrenheit) above the long-term average of 1961-90.
"This ranks 2014 as the joint warmest...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Last year tied with 2010 as warmest on record: British dataWyoming, Halliburton Agree to Greater Fracking Disclosure
Posted by Casper Star-Tribune: None Given on January 26th, 2015
Casper Star-Tribune: A legal settlement reached by environmental groups, Wyoming regulators and the oil services giant Halliburton will make it harder for companies to withhold information from the public about the chemicals used in fracking. Environmentalists hailed the deal as a "groundbreaking reform," saying it will provide more information to the public about potentially harmful chemicals being used on frack jobs near homes, schools and businesses. State officials and industry representatives had argued the information...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Wyoming, Halliburton Agree to Greater Fracking Disclosure