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Archive for February, 2015
A biofuel debate: Will cutting trees cut carbon?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 10th, 2015
New York Times: Does combating climate change require burning the world’s forests and crops for fuel? It certainly looks that way, judging from the aggressive mandates governments across the globe have set to incorporate bioenergy into their transportation fuels in the hope of limiting the world’s overwhelming dependence on gasoline and diesel to move people and goods. While biofuels account for only about 2.5 percent today, the European Union expects renewable energy — mostly biofuels — to account for 10 percent...
China slates environment ministry after graft probe
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 10th, 2015
Reuters: China's main anti-graft body reprimanded the environment ministry on Tuesday for a series of problems, including interference by ministry officials and their relatives in environmental impact assessments.
Environmental degradation is one of China's most serious issues and a very sensitive one too, with thousands of protests every year sparked by concern about pollution, particularly from factories.
Polluting plants like chemical factories and oil refineries are supposed to undergo strict environmental...
Winter storm edges U.S. Northeast near new snowfall records
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 9th, 2015
Reuters: A massive snowstorm that parked itself over the northeastern United States on Monday was forecast to drop up to two feet (60 cm) of snow over a region that has been repeatedly pounded over the past two weeks, closing schools and snarling travel.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker asked residents of the state to avoid traveling, Boston's mass-transit system was operating on a limited scheduled and a majority of flights at Boston's Logan International Airport had been canceled by early Monday...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Winter storm edges U.S. Northeast near new snowfall recordsGlobal warming is causing more extreme storms
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 9th, 2015
Guardian: Scientists have known for decades (more than a century actually) that increases in greenhouse gases will cause the Earth to warm. What is less clear is how this warming will impact the weather we experience on a daily, monthly, or yearly basis. Recent research shows that we are already feeling the changes.
So, how might a warm planet be different from the planet we inherited? Increased temperatures can cause more heat waves, more droughts, more intense rainfall, higher water-vapor levels, sea-level...
US maps show what major cities would look like submerged in hundreds of feet of water
Posted by Daiy Mail: None Given on February 9th, 2015
Daiy Mail: The N.Y. Sea, Vancouver Archipelago and London Bay don't exist - but they could be place names in future atlases as glaciers continue to melt.
A Seattle-based urban planner has created maps of cities around the world showing the alarming results of what the world would look like submerged in water.
Though the doomsday scenario in which all of the world's glaciers melt could be thousands of years in the future, it would make many loved cities - including Portland, New York and Los Angeles -...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on US maps show what major cities would look like submerged in hundreds of feet of waterAustralia’s political leadership battle may revive carbon debate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 9th, 2015
Reuters: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's tenuous grip on power has again put climate-change policy at the centre of the nation's political leadership struggle, raising concerns among miners and hopes for renewable energy advocates.
Abbott, a climate-change sceptic, faces a vote on his leadership of the conservative Liberal Party on Monday, which could invite a challenge from former environment minister Malcolm Turnbull, the man he ousted as party leader in 2009.
Abbott's vehement opposition...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia’s political leadership battle may revive carbon debateAnti-Oil Sands Activists in the U.S. Are Getting Visits from the FBI
Posted by Canadian Press: Alexander Panetta on February 9th, 2015
Canadian Press: Unexpected visitors have been dropping in on anti-oil activists in the United States - knocking on doors, calling, texting, contacting family members.
The visitors are federal agents.
Opponents of Canadian oil say they've been contacted by FBI investigators in several states following their involvement in protests that delayed northbound shipments of equipment to Canada's oilsands.
A lawyer working with the protesters says he's personally aware of a dozen people having been contacted in...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Anti-Oil Sands Activists in the U.S. Are Getting Visits from the FBIAbnormal heavy rainfall can recur frequently, says climatologist
Posted by Rakyat Post: None Given on February 7th, 2015
Rakyat Post: The disastrous floods which hit some states last year are expected to recur more frequently and with greater intensity as a result of global warming and the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) phenomenon, says climatologist and oceanographer Professor Dr Fredolin T. Tangang.
He said climate change due to global warming was causing a worsening of the phenomenon.
The media had previously reported that the MJO phenomenon was a factor causing heavy rains in Malaysia.
MJO is an element in the tropical...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Abnormal heavy rainfall can recur frequently, says climatologistState looks at health impact of climate change
Posted by Star Tribune: David Chanen on February 7th, 2015
Star Tribune: Minnesotans will suffer from more asthma, respiratory problems, cardiovascular disease and such bug-borne diseases as West Nile virus and Lyme disease as climate change takes hold across the Upper Midwest, according to a new report from the Minnesota Health Department.
It’s the latest in a series of “vulnerability assessments” that Gov. Mark Dayton ordered from his Cabinet to prepare Minnesota for the inevitable. The 98-page Minnesota Climate and Health Profile Report says that health risks are...
Protesters march in Oakland, push Jerry Brown to ban fracking
Posted by Chronicle: Victoria Colliver on February 7th, 2015
Chronicle: Thousands of antifracking activists took to Oakland's streets Saturday to call for Gov. Jerry Brown to change his stance and ban the controversial practice, which uses large amounts of a pressurized water mixture to crack subterranean rocks and release oil or natural gas.
Chanting, playing music and waving signs reading "Don't Frack Your Mother" and "There's No Planet B," demonstrators wove their way along an almost two-mile route, starting at Oakland's City Hall and then moving through downtown...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Protesters march in Oakland, push Jerry Brown to ban fracking