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Archive for July, 2015
Montana train derailment spilled 35,000 gallons of crude oil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 17th, 2015
Reuters: A train derailment in rural eastern Montana spilled 35,000 gallons (132,489 liters) of crude oil and forced the evacuation of about 30 people, a U.S. official said on Friday in an email to state officials. About 20 cars on the Berkshire Hathaway-owned BNSF [BNISF.UL] crude oil train went off the rails east of Culbertson, Montana, on Thursday evening, officials said. There was no fire and no injuries were reported. A hazardous materials team from BNSF responded to the scene and contained the spilled...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Montana train derailment spilled 35,000 gallons of crude oilInternational report confirms: 2014 Earth’s warmest year on record
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 17th, 2015
ScienceDaily: In 2014, the most essential indicators of Earth's changing climate continued to reflect trends of a warming planet, with several markers such as rising land and ocean temperature, sea levels and greenhouse gases - setting new records. These key findings and others can be found in the State of the Climate in 2014 report released online by the American Meteorological Society (AMS). The report, compiled by NOAA's Center for Weather and Climate at the National Centers for Environmental Information is...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on International report confirms: 2014 Earth’s warmest year on record2014 Set Multiple Global Climate Records, NOAA Analysis Concludes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 17th, 2015
Yale Environment 360: Several climate measures indicate that 2014 was the warmest year on record, according to a new report compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Based on data collected from 413 scientists and 58 countries, the analysis found that sea surface temperatures, upper ocean heat content, and global sea level all achieved record levels in 2014. Four independent global data sets also indicated that 2014 global surface temperatures were the warmest on record. Earlier this year,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on 2014 Set Multiple Global Climate Records, NOAA Analysis ConcludesMajor greenhouse gases hit record highs in 2014: Report
Posted by Hill: Timothy Cama on July 17th, 2015
Hill: The Obama administration Thursday unveiled new standards meant to better protect streams in Appalachia from the controversial mountaintop removal coal mining process.
The proposed rule, from the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining (OSM), would update three-decade-old standards that create a buffer zone around streams, prohibiting mining activities and waste from getting near them and harming the ecosystem. Administration officials characterized the rule as a common-sense approach that...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Major greenhouse gases hit record highs in 2014: ReportHotter, wetter, stormier: Study says 2014 climate melted records
Posted by Bloomberg: Alex Nussbaum on July 17th, 2015
Bloomberg: Global sea levels swelled to a high, tropical cyclones continued to multiply and the world’s thermometer set a record in 2014, according to a new report tracking the earth’s climate. The report, an “annual physical” for the world’s climate, found evidence of warming around the globe, from shrinking glaciers and Arctic sea ice to record levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The compendium of data from 413 researchers in 58 countries was released Thursday by the American Meteorological Society....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Hotter, wetter, stormier: Study says 2014 climate melted recordsWill Our Demand For Food Threaten Our Supply of Water?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 17th, 2015
National Public Radio: Ecologist Jon Foley says agriculture is the "most powerful force unleashed on this planet since the end of the ice age." He says we're using too much of it to irrigate, and we have to rethink how we farm.
About Jon Foley
Jon Foley focuses on the complex relationship between global environmental systems and human civilization, using computer models to analyze changes in land use and resources around the world. Foley is the executive director of the California Academy of Sciences, where he heads...
Climate Change Is Setting the World on Fire
Posted by Gizmodo: Maddie Stone on July 17th, 2015
Gizmodo: What happens when you mix record-smashing heat and exceptional drought? Fire! Lots of fire! But climate change isn’t just bringing more fires to our doorstep, although it’s accomplishing that quite handily. It’s making fire seasons longer.
That’s according to a study published this week in Nature Communications, which shows that fire weather seasons have, on average, grown 18.7 percent longer across the Earth’s surface since 1979. What’s more, the global burnable area affected by fire seasons...
For Tony Abbott, it’s full steam ahead on coal, ‘the foundation of prosperity’
Posted by Inside Climate News: Oliver Milman and Greg Jericho on July 17th, 2015
Inside Climate News: If, as the environment movement contends, fossil fuels are the new tobacco, then Australia has cast itself as a sort of swaggering Marlboro man, puffing away contentedly as the rest of the world looks on quizzically.
As other countries look to transition to low-carbon alternatives with one eye on crunch climate talks in Paris later this year, Australia is pushing ahead with an expansion in coal extraction that its conservative prime minister Tony Abbott insists is “good for humanity”.
A series...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on For Tony Abbott, it’s full steam ahead on coal, ‘the foundation of prosperity’New U.S. Stream Protection Rule Infuriates Big Coal
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on July 17th, 2015
Environment News Service: New national regulations to prevent or minimize the impacts of coal mining on surface water, groundwater, fish and wildlife were proposed today by the Obama Administration. The Stream Protection Rule would safeguard about 6,500 miles of streams nationwide over a 20 year period. The proposed Stream Protection Rule would affect the ability of mountaintop removal coal mining companies to destroy or bury waterways near surface mining operations. Mountaintop removal mining has already buried more than...
Australia tops world for climate change denial: study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 17th, 2015
Sydney Morning Herald: Nearly one in five Australians do not believe in climate change, making the country the worst in the world for climate sceptics, a study of almost 20,000 people has found.
The research by the University of Tasmania found 17 per cent of Australians thought climate change was not real, compared with 15 per cent of people in Norway, 13 per cent of New Zealanders and 12 per cent of Americans.
The study, published in the journal Global Environmental Change, was based on data collected as part of...