Archive for November 20th, 2015

Report: Hawaii ill-prepared for effects of climate change

Hawaii News Now: Hawaii isn't prepared for the expected effects of climate change in the coming decades, including rising temperatures and coastal flooding, according to a new report. The report gave Hawaii a "D-' for climate change preparedness. "Hawaii faces considerable and increasing threat levels from extreme heat and coastal flooding,' the report said. "The state has taken only limited action to address current extreme heat risk. Although Hawaii has taken strong action to address current coastal flooding...

Climate change is gonna be rough on farmers and eaters

Grist: When the apocalypse comes, it`ll be every man and woman for themselves. If zombies attack, then your once friendly neighbor will try to kill you for your food supply. If an epidemic sweeps the nation, then everyone with a sniffle will start to look like satan incarnate. If - god forbid - the internet goes down, then billions of people around the world will suddenly devolve into complete lunatics incapable of functioning without GPS, emojis, and the morphine drip that is social media likes. And...

Restoring California Meadows Could Help Combat Climate Change And Increase Water Supply

Cap Radio: A crucial part of California's ecosystem has almost disappeared. Mountain meadows act like natural reservoirs, storing and cleaning water. But they may have another benefit -- capturing greenhouse gases. Scientists are studying if restoring meadows can play a small part in combating climate change. When you imagine a meadow, you think about soggy ground with tall green grasses and maybe a shallow stream running through it. It's unlikely you'd imagine the place we're walking through now. "Although...

Does Obama’s Backtrack on Biofuels Undermine Climate Change Message in Paris?

Huffington Post: Despite the terrorist attacks in Paris, French officials have announced the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, also taking place in Paris, will proceed as planned on November 30. The conference is expected to produce a blueprint to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the main cause of global warming. President Barack Obama will be among the nearly 120 world leaders who are expected to attend. Over the last year, Obama has made global warming one of his legacy issues. "Climate Change is...

Two Degrees: Does climate change contribute to disease?

CNN: A reader asks: Does climate change trigger disease outbreaks? Climate change has both direct and indirect effects on illness and disease, says UGA professor of environmental health On Fridays, CNN answers one of our audience's climate change questions as part of the Two Degrees series. Ask your question by filling out this online form. And sign up for the Two Degrees newsletter to learn more. Erin Lipp is a professor of environmental health at the University of Georgia. She specializes in climate...

Small, controlled fires are the only way to prevent large wildfires, researchers argue

Mongabay: Stamping out forest fires indiscriminately leads to denser trees and debris in many forests, fueling unusually large wildfires. Recent U.S. wildfires have gained so much power that scientific models can no longer predict their behavior. A new paper urges the public to demand a correction in this trend by changing how forest fires are managed At a time when wildfires around the world are burning through records for intensity and size, several western U.S. ecologists argue that in many forests...

On thin ice: Big northern lakes are being rapidly transformed

Yale 360: For more than 25 million years, Lake Baikal has cut an immense arc from southern Siberia to the Mongolian border. The length of Florida and nearly the depth of the Grand Canyon, Baikal is the deepest, largest in volume, and most ancient freshwater lake in the world, holding one-fifth of the planet’s above-ground drinking supply. It’s a Noah’s Ark of biodiversity, home to myriad species found nowhere else on earth. It’s also changing Pavelblazek/Wikimedia Commons Lake Baikal in March. Records show...

The forgotten U.N. climate goal: 1.5°c

Climate Central: While much of the attention on a historic Paris climate meeting in the coming weeks will focus on the confounding task of trying to keep global warming below 2°C, or 3.6°F, a battle over another goal -- one that has been forgotten by many -- will be playing out in the negotiating halls. Delegates representing island states and others whose homelands are most threatened by rising seas will be pushing for the formal adoption of a long-overlooked goal, one that limits warming to less than 1.5°C,...

Fires rapidly claim more forests and peatland in Arctic

ClimateWire: David and Kristen Olesen, their two daughters, and 44 sled dogs lived at a homestead at the edge of the boreal forest on a sandy peninsula at a spot where the Hoarfrost River meets the Great Slave Lake near the Arctic Circle. In the wintertime, fog rises off the river and coats spruces in moisture that crystallizes to ice in a phenomenon called "hoarfrost." Their home was 25 miles from the closest settlement of Reliance. That summer afternoon, Kristen watched a rabbit tear out of the woods. A...

Food Advocacy Group to Sue FDA Controversial Approval of GMO Salmon

EcoWatch: Opposition against the Food and Drug Administration`s (FDA) approval of the first genetically engineered food animal, AquaBounty’s GMO salmon, is fiercely mounting. The Center for Food Safety, an nonprofit organization, announced plans to sue the federal agency. Grocery store chains around the country have also made commitments to not sell the controversial fish. We are suing the FDA! HELP CFS FIGHT THE APPROVAL OF #GESALMON IN COURT! Help out here: https://t.co/nQFTUXGKhv pic.twitter.com/Fn9KeiIH60...