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Archive for December, 2015
LA’s Gas Leak Is a Global Disaster
Posted by Gizmodo: None Given on December 31st, 2015
Gizmodo: ne of the worst environmental disasters of the decade is currently underway in a quiet community 25 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Putrid, methane-rich natural gas has been spewing into the air at an estimated rate of nearly 1,300 metric tons per day for over two months. Experts are calling it the climate version of the BP oil spill, and the leak isn’t going to be contained anytime soon.
Natural gas is often touted as a cleaner energy source than oil or coal, because of the lower greenhouse gas...
Big Oil braced for global warming while fought regulations
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 31st, 2015
LA Times: A few weeks before seminal climate change talks in Kyoto back in 1997, Mobil Oil took out a bluntly worded advertisement in the New York Times and Washington Post. “Let’s face it: The science of climate change is too uncertain to mandate a plan of action that could plunge economies into turmoil,” the ad said. “Scientists cannot predict with certainty if temperatures will increase, by how much and where changes will occur.” One year earlier, though, engineers at Mobil Oil were concerned enough about...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Big Oil braced for global warming while fought regulationsNorth Pole melting point under freak ‘heatwave’
Posted by Mirror: None Given on December 31st, 2015
Mirror: Temperatures at the North Pole rose above freezing point and came close to the melting point on Wednesday; 20 degrees Celsius above the mid-winter norm, the region was hotter than some of the major cities in Europe and the United States. According to ocean measurements from the North Pole Environmental Observatory, the mercury tipped -1.9°C (28.6°F) on Wednesday as the Arctic bathed in an unseasonably warm spell. Weather authorities blamed Wednesday's temperature spike on the freak depression which...
Land company fires worker for slurs toward protesters
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 31st, 2015
Associated Press: A Pennsylvania property maintenance company has fired a worker caught on video using racial slurs toward anti-fracking activists. WPXI-TV (http://bit.ly/1IG1dX6 ) in Pittsburgh says the incident happened outside the offices of Rex Energy, a drilling firm, in Mars. That's about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh. The man worked for MMC Land Management, which maintains commercial properties, and was apparently angered that people were picketing the drilling firm. After harassing the picketers, the MMC...
South Africa’s rhinos ‘could be extinct in 10 years’
Posted by BBC: Nomsa Maseko on December 31st, 2015
BBC: Africa's rhino population could face extinction within 10 years, animal welfare experts have warned.
South Africa has the largest population of the species in the world but their existence is under threat from poaching.
Demand from Asian markets for their horns has led to a dramatic increase in the numbers killed. It is thought more than 1,000 rhinos have been killed in South Africa's game reserves in 2015 alone.
UN: Freak weather a warning to step up climate defences
Posted by Climate Change News: Alex Pashley on December 30th, 2015
Climate Change News: Governments have been told to face a “new abnormal” of extreme weather after a wave of natural disasters wrought death and economic damage around the world in recent days.
Heavy flooding in Britain and South America, and devastating tornadoes in the US has laid bare the lack of official preventative measures, Margareta Wahlstrom, head of the UN`s disaster risk reduction agency said on Tuesday.
They highlighted how climate change-linked events were becoming harder to predict as the planet overheats,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on UN: Freak weather a warning to step up climate defencesBird habitat changing quickly climate change proceeds
Posted by Environmental News Network: University Of Wisconsin-Madison on December 30th, 2015
Environmental News Network: The climatic conditions needed by 285 species of land birds in the United States have moved rapidly between 1950 and 2011 as a result of climate change, according to a recent paper published in Global Change Biology.
“Our goal was to look at the climate where these birds were observed breeding over this period and determine where that ‘sweet spot’ was moving as the climate changed in this period,” says first author Brooke Bateman, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
The Guardian view on the UK floods: they will be back
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 27th, 2015
Guardian: The floods return, bringing with them the increasingly familiar pictures of distress: the debris of scoured-out houses, and the empty phrases of a hollow politician. “Unprecedented”; “whatever is needed”: Mr Cameron seems to have forgotten that he promised us “whatever it takes” two years ago. Clearly, it took rather more than he was then prepared to give. This time, the army has been sent in to reinforce his rhetoric. At least the floodwater is an enemy that will certainly have retreated in a week...
Flood-hit northern England told to expect further rainfall
Posted by Guardian: Caroline Davies on December 27th, 2015
Guardian: Heavy rain is expected to hit flooded northern England again this week, accompanied by gales, according to forecasters.
The Met Office has issued a yellow rain warning for parts of North and West Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Greater Manchester, where Boxing Day floods affected the cities of Leeds, York and Manchester, and rivers in Pennine towns rose up to 1.5m (5ft) above their previous peak in some places.
Up to 40mm of rain could fall, rising to 80mm on higher ground, forecasters said. The...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Flood-hit northern England told to expect further rainfallNo end in sight as repair work on California’s sinking land costs billions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 27th, 2015
Associated Press: A canal that delivers vital water supplies from northern California to southern California is sinking in places. So are stretches of a riverbed undergoing historic restoration. On farms, well casings pop up like mushrooms as the ground around them drops. Four years of drought and heavy reliance on pumping of groundwater have made the land sink faster than ever up and down the Central Valley, requiring repairs to infrastructure that experts say are costing billions of dollars. This slow motion land...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on No end in sight as repair work on California’s sinking land costs billions