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Archive for December, 2015
In Canada’s far north, warm weather threatens vital ice road
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 25th, 2015
Reuters: Each winter, in the far reaches of Canada's north, a highway of ice built atop frozen lakes and tundra acts as a supply lifeline to remote diamond mines, bustling with traffic for a couple of months before melting away in the spring.
This year, the world's busiest ice road is running late. Unseasonably warm weather has set back ice formation on the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road, named after the first and last of hundreds of lakes on the route.
The road is still expected to open on schedule...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on In Canada’s far north, warm weather threatens vital ice roadHow acid rivers are corroding South Africa’s landscape
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 25th, 2015
Guardian: The flow of polluted water from past and present mines is a chronic problem in South Africa, and large volumes of water carrying toxic sulphates and metals such as lead, zinc, copper and radioactive uranium are tainting community water supplies.
Australians flee bushfires at famous beauty spot
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 25th, 2015
Reuters: Fire crews battled into the night on Friday after raging bushfires reduced homes to ashes in a famous Australian beauty spot on Christmas Day, sending residents fleeing for their lives to the sound of blaring sirens.
Water bombing aircraft made a minimal impact on the fires, which set entire trees and hillsides alight in communities along the Great Ocean Road, officials said.
Evacuation sirens sounded in towns along the road, a major tourist attraction southwest of Melbourne, as the normally...
Tornado Leaves Long Path of Destruction in South
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 25th, 2015
New York Times: The tornado — dark, wide and roaring — had already raced through about a half-dozen counties by the time it arrived here in Marshall County on Wednesday night and took the first lives of its long rampage.
But it was only on Thursday, after a day of storms that killed at least 14 people while they ravaged the rural South, that the magnitude of the natural trauma became clear.
“I have neighbors, but I don’t know where they’re at because there’s nothing where their houses used to be,” said Cedric...
Exxon Oil Industry Peers Knew About Climate Dangers 1970s, Too
Posted by InsideClimate: None Given on December 24th, 2015
InsideClimate: The American Petroleum Institute together with the nation's largest oil companies ran a task force to monitor and share climate research between 1979 and 1983, indicating that the oil industry, not just Exxon alone, was aware of its possible impact on the world's climate far earlier than previously known. The group's members included senior scientists and engineers from nearly every major U.S. and multinational oil and gas company, including Exxon, Mobil, Amoco, Phillips, Texaco, Shell, Sunoco,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Exxon Oil Industry Peers Knew About Climate Dangers 1970s, TooDating historic activity at Oso site shows recurring major landslides
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 24th, 2015
ScienceDaily: The large, fast-moving mudslide that buried much of Oso, Washington in March 2014 was the deadliest landslide in U.S. history. Since then, it's been revealed that this area has experienced major slides before, but it's not known how long ago they occurred. University of Washington geologists analyzed woody debris buried in earlier slides and used radiocarbon dating to map the history of activity at the site. The findings, published online in the journal Geology, show that a massive nearby slide...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Dating historic activity at Oso site shows recurring major landslidesSouthwest’s Conifers Face Trial By Climate Change
Posted by Scientific American: Christopher Intagliata on December 24th, 2015
Scientific American: As you sit round the Christmas tree, consider the TLC you give O Tannenbaum: plenty of water and a relatively comfortable climate. Wouldn't want to dry out the tree, after all. Now consider that in the house we all live in—the planet—we’re hardly giving the same courtesy to your Christmas tree's wild cousins. (Who, I might add, are actually still alive.) As the planet warms, droughts are getting even drier—and they're getting hotter too. In fact it's getting so bad that researchers are now forecasting...
Paris climate goals mean emission need drop below zero
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 24th, 2015
ABC: If governments are serious about the global warming targets they adopted in Paris, scientists say they have two options: eliminating fossil fuels immediately or finding ways to undo their damage to the climate system in the future.
The first is politically impossible - the world is still hooked on using oil, coal and natural gas - which leaves the option of a major cleanup of the atmosphere later this century.
Yet the landmark Paris Agreement, adopted by 195 countries on Dec. 12, makes no reference...
With CO2 boost, marshes can rise to meet flood risks
Posted by Climate Central: John Upton on December 24th, 2015
Climate Central: In the race to keep their verdure heads above rising seas, marshes that protect coastal regions from floods, storms and erosion harbor the botanical equivalents of nitro boosters: rapid growth fueled by climate-changing pollution.
The same greenhouse gas that's doing most to warm the planet and uplift its seas can also work as a fertilizer. New research suggests that rising levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could help communities of marsh plants grow quickly enough to keep...
World ‘faces food shortages & mass migration’ caused global warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 24th, 2015
Independent: The world is facing a future of food shortages and mass migration as a consequence of widespread water shortages caused by global warming, the outgoing head of the World Meteorological Society has warned.
Michel Jarraud, the WMO’s Secretary-General, said of all the dangers posed by climate change – from increasingly intense storms and a growth in disease to rising sea levels that may submerge cities – the greatest threat is from dwindling water supplies.
About 1.6 billion people already live...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on World ‘faces food shortages & mass migration’ caused global warming