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Photos: Climate change is making California look like another planet
Posted by Quartz: None Given on March 31st, 2016
Quartz: When Thomas Heinser showed his pictures of California's parched landscape in a gallery last month, people couldn't tell what they were looking at.
Last year marked the driest summer California has seen in at last 500 years, causing water shortages and resulting in forest fires throughout the state. Shot from the side of a doorless helicopter, Heinser's aerial photographs look more like abstract art than fields and valleys--driving home the transformative effects of climate change in California....
EPA aims to cut methane leaks from natural gas companies
Posted by Associated Press: Michael Biesecker on March 31st, 2016
Associated Press: The Obama administration on Wednesday announced a new partnership with 41 energy companies that have agreed to voluntarily reduce methane emissions from natural gas operations to help combat climate change. The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled the Natural Gas STAR Methane Challenge Program at this week's Global Methane Forum held in Washington. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, capable of trapping 25 times more heat in the atmosphere than an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide. EPA Administrator...
‘High risk’ of severe water stresses in Asia by 2050
Posted by CNBC: None Given on March 31st, 2016
CNBC: Some 1 billion people in Asia could be without water by 2050, according to new research.
A group of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says there is a "high risk of severe water stress" across large patches of Asia, home to a big chunk of the world's population.
The primary driver of this water stress will not necessarily be climate change, according to the study published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS One.
"We find that water needs related to socioeconomic...
Scientists nearly double sea level rise projections for 2100, because of Antarctica
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 31st, 2016
Washington Post: Sea levels could rise nearly twice as much as previously predicted by the end of this century if carbon dioxide emissions continue unabated, an outcome that could devastate coastal communities around the globe, according to new research published Wednesday.
The main reason? Antarctica.
Scientists behind a new study published in the journal Nature used sophisticated computer models to decipher a longstanding riddle about how the massive, mostly uninhabited continent surrendered so much ice during...
The alarming science driving much higher sea level projections for this century
Posted by Washington Post: Chris Mooney on March 31st, 2016
Washington Post: For many scientists studying Antarctica, and particularly the vulnerable West Antarctic ice sheet, a major new study significantly increasing expectations for sea-level rise is the culmination of a large body of prior research -- combined with alarming recent observations.
The study, just published in Nature, is based on an improved understanding of past warm eras in Earth’s history that featured much higher seas. By creating advanced computer simulations of how Antarctica’s ice melts and flows...
Trump, Cruz vow to undo Obama environmental work
Posted by Hill: None Given on March 31st, 2016
Hill: In responding to a survey from the American Energy Alliance, both candidates said they would undo major Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency rules on clean water and power plant carbon emissions, with Trump saying, “under my administration, all EPA rules will be reviewed.”
Both candidates said they oppose a carbon tax, a policy Obama has praised but not pushed while president.
“The observed temperature evidence does not support the claims that carbon dioxide is dangerous,” Cruz wrote in...
Antarctic model raises prospect of unstoppable ice collapse
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 31st, 2016
Nature: Recent studies suggest that the Antarctic ice sheet is much less stable than scientists once thought.
Choices that the world makes this century could determine the fate of the massive Antarctic ice sheet. A study published online this week in Nature1 finds that continued growth in greenhouse-gas emissions over the next several decades could trigger an unstoppable collapse of Antarctica’s ice -- raising sea levels by more than a metre by 2100 and more than 15 metres by 2500.
“That is literally...
California’s Sierra Snowpack Shows Improvement; Drought Still Not Over
Posted by National Public Radio: Kirk Siegler on March 31st, 2016
National Public Radio: Updated snowpack measurements show El Nino has helped ease the drought in California. While reservoirs are filling up, conservation measures remain in place.
Study: Antarctic ice may melt faster than expected
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 31st, 2016
Associated Press: Warmer air, less frigid water and gravity may combine to make parts of Antarctica's western ice sheet melt far faster than scientists had thought, raising sea levels much more than expected by the end of the century, according to a new study.
New physics-based computer simulations forecast dramatic increases in melting in the vulnerable western edge of the continent. In a worst case scenario, that could raise sea level in 2100 by 18 to 34 inches (46 to 86 centimeters) more than an international...
Ocean warming threatens stability of Antarctic ice shelves
Posted by Discover: Tom Yulsman on March 30th, 2016
Discover: The Getz Ice Shelf extends several miles into the ocean along the western Antarctic coast. The vertical face of the ice shelf is almost 200 feet high and is estimated to extend another 1,000 feet below the ocean surface. This photo was taken from a NASA DC-8 by Ted Scambos, Lead Scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Note: Thanks to a spring-break getaway, I`m just now catching up to this new research showing that warming ocean waters are threatening the stability of giant, floating...