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Archive for February 17th, 2010
Permafrost Line in Quebec Retreats 80 Miles in 50 Years, Study Says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
Yale Environment 360: The southern limit of permafrost around the James Bay region in Quebec has moved 80 miles to the north since 1957, according to a new study. Scientists at the Université Laval tracked the northerly retreat of the tundra by examining distinctive, oval-shaped land elevations known as palsas, which form over permafrost. By comparing aerial photos taken in the James Bay region between the 51st and 53rd Serge PayetteMelt ponds on tundra parallels in 1957 with findings from helicopter surveys in ...
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Projection shows water woes likely based on warmer temperatures
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
ScienceDaily: Keith Cherkauer, an assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, ran simulation models that show Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan could see as much as 28 percent more precipitation by the year 2070, with much of that coming in the winter and spring. His projections also show drier summer and fall seasons. "This was already a difficult spring to plant because of how wet it was. If you were to add another inch or so of rain to that, it would be a problem," ...
Canada’s permafrost retreats amid warming trend
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
Reuters: The permanently frozen ground known as permafrost is retreating northward in the area around Canada's James Bay, a sign of a decades-long regional warming trend, a climate scientist said on Wednesday. When permafrost melts, it can liberate the powerful greenhouse gas methane that is locked in the frozen soil. The amount of methane contained in permafrost around James Bay is slight compared to the vast stores of the chemical found in ancient, deep permafrost in the Yukon, Alaska and ...
Canada: Permafrost rapidly deteriorating in northern Quebec: Study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
Canwest News Service: The thawing and decay of telltale, reddish mounds along the eastern shore of James Bay have led a team of Quebec researchers to conclude that the region's permafrost line has moved rapidly northward -- about 130 km in just 50 years -- as part of a broader transformation of Canada's sub-Arctic frontier in the age of climate change. And the University of Laval researchers are warning that "if the trend continues, permafrost in the region will completely disappear in the near ...
New rules on corn ethanol may hurt environment
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
Reuters: U.S. corn growers expressed relief when the Obama administration unveiled new environmental rules that would boost use of corn-based biofuel, but green groups complained the guidelines may fill the air with nitrogen, a greenhouse gas viewed as more potent than carbon. The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled what amounted to a tweaking of the national renewable fuel standard in early February, and still found that ethanol made from corn is still cleaner than conventional gasoline, ...
United States: Otter Creek coal debate brings passion, outbursts to Helena
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
Billings Gazette: From high school students to labor organizers to one man who essentially told Gov. Brian Schweitzer to shut up, the hot-button issue of Otter Creek coal drew a packed and passionate crowd to the Capitol Tuesday morning. "For what price are you willing to sell a piece of your children's future?" Missoula Big Sky High School student Allison Lawrence asked the Land Board before it voted to lower the bidding price on the state's 570 million tons of coal in the Otter Creek Valley. "We are ...
Tajikistan risks calamity over climate change: Oxfam
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: Tajikistan faces potentially calamitous food and water shortages unless action is taken to mitigate the effects of climate change, including rapidly retreating glaciers, Oxfam warned on Wednesday. The British charity said the Central Asian country's glaciers in the Pamir Mountains are in retreat and one and a half million people were already suffering food insecurity after years of drought. "Entire swathes of the rural population of Tajikistan have already suffered greatly in ...
EU study plumps for cap & trade in ship carbon
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
Carbon Positive: Imposing an emissions cap and trade scheme is the best option for curbing carbon emissions from shipping in EU waters, a report for the European Commission has found. CE Delft's study "Technical support for European action to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from international maritime transport" was commissioned to give direction to EU plans to act on maritime emissions in the absence of any global moves. The lack of any outcome at the UN's Copenhagen climate conference in December has ...
Tajikistan threatened by climate change, says Oxfam
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
BBC: Tajikistan has done little to contribute to climate change, but is among the countries most adversely affected by it, the charity Oxfam says. Extreme weather conditions and melting glaciers pose a great threat to its food security and social stability. Its government recognises the threats but lacks the money and infrastructure to cope with such an overwhelming phenomenon, Oxfam's report adds. It is based on interviews conducted last autumn with ordinary ...
Tajikistan facing water shortages and climate extremes, report warns
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
Guardian: It has been occupied by the Russians, the Mongols, the Turks, the Arabs and the Uzbeks, the Chinese, as well as Genghis Khan. But the ancient, mountainous state of Tajikistan, which has been at the crossroads of Asian civilisations for over a thousand years, is in danger of being overwhelmed by water shortages, rising temperatures and climate extremes. A report released today by Oxfam details fast-rising temperatures, melting glaciers in the Pamir mountains, increased disease, ...