RSS Feed
Archive for December 12th, 2010
Climate uncontrolled
Posted by Financial Express: Sandip Das on December 12th, 2010
Financial Express: Climate change is springing an unpleasant surprise on agriculture in India, catching both farmers and governments unprepared. The erratic and deficit rainfall pattern and rise in temperature in recent years has even forced farmers to change cropping patterns and several areas have been declared drought-hit.
Agricultural scientists acknowledge that even a mere one degree increase in average day temperature would adversely impact production of both wheat and rice crops (total annual production is...
Posted in 
Fires fuel threat of runaway climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 12th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: Global warming is driving forest fires in northern latitudes to burn more frequently and fiercely, contributing to the threat of runaway climate change, a new study says.
Increased intensity of fires in Alaska's vast interior over the last decade has changed the region from a sink to a source of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas most responsible for heating up the planet, the study found.
On balance, in other words, boreal forests in the northern hemisphere may now soak up less of the heat-trapping...
Researchers: Maple trees in dire straits
Posted by Citizen: Victoria Guay on December 12th, 2010
Citizen: The tree responsible for the most vibrant hues in New Hampshire's fall foliage season -- as well as the state's maple syrup industry -- may be on the decline in the Granite State and the rest of New England, according to some researchers.
Barrett Rock, a botanist and forestry professor at the University of New Hampshire's Complex Systems Research Center in Durham, has been studying spectral satellite imagery of New England's forests for decades, and said he's seen a pattern of maple tree decline....
Are Alaska’s wildfires accelerating global warming?
Posted by Alaska Dispatch: Doug O'Harra on December 12th, 2010
Alaska Dispatch: The natural presence of certain gases like carbon dioxide in the air helps keep the Earth warm enough for life to exist. Solar radiation warms the planet, and these gases slow the loss of that heat back into space. They act somewhat like glass in a greenhouse, hence the nickname. In the past, when the level of CO2 rose -- maybe due to vast rotting swamps or volcanic action -- the climate grew warmer. Sometimes much, much warmer.
And when CO2 levels plunged? Can you say ‘Ice age'? After thousands...