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Archive for January 16th, 2011
Thaw of Earth’s icy sunshade may stoke warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2011
Reuters: Shrinking ice and snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere is reflecting ever less sunshine back into space in a previously underestimated mechanism that could add to global warming, a study showed.
Satellite data indicated that Arctic sea ice, glaciers, winter snow and Greenland's ice were bouncing less energy back to space from 1979 to 2008. The dwindling white sunshade exposes ground or water, both of which are darker and absorb more heat.
The study estimated that ice and snow in the Northern...
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Northern England remains on flood alert following heavy rain
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2011
Guardian: Fifteen areas in northern England and Wales remained on flood alert tonight after a band of heavy rain pushed south across the country.
Residents watched from behind hastily-built sandbag walls at Appleby-in-Westmorland as Cumbria's river Eden came close to flooding the town.
There were also 24-hour monitors on duty on the river Dee in Wales and the Ouse near York, where levels were swollen by torrential rain on the Welsh mountains and Pennine catchments.
Tonnes of mud slid into the river...
Iceland: Undercover police officer accused Icelandic police of ‘brutality’
Posted by Guardian: Amelia Hill on January 16th, 2011
Guardian: Mark Kennedy, the undercover policeman who posed as an environmental activist for seven years and helped found the protest movement in Iceland, accused the country's police of brutality and inciting "potentially fatal" violence towards protesters.
Kennedy made the accusations in an article he wrote for a book about the 2005 protest in Iceland against the Kárahnjúkar dam. It was so powerful that activists later used it in evidence against the police in a court case.
In the article, Kennedy accused...
Next shock will be high food prices
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2011
Sydney Morning Herald: Queensland's government will hold a special cabinet meeting to discuss what more needs to be done to help the state's flood victims.
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You will pay for all this water. Unless you are insulated from the normal costs of living, you can expect sticker shock at some point this year, or next, when paying for the weekly food shopping. We've had oil shocks. Prepare for food shocks.
Ten years ago, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation's composite world...
State panel funds hydropower climate study on Yuba River
Posted by Appeal: None Given on January 16th, 2011
Appeal: As the Yuba County Water Agency ramps up for renewal of a federal license to produce hydroelectric power, how a changing climate affects what's flowing down the hill will get some examination.
The California Energy Commission awarded $299,970 to the University of California, Davis, last week for scientists and students there to study the topic.
"Changes in climate directly affect the 'fuel' available for hydropower plants in the form of the amount and timing of snowpack runoff," Joshua Viers,...
Australia: Floods will hit Australia hard long after water goes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2011
National Public Radio: SCOTT SIMON, host:
The catastrophic flooding in Australia that has swamped an area larger than Texas continues to devastate that nation. At least 26 people have died since November and dozens are missing. More than 30,000 homes have been flooded in Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland. And with damage estimates in the billions, it may end up as Australia's costliest disaster.
Our friend and fellow broadcaster Richard Glover joins us from the studios of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
Tens of thousands roll up their sleeves to help make it better
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2011
Sydney Morning Herald: Army of volunteers moves in
The clean up task begins. Volunteers, Army and neighbours pitch in with the mass clean up at Gray Road, West End. Photo: Andy Zakeli
THEY came in their thousands, an army of volunteers carrying buckets and shovels, standing in queues that stretched for hundreds of metres.
The biggest clean-up in Australia's history is under way, with a tide of helpers from all walks of life turning up at Brisbane's four volunteer hubs looking to pitch in.
''We'll just do whatever...
Sri Lanka: Extreme weather: Are we prepared?
Posted by Sunday Times: None Given on January 16th, 2011
Sunday Times: Extreme weather: Are we prepared? Plus Extreme weather: Are we prepared?
With floods affecting several areas in Sri Lanka, and weather vagaries becoming more
frequent, Malaka Rodrigo looks at why the recently unveiled National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy needs to be given priority
'Body count ticks on as flood fury continues', 'Five die of cold in Vakarai/Batticaloa town', 'Floods second only to tsunami' -- these are a few of the scary headlines published this week.
The devastating...
Hotter, colder, wetter: It’s a new world of extremes
Posted by WA Today: Gary Tippet and Mark Russel on January 16th, 2011
WA Today: IN A land of droughts and flooding rains, it's often hard to remember when you're being scorched by one or submerged by the other. But lately Australia seems to be oscillating between increasingly regular and ruinous extreme weather events - and sometimes suffering the opposite ends of the extremes at the same time.
So one side of the continent is inundated by the worst floods in memory, while its south-west corner is hit by bushfires. Is this the future? Are these a sign of things to come with...
Northern England on flood alert
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2011
Guardian: Large parts of northern England are on flood alert after heavy rain which has triggered nearly 30 river warnings and a mudslide in the centre of Gateshead and Newcastle.
Emergency services are also on standby in Wales where between 15 and 25mm of rain is forecast.
The Environment Agency said that concern in the north was focused on the Eden valley in Cumbria, parts of Carlisle, and low-lying areas beside rivers in Northumberland and Yorkshire. Defences are being monitored closely at Masham,...