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Archive for February, 2011
Study links extreme weather to climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2011
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Two independent studies suggest greenhouse gas emissions are linked to more frequent heavy rainfall.
The studies, which appear today in the journal Nature, highlight the impact humans are having on extreme weather events, and come less than a month after a set of major flooding events around the world.
In one of the studies, scientists from the University of Victoria in Canada and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, looked at rainfall totals collected between 1951 and 1999 from 6000 rain...
Frog re-emerges in India after century
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: Researchers have rediscovered frog species including one last seen in India more than a century ago, potentially offering clues on why they have survived a global crisis killing amphibians.
But in a five-continent study released Thursday, conservationists largely had bleak news. Of 10 species at the top of a list of missing amphibians, only one -- a harlequin toad in Ecuador -- was found again.
Scientists estimate that more than 30 percent of amphibians are facing extinction due to a mysterious...
Worldwide search for ‘lost frogs’ ends with 4% success, but some surprises
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2011
Mongabay: Worldwide search for 'lost frogs' ends with 4% success, but some surprises
Unprecedented search evidence of 'Sixth Great Extinction'.
Last August, a group of conservation agencies launched the Search for Lost Frogs, which employed 126 researchers to scour 21 countries for 100 amphibian species, some of which have not been seen for decades. After five months, expeditions found 4 amphibians out of the 100 targets, highlighting the likelihood that most of the remaining species are in fact extinct;...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Worldwide search for ‘lost frogs’ ends with 4% success, but some surprisesBritish floods ‘were the result of climate change’
Posted by Independent: Jonathan Brown on February 16th, 2011
Independent: The catastrophic floods of autumn 2000, which saw river levels reach 400-year highs and left 10,000 homes underwater across England and Wales, were most likely the result of global warming.
It is the first time scientists have been able to plot with any confidence the link between the extreme weather with man-made greenhouse gases. Researchers from Oxford University and the Met Office aided by thousands of volunteers online believe 20th-century industrial emissions made the natural disaster almost...
Extreme Storms and Floods Concretely Linked to Climate Change?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2011
National Geographic: If you were following headlines when Pakistan was underwater last year, you’ve heard that there may be a connection between climate change and increased flooding. Now new studies of severe storms and catastrophic floods add more evidence to the theory that rising greenhouse gas levels actually do increase the odds of such extreme weather events--and perhaps make them stronger.
The recent research is among the earliest that claim to present observable scientific evidence for a human role in altering...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Extreme Storms and Floods Concretely Linked to Climate Change?Still a Ways to Go, After Historic Ruling Against Chevron
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2011
Inter Press Service: The plaintiffs in the case against Chevron tried in Ecuador, who won a historic 9.5 billion dollar verdict after a nearly 18-year struggle over environmental and health damages caused in a quarter-century of oil operations in the Amazon jungle, are not disheartened by the road still ahead.
Chevron announced that it would appeal the sentence handed down Monday by Judge Nicolás Zambrano in Nueva Loja, the capital of the northeastern Ecuadorian province of Sucumbíos, which found the U.S. oil company...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Still a Ways to Go, After Historic Ruling Against ChevronWatchdog Groups Urge Stronger U.S. Standards for Oil Sands Pipelines
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2011
Greenwire: The thick, sticky type of oil carried from Canada to the United States in several high-profile pipelines also brings a higher risk of leaks and ruptures that demand stronger government safety standards, green groups and pipeline watchdogs argue today in a new report. Safety along the nation's 2.3-million-plus miles of oil and gas pipelines became a flashpoint for many policymakers last year after a Michigan rupture spilled an estimated 800,000 gallons of crude and a gas leak caused a fatal blast...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Watchdog Groups Urge Stronger U.S. Standards for Oil Sands PipelinesUnited Kingdom: Researchers Link Extreme Rains To Global Warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2011
National Public Radio: Scientists have been saying for years that as the planet heats up, we will have to deal with more severe weather. But pinning any particular event "” such as a specific hurricane "” to global warming is difficult at best.
Now, scientists have tried to do just that: They've linked extreme precipitation to global warming.
Myles Allen at Oxford University is one of the scientists who undertook this effort, and he acknowledges upfront it's hard to feel the effects of a slowly warming planet.
"One...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Researchers Link Extreme Rains To Global WarmingEgyptians defy military rulers with more protests
Posted by Associated Press: Sarah El Deeb on February 16th, 2011
Associated Press: Egyptians staged protests and strikes Wednesday over a host of grievances from paltry wages to toxic waste dumping, defying the second warning in three days from the nation's military rulers to halt all labor unrest at a time when the economy is staggering.
The military-led caretaker government gave its first estimate of the death toll in the 18-day democracy uprising that ousted longtime leader Hosni Mubarak. Health Minister Ahmed Sameh Farid said at least 365 civilians died according to a preliminary...
Floods linked to manmade climate change: studies
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2011
Reuters: Man-made greenhouse gas emissions are linked to more frequent heavy rainfall, two studies published found on Wednesday, portraying a clearer human fingerprint after a spate of floods around the world.
Scientists agree that greenhouse gas emissions are warming the world and expect that in turn would lead in the future to more evaporation of water, more moist air and heavier rainfall.
But the two new papers were the first to pin an increase in heavy rainfall in the second half of the last century...