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Archive for February, 2011
Climate change doubled likelihood of devastating UK floods of 2000
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2011
Guardian: Global warming made the floods that devastated England and Wales in the autumn of 2000, costing £3.5bn, between two and three times more likely to happen, new research has found. This is the first time scientists have quantified the role of human-induced climate change in increasing the risk of a serious flood and represents a major development in climate science.
"It shows climate change is acting here and now to load the dice towards more extreme weather," said Myles Allen of Oxford University,...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Climate change doubled likelihood of devastating UK floods of 2000Climate change and extreme flooding linked by new evidence
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2011
Guardian: There's a sound rule for reporting weather events that may be related to climate change. You can't say that a particular heatwave or a particular downpour – or even a particular freeze – was definitely caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases. But you can say whether these events are consistent with predictions, or that their likelihood rises or falls in a warming world.
Weather is a complex system. Long-running trends, natural fluctuations and random patterns are fed into the global weather...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change and extreme flooding linked by new evidenceResearchers Find Damage Already Done To Climate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2011
redOrbit: New University of Washington research has found that the world is already committed to a warmer climate because of emissions that have occurred up to now.
The researchers said that there would continue to be warming even if the most stringent policies were adopted because there would still be some emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane.
The team found that even if all emissions were stopped now, temperatures would remain higher than pre-industrial Revolution...
In pictures: The floods of 2000: Was climate change to blame?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2011
Guardian: The floods of 2000: Was climate change to blame?
Scientists estimate that climate change doubled or even trebled the likelihood of the floods that hit England and Wales in 2000
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on In pictures: The floods of 2000: Was climate change to blame?Parrots and pigeons threaten Argentine sunflowers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2011
Reuters: Flocks of hungry parrots and pigeons are plaguing sunflower farmers in some parts of Argentina, eating their crops and thinning their wallets.
As swelling numbers of birds feed on fields, growers try to scare them away using balloons with "menacing eyes" painted on them. Farmers in the South American country, a leading global food exporter, also try to scare the birds using reflective tape, scarecrows, and by setting off fireworks.
"The problem is huge, especially in Buenos Aires province....
‘Substantial’ increase in heavy rainstorms proof of human-caused climate change: study
Posted by Postmedia News: Margaret Munro on February 16th, 2011
Postmedia News: Canadian climate sleuths have detected for the first time a human hand in the increasing fury of intense storms battering the Northern Hemisphere.
According to researchers, greenhouse gases generated by human activity have intensified heavy-precipitation events since 1950 across much of North America, Europe and Asia, increasing flooding and devastation.
"Human influence is more pervasive than just a response in surface temperature," says Francis Zwiers, of the University of Victoria, referring...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on ‘Substantial’ increase in heavy rainstorms proof of human-caused climate change: studyAlberta backs new $5 billion refinery plan
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2011
Reuters: The Alberta government is backing construction of a C$5 billion ($5.05 billion) bitumen refinery planned by Canadian Natural Resources Ltd and North West Upgrading Inc as it seeks to develop energy-processing facilities in the province and create jobs.
Under the agreement, the culmination of more than a year of talks between the parties, the Western Canadian province will supply 75 percent of the feedstock and Canadian Natural the remainder for the 50,000 barrel a day plant.
The deal essentially...
Scientists connect global warming to extreme rain
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2011
Associated Press: Extreme rainstorms and snowfalls have grown substantially stronger, two studies suggest, with scientists for the first time finding the telltale fingerprints of man-made global warming on downpours that often cause deadly flooding.
Two studies in Wednesday's issue of the journal Nature link heavy rains to increases in greenhouse gases more than ever before.
One group of researchers looked at the strongest rain and snow events of each year from 1951 to 1999 in the Northern Hemisphere and found...
Floods caused by climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2011
Telegraph: Devastating floods which wreaked havoc across Britain in 2000 were made more likely by global warming, according to the first study to link flooding in this country to climate change.
The Oxford University study said the floods, which damaged nearly 10,000 homes and cost £1.3 billion, were made twice as likely by a warming climate.
This is because warm air holds more moisture, making outbreaks of heavy rainfall more frequent.
The research will not only strengthen the case for increased flood...
Despite $8.6B Ruling, Long Road Remains for Chevron Pollution Case
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2011
New York Times: When a court in Ecuador ruled yesterday that Chevron Corp. should pay at least $8.6 billion in damages for pollution in the Amazon jungle, it opened up a new chapter in a case that has already been contested for 18 years.
It is by no means certain that the plaintiffs in Ecuador will see one penny of the damages awarded, which experts are saying is the second biggest environmental case of all time after last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
In that case, BP PLC has already...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Despite $8.6B Ruling, Long Road Remains for Chevron Pollution Case