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Archive for July, 2011
Russia may lose 30 percent of permafrost by 2050
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 29th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: Russia's vast permafrost areas may shrink by a third by the middle of the century due to global warming, endangering infrastructure in the Arctic zone, an emergencies ministry official said Friday.
"In the next 25 to 30 years, the area of permafrost in Russia may shrink by 10-18 percent," the head of the ministry's disaster monitoring department Andrei Bolov told the RIA Novosti news agency.
"By the middle of the century, it can shrink by 15-30 percent, and the boundary of the permafrost may...
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Weather disasters seen costly sign of things to come
Posted by Reuters: Molly O'Toole on July 29th, 2011
Reuters: The United States is on a pace in 2011 to set a record for the cost of weather-related disasters and the trend is expected to worsen as climate change continues, officials and scientists said on Thursday.
"The economic impact of severe weather events is only projected to grow," Senator Dick Durbin said at a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Financial Services and Government, which he chairs. "We are not prepared. Our weather events are getting worse, catastrophic in fact."
Durbin, an Illinois...
Bomb blast hits oil pipeline in western Syria
Posted by Associated Press: Zeina Karam on July 29th, 2011
Associated Press: A bomb blast struck a major oil pipeline in western Syria on Friday, causing oil to spill into a nearby lake. State television said the explosion was a "terrorist" attack by a group of "saboteurs."
It was the second incident involving an oil pipeline in a month, and the second time this week that authorities accused saboteurs of striking installations.
Syrian authorities have unleashed a brutal crackdown in an effort to crush the revolt against President Bashar Assad, and activists say more...
EPA proposes crackdown on fracking air pollution
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 29th, 2011
Business Green: EPA proposes crackdown on fracking air pollution
Agency delays smog rules, but moves to tackle oil and gas industry air pollution The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has unveiled plans to crackdown on air pollution from controversial "fracking" projects, having previously angered green groups by delaying new regulations to tackle smog.
The agency yesterday set out proposals designed to tackle air pollution from oil and gas wells and, in particular, hydraulic fracturing or "fracking"...
Fire Made Arctic Spew, Rather Than Absorb, Carbon
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 29th, 2011
National Public Radio: The Arctic tundra has been relatively thunderstorm-free for 10,000 years. But conditions are changing in the far north, and in 2007 a lightning strike caused the biggest wildfire ever recorded on the North Slope of Alaska. The tundra is normally a carbon sink, but scientists report in the journal Nature that that single fire released more carbon into the atmosphere than the entire Arctic tundra absorbs every year.
Ignored Tundra Fires Could Have Impact on Global Warming: Study
Posted by IBTimes: None Given on July 29th, 2011
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The fire covered more than 400 square miles on the North Slope of Alaska's Brooks Range and 2.1 million metric tons of carbon was released in the fire. It was twice the size the amount of greenhouse gases generated by Miami in one year.
The fire not only inserted greenhouse gases into the atmosphere but it also consumed 30 percent up of the insulating layer of the organic matter that protects moss covered landscape. Arctic tundra stores...
World’s biggest refugee camp extended as Somalis flood in
Posted by Reuters: Katy Migiro on July 29th, 2011
Reuters: Thousands of Somalis fleeing drought, famine and war have started moving into a new extension of the world's largest refugee camp in Kenya, which is increasingly concerned about bearing the brunt of the Horn of Africa crisis.
About 1,500 Somali refugees are now crossing into Kenya each day but there is no room for them in the congested Dadaab camp, which was declared full in 2008.
Instead, 65,000 refugees have been forced to "self-settle" in cardboard and plastic shelters on flood-prone land...
Protected areas “insufficient” to stem biodiversity loss
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 29th, 2011
Business Green: Designating increasing amounts of land and sea as protected areas has failed to halt a "steep decline" in biodiversity, leaving an urgent reduction in man's ecological footprint as the only option for preserving the natural environment.
That is the conclusion of a new study published yesterday in the Marine Ecology Progress Series journal, which calculates that levels of consumption and population growth mean we will need the productivity of up to 27 Earths by 2050 in order to halt recent declines...
Native grasses in California under threat
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 29th, 2011
United Press International: Native grasses in California, already threatened by invasive exotic varieties, are likely to be pushed aside even more as the climate warms, researchers say.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have mapped the ranges of all 258 native grasses and 177 exotic grasses in the state and estimated how they would be affected by increased temperatures and decreased rainfall expected with climate change.
Many of the characteristics that make exotic grasses more successful than many...
Food Insecurity Caused by Climate Change Affects Family Planning in Kenya
Posted by Global Press Institute: Dorah Nesoba on July 29th, 2011
Global Press Institute: Food Insecurity Caused by Climate Change Affects Family Planning in Kenya
Experts and mothers say climate change is directly and indirectly affecting childbearing in Kenya. They say food insecurity caused by climate change hurts pregnant mothers’ and children’s health and is leading Kenyans to opt for smaller families. It is early evening, and one of the fast food outlets in the South C Shopping Center in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, is bustling with activity as hungry souls troop in one after the...