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Archive for October, 2011
Human-caused climate change major factor in more frequent Mediterranean droughts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 31st, 2011
ScienceDaily: Human-Caused Climate Change Major Factor in More Frequent Mediterranean Droughts
Wintertime droughts are increasingly common in the Mediterranean region, and human-caused climate change is partly responsible, according to a new analysis by NOAA scientists and colleagues at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). In the last 20 years, 10 of the driest 12 winters have taken place in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.
"The magnitude and frequency of...
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United States: EPA keeps a Keystone XL weapon holstered, worrying environmentalists
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 28th, 2011
Greenwire: Despite environmentalists' appeals for its help in halting what they consider a flawed Obama administration review of the $7 billion Keystone XL oil pipeline, U.S. EPA has declined to use one of its two binding chances to object to that process.
The 25-day clock EPA had to refer Keystone XL's environmental assessment to the White House under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is long expired, leaving the agency with one last chance to formally seek presidential buy-in for the politically...
Map Reveals Stark Divide in Who Caused Climate Change and Who’s Being Hit
Posted by Common Dreams: Damian Carrington on October 28th, 2011
Common Dreams: When the world's nations convene in Durban in November in the latest attempt to inch towards a global deal to tackle climate change, one fundamental principle will, as ever, underlie the negotiations.
Is is the contention that while rich, industrialised nations caused climate change through past carbon emissions, it is the developing world that is bearing the brunt. It follows from that, developing nations say, that the rich nations must therefore pay to enable the developing nations to both develop...
Italy declares state of emergency in storm-hit regions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 28th, 2011
Reuters: Italy declared a state of emergency Friday in areas battered by torrential rainstorms this week that killed at least seven people.
Late Tuesday, storms lashed parts of the northwestern coastal regions of Liguria and Tuscany, bringing down bridges and houses. Widespread flooding and mudslides in villages in the picturesque Cinque Terre area cut electricity and blocked roads and railways.
Authorities in Liguria confirmed a seventh death Friday. Local prosecutors are investigating complaints that...
Countries must plan for climate refugees
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 28th, 2011
Reuters: The world's governments and relief agencies need to plan now to resettle millions of people expected to be displaced by climate change, an international panel of experts said on Thursday.
Resettlement is already occurring at the rate of some 10 million people a year, said the report's lead author, Alex de Sherbinin. Climate-related resettlement projects are under way in Vietnam, Mozambique, on the Alaskan coast, the Chinese territory of Inner Mongolia and in the South Pacific.
If global temperatures...
Thousands flee Bangkok as floods threaten
Posted by Reuters: Jason Szep and Martin Petty on October 28th, 2011
Reuters: Traffic clogged roads out of the Thai capital on Friday as tens of thousands of people fled ahead of a high tide expected to worsen floods that have inundated factories and prompted foreign governments to warn their citizens to stay away.
Bangkok's Chao Phraya River is expected to burst its banks over the weekend during the unusually high tide that begins on Friday, causing some flooding in nearby areas. Buildings across Bangkok have been sand-bagged for protection, and some vulnerable streets...
Weather changes mean more dead zones for Lake Erie: expert
Posted by Reuters: Kim Palmer on October 27th, 2011
Reuters: After a celebrated comeback from abysmal water conditions and high pollution levels in the 1970s, Lake Erie is regressing to the highest levels of phosphorous contamination in 40 years, a Great Lakes expert said on Thursday.
"Levels are back-up to when it was considered a dead lake," said Jeff Reutter, director of the Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory at Ohio State University, speaking at the State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference in Erie, Pennsylvania.
He said the lake is experiencing phosphorous...
Haiti the most vulnerable to climate change; Iceland the least
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 27th, 2011
USA Today: Haiti is the nation most at risk from rising sea levels, floods and other impacts of climate change, according to a new global survey from the U.K. risk analysis firm Maplecroft.
Thirty countries are listed as being at 'extreme risk,' with the top 10 comprising of Haiti, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Cambodia, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi and the Philippines.
The survey, the Climate Change Vulnerability Index, ranks nearly 200 nations in terms of...
In Pipeline Debate, Silent Environmentalists
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 27th, 2011
New York Times: The absence of elected New York City officials and major environmental groups from the debate over a proposed natural gas pipeline has been rather conspicuous.
As I write in Thursday`s Times, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration supports the natural gas project, which would run from New Jersey to the West Village in Manhattan, as a way of weaning the city’s buildings from highly polluting heating oils.
In a metropolis that often fails to meet federal air quality standards, city officials...
Climate unknown: How serious the threat to life is
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 27th, 2011
New Scientist: A warmer, wetter Earth with higher CO2 levels could support more life - if there were time to adapt to it. The problem for the plants, animals and people living today is that they and we have adapted to the unusually stable climate of the past few thousand years. Now the world is warming very rapidly and could become hotter than it has been for millions of years, and the climate is going to be anything but stable for the foreseeable future.
That will be a huge challenge. Many species will have...