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Archive for November 12th, 2011
Cameroon: A final farewell: the Western Black Rhino goes extinct
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 12th, 2011
Mongabay: The western black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis longipes) roams the woodlands of Africa no more.
The rhino, one of four sub-species of black rhino, was declared extinct this week by the IUCN, five years after the last extensive survey of its habitat in Cameroon.
The western black rhino was once widespread across the savannas of central-west Africa but decline due to hunting in the early 20th century. The population rebounded in the 1930s due to conservation efforts, but reversed as these waned....
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One dam thing after another
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 12th, 2011
Economist: CLIMATE change threatens the Mekong river, continental South-East Asia’s lifeblood, at both source and mouth. As glaciers shrink in the Tibetan Himalayas from where the river springs, so will the snow melt that helps to feed it; as sea levels rise, salination will worsen in the Mekong delta in Vietnam at the far end of its 5,000km (3,200-mile) length. Yet it is what is planned in between—no fewer than 19 dams on the mainstream, in addition to dozens on its tributaries—that is terrifying ecologists....
Thailand: Climate change to bring more floods – World Bank
Posted by Times of Malta: None Given on November 12th, 2011
Times of Malta: Climate change will bring more floods and extreme weather to Southeast Asia, according to a World Bank official on a visit to the region, where hundreds have died in severe inundation.
“What we are seeing is there are more floods, more extreme weather events, higher temperature, more variable rainfalls and we believe that is caused by climate change. And we should expect this to increase, sadly,” Andrew Steer, the World Bank’s special envoy for climate change, told reporters in the Vietnamese...
Methane a growing threat to Arctic’s changing climate
Posted by Alaska Dispatch: Doug O'Harra on November 12th, 2011
Alaska Dispatch: New methane-belching microbe found in Alaska permafrost Thawing Arctic permafrost poised to release vast carbon stores Alaska's national parks adjust to warming climate Climate warming accelerates Arctic migration for some species
Climate-changing greenhouse gases continued their unrelenting rise during 2010, with carbon dioxide averaging 389 parts per million over the year, according to the Annual Greenhouse Gas Index posted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency.
The capacity of these...
Amazon fire season ‘linked to ocean temperature’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 12th, 2011
BBC: Sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies can help predict the severity of Amazon fire seasons, a study has suggested.
A team of US scientists found there was a correlation between El Nino patterns in the Pacific and fire activity in the eastern Amazon.
Writing in the journal Science, they say they also found a link between Atlantic SST changes and fires in southern areas of South America.
They said the data could help produce forecasts of forthcoming fire seasons.
"We found that the Oceanic...