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Archive for February 23rd, 2012
Mild drought ’caused Maya fall’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 23rd, 2012
BBC: Relatively mild drought conditions may have been enough to cause the collapse of the Classic Maya civilisation, which flourished until about AD950 in what is now southern Mexico and Guatemala.
Scientists have long thought that severe drought caused its collapse.
But Mexican and British researchers now think that a sustained drop in rainfall of only 25-40% was enough to exhaust seasonal water supplies in the region.
The findings were published in the journal Science.
The research was conducted...
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Study: Climate change will up storm surges
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 23rd, 2012
United Press International: Changing climate could make flooding from hurricanes and tropical storms far more common in low-lying coastal areas, a U.S. study suggests.
Researchers from Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said regions such as the New York City metropolitan area that have experienced a disastrous flood roughly every century could instead become submerged every one or two decades, a Princeton University release reported.
Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, they said...
Canada: How environmentalists are losing the climate change war
Posted by Ottawa Citizen: Dan Gardner on February 23rd, 2012
Ottawa Citizen: If we fully develop Alberta’s oilsands and burn the oil they produce, we will raise the temperature measurably all over the planet. That’s the conclusion of an analysis by University of Victoria scientists Andrew Weaver and Neil Swart and published in the journal Nature.
Rather a big deal, one would think. But that’s not what we read in the media this week.
The banner headline on the front page of the Globe and Mail: “Science rides to aid of oilsands.”
Weaver and Swart found that burning...
EU tar sands fight not over, experts at stalemate
Posted by Reuters: Barbara Lewis on February 23rd, 2012
Reuters: Years of fierce lobbying against draft EU rules that would label fuel from tar sands as more polluting than from other sources produced a stalemate on Thursday when a committee of technical experts failed to agree on the proposal.
The European Union's executive and environmentalists say the "dirty" label is necessary to help fuel buyers choose the least carbon-intensive energy forms and help to curb global warming.
Canada, home to massive crude reserves most of which are in the form of very...
Canada pleased with EU vote, will defend oil sands
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 23rd, 2012
Reuters: Canada hailed the European Union's failure on Thursday to classify tar sands crude as particularly dirty, but Ottawa made it clear it would take trade action if the EU did end up singling out Canadian oil.
A meeting of EU technical experts failed to approve a proposal to label fuel from Alberta's vast tar sands as more polluting than other sources of crude.
Canada had campaigned against the idea, saying it was unjustified and could help discriminate against its oil.
"We're very pleased....
EU poised for tar sands vote, stalemate likely
Posted by Reuters: Barbara Lewis on February 23rd, 2012
Reuters: An EU vote on Thursday on a draft law to label fuel from tar sands as highly polluting is likely to produce a stalemate, EU sources said, marking a draw in a long lobbying tussle between oil giant Canada and environmentalists.
Among those likely to abstain were Britain and the Netherlands, which both have a stake in Royal Dutch Shell, active in oil sands, and the EU's most powerful member Germany.
Spain, which has a large refining sector, and Estonia, whose reserves of shale oil would also...
EU tar sands pollution vote ends in deadlock
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 23rd, 2012
Guardian: The European Union failed to label oil produced from tar sands as highly polluting on Thursday, with a key vote by member states ending in deadlock.
The issue is seen as a key test of the EU's ability to implement its climate change policies while under heavy pressure from the Canadian government and oil companies who want to prevent billions of barrels of tar sands oil from being designated as especially harmful to the environment. The lobbying has been intense, with Canada secretly threatening...
EU tar sands vote looms
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 23rd, 2012
Guardian: A fierce battle over whether the European Union will officially label oil produced from tar sands as highly polluting comes to a head on Thursday with a crucial vote.
The issue is seen as a key test of the EU's ability to implement its climate change policies against pressure from the Canadian government and oil companies' ability to prevent billions of barrels of tar sands oil being designated as especially harmful to the environment. The lobbying has been intense, with Canada secretly threatening...
Rainfall calms storms
Posted by Nature: Philip Ball on February 23rd, 2012
Nature: Rainfall soothes the atmosphere, atmospheric scientists have found. They calculate that a substantial portion of the energy that drives wind and air circulation in the atmosphere is dissipated as friction by raindrops falling through the air.
The atmosphere acts like a heat engine, generating mechanical energy by moving heat from Earth’s surface, where air has been warmed by the Sun, to the colder air above. Some of that becomes kinetic energy of air, driving movements ranging from large-scale...
India: Sacred natural sites and climate change threat
Posted by Hindustan Times: Utpal Parashar on February 23rd, 2012
Hindustan Times: Sacred natural sites are areas of land or water having special spiritual significance. And the Eastern Himalayas is home to many such sites like Mount Kailash (Tibet), Lumbini (Nepal), Taksang (Bhutan), Gosaikunda (Nepal), Gurudongmar Lake (Sikkim). These sites besides having spiritual and religious significance also have biodiversity conservation value due to restrictions on cutting of trees and desecration of environment around them. Surveys have found high level of biodiversity in these areas....