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Archive for June 29th, 2012
Heat, drought taking a toll on Wisconsin crops
Posted by Journal Sentinel: Rick Barrett on June 29th, 2012
Journal Sentinel: With each day of scorching heat and little rain, the odds of reaping a bountiful vegetable harvest dwindle for Wisconsin farmers such as Chuck Frase and Terry Vlossak.
As the owners of Full Harvest Farm in Hartford, they have used miles of "drip tape" - plastic tubing that drips water onto plants - to irrigate organic vegetables.
But even that hasn't kept up with the hot, dry weather. Certain plants that aren't watered as much have turned brown on their edges and are at risk of dying.
The...
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As a heat wave rolls across U.S., scientists predict more to come
Posted by LA Times: Laura J. Nelson on June 29th, 2012
LA Times: Climate scientists have this to say about the record-breaking heat wave rippling across the country: Get used to it.
This week's spike toward triple-digit temperatures is unusual, they say. But as Earth gets warmer and greenhouse gases build, highs will keep getting higher.
"There have always been heat spells,' said Glen MacDonald, the director of the UCLA Institute of Environment and Sustainability, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. "That's just the climate system. But ... if you're...
UK fracking should be expanded, but better regulated, says report
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on June 29th, 2012
Guardian: Shale gas fracking should be allowed to go ahead in the UK, but with closer monitoring of companies engaged in the controversial activity, a committee of high-level academics and engineers has advised.
The Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society said in a report published on Friday that the UK's current regulatory systems were sufficient for shale gas fracking if they were adequately enforced, but also said that closer monitoring of shale gas exploration sites should be put in place,...
United States: Bye-bye bayou
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 29th, 2012
Living on Earth: Two years after five million barrels of oil entered the Gulf of Mexico, the marshes off Louisiana's coast are feeling the blow. These wetlands are changing rapidly, but there may be hope in restoration efforts. Brian Silliman, a marine biologist at the University of Florida, tells host Bruce Gellerman that America's hardest working wetlands are going to have to work even harder to keep up with the oil spill. Transcript GELLERMAN: Even before the BP oil disaster, Louisiana's delicate marshlands...
West’s wildfires a preview of changed climate-scientists
Posted by Reuters: Deborah Zabarenko and Laura Zuckerman on June 29th, 2012
Reuters: Scorching heat, high winds and bone-dry conditions are fueling catastrophic wildfires in the U.S. West that offer a preview of the kind of disasters that human-caused climate change could bring, a trio of scientists said on Thursday. "What we're seeing is a window into what global warming really looks like," Princeton University's Michael Oppenheimer said during a telephone press briefing. "It looks like heat, it looks like fires, it looks like this kind of environmental disaster ... This provides...