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Archive for June, 2012
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...
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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...
Mapping out Climate Change Adaptation Plans on Kenya’s Airwaves
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 28th, 2012
Inter Press Service: On a Wednesday morning in Mutitu-Andei township in Makueni County, one of Kenya's driest areas, smallholder farmer Josephine Mutiso tunes into Radio Mang'elete 89.1 FM and listens as meteorological experts discuss the changes in rainfall patterns in the county.
In the past Mutiso has implemented much of the advice from the community station and has been able to successfully use "Zai" pit farming to rehabilitate her dry farmland.
This is a traditional technique which involves digging pits about...
Surging Colorado wildfires forcing tens of thousands to flee
Posted by Christian Science Monitor: Amanda Paulson on June 28th, 2012
Christian Science Monitor: Wildfire worries in Colorado surged Wednesday, as fires threatened heavily populated areas of the state in and around Colorado Springs and Boulder – and a dangerous combination of high winds, heat, and drought conditions compounded firefighters' difficulties. With three major fires burning within its borders, the state scrambled to allocate resources, and President Obama on Wednesday announced he would visit Colorado Springs at the end of this week to view the damage.
Near Colorado Springs, the...
Arctic sea-ice levels at record low for June
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 28th, 2012
Guardian: Satellite observations show the extent of the floating ice that melts and refreezes every year was 318,000 square miles less last week than the same day period in 2007, the year of record low extent, and the lowest observed at this time of year since records began in 1979. Separate observations by University of Washington researchers suggest that the volume of Arctic sea ice is also the smallest ever calculated for this time of year.
Scientists cautioned that it is still early in the "melt season",...
West’s wildfires a preview of changed climate: scientists
Posted by Reuters: Deborah Zabarenko and Laura Zuckerman on June 28th, 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...
Climate change no clear culprit for weather extremes
Posted by Coloradan: None Given on June 28th, 2012
Coloradan: Extreme weather. Epic fires. Withering heat.
June has become a month of superlatives, possibly with no end in sight.
When the Waldo Canyon Fire erupted Tuesday night, turning the northwest quadrant of Colorado Springs into a monstrous neighborhood-consuming inferno, the El Paso County sheriff described it as “epic.”
When the High Park Fire exploded across 8,000 acres on its first day, it was described as the unparalleled wildfire Larimer County has always feared.
And then there are the...
Drought, high heat and winds fuel massive fires in Colorado
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 28th, 2012
Mongabay: Lightning strikes have blatantly ignored the warnings of park service officials in Colorado, setting off the 87,000+ acre High Park fire, the 20,000+ acre fire near Pagosa Springs, and a more recent wildfire just outside Boulder.
Scientists claim the increasing intensity and amount of wildfires in the Southwest is driven by climate change. There are currently 8 major wildfires burning in Colorado, and more than 20 others throughout the Southwest.
Anthropogenic climate change has contributed...