RSS Feed
Archive for July 9th, 2012
Vale’s $1 trillion iron mine in the Amazon wins approval
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 9th, 2012
Mongabay: The Brazilian government approved the environmental license for the expansion of an iron mine in the Amazon region, reports Vale, the Brazilian mining giant behind the project.
The S11D mine will be an extension of Vale's existing Carajas complex in the state of Pará. The company will spend $8 billion to develop the mine, which the it says holds up to a trillion dollars worth of iron ore.
Vale says the mine will begin operating in 2016 and produce up to 90 million tons of iron ore per year....
Posted in 
Food and Extreme Weather
Posted by Mother Jones: Tom Philpott on July 9th, 2012
Mother Jones: As the climate warms up and "extreme" events like heat waves and droughts become more common, what will become of food production? I started to examine that question in my last post, published Wednesday. A front-page article in Thursday's New York Times brought a stark reminder of why the topic is crucial. Reports the Times' Monica Davey:
Already, some farmers in Illinois and Missouri have given up on parched and stunted fields, mowing them over. National experts say parts of five corn-growing...
Climate Change: ‘This Is Just the Beginning’
Posted by Salon: Amy Goodman on July 9th, 2012
Salon: Evidence supporting the existence of climate change is pummeling the United States this summer, from the mountain wildfires of Colorado to the recent “derecho” storm that left at least 23 dead and 1.4 million people without power from Illinois to Virginia. The phrase “extreme weather” flashes across television screens from coast to coast, but its connection to climate change is consistently ignored, if not outright mocked. If our news media, including -- or especially -- the meteorologists, continue...
The Extreme Weather of 2012 Represented in One Chart
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on July 9th, 2012
Climate Central: The weather so far this year has been anything but "average." There was that massive heat wave in March that sent temperatures soaring into the upper 80s in the Upper Midwest at a time when it should have been snowing. Tropical Storm Debby dropped more than 2 feet of rain in just a few days on northern Florida. Thousands of record high temperatures were set or tied during a brutal mid-June to early July heat wave, including hundreds of all-time record highs.
Wildfires burned hundreds of homes...
Marcellus Shale Fluids Seeping into Pa. Water Supply
Posted by ProPublica: None Given on July 9th, 2012
ProPublica: New research has concluded that salty, mineral-rich fluids deep beneath Pennsylvania's natural gas fields are likely seeping upward thousands of feet into drinking water supplies.
Though the fluids were natural and not the byproduct of drilling or hydraulic fracturing, the finding further stokes the red-hot controversy over fracking in the Marcellus Shale, suggesting that drilling waste and chemicals could migrate in ways previously thought to be impossible.
The study, conducted by scientists...
Fracking Did Not Sully Aquifers, Limited Study Finds
Posted by New York Times: Rachel Nuwer on July 9th, 2012
New York Times: A new study enters the debate over the safety of hydraulic fracturing: researchers report that naturally occurring paths in the rock bed in northeastern Pennsylvania allowed some contaminants to migrate into shallow drinking aquifers. They found no direct connection between the contamination and shale-gas drilling operations in the region, however.
"The good news is there is no direct link between this finding with saline water and shell gas extraction," said Avner Vengosh, a geochemist at Duke...
A Sizzling Start to the Year
Posted by New York Times: Kelly Slivka on July 9th, 2012
New York Times: It’s official, although not necessarily a surprise. The average temperature across the contiguous United States for the first six months of this year has been the warmest on record -- and by a considerable sum -- dating back to 1895, according to a monthly report released Monday by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center.
The average 2012 temperature through June was 57.4 degrees Fahrenheit -- 4.5 degrees higher than the long-term average for the same period. That`s 1.5 degrees warmer on average...
Continental U.S. breaks heat record in first half of 2012
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 9th, 2012
Reuters: Scorching temperatures in June's second half helped the continental United States break its record for the hottest first six months in a calendar year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Monday. The last 12 months also have been the warmest since modern record-keeping began in 1895, narrowly beating the previous 12-month period that ended in May 2012. Every state except Washington in the contiguous United States had warmer-than-average temperatures for the June 2011-June...
U.S. Has Warmest Year-to-Date As Drought Expands
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on July 9th, 2012
Climate Central: The U.S. continued its hot streak through June, recording the warmest January-to-June period on record, with drought conditions spreading across the Lower 48 states to an unprecedented degree. According to statistics released Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), June was the 14th warmest such month on record, and the past 12 months were the warmest such period on record. At the end of the month, 56 percent of the country was experiencing drought conditions, which...
Climate Change Is Already Shrinking Crop Yields
Posted by Mother Jones: Tom Philpott on July 9th, 2012
Mother Jones: For years now, people have wondered how climate change will affect farming. How will humanity feed itself during a time of rising temperatures and recurring drought?
Here in the US, we're starting to get a taste of things to come—and it's bitter. Brutal heat is now roiling the main growing regions for corn, soy, and wheat, the biggest US crops. According to Bloomberg News, [1] 71 percent of the Midwest is experiencing "drier-than-normal conditions," and temperatures are projected to be above 90...