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Archive for July 10th, 2012
Canadian scientists protest against spending cuts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 10th, 2012
Reuters: Several hundred Canadian scientists and their supporters held an unprecedented protest march on Tuesday to demonstrate against the government's decision to close down major facilities and fire research staff.
Don't miss these Health stories for msnbc.com Hormone study still worries women, 10 years later
Ten years ago today, the Women's Health Initiative found that hormone replacement therapy can be harmful, scaring millions of women off them. A decade later, women such as Ingrid Gorman are...
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Scientists attribute extreme weather to man-made climate change
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on July 10th, 2012
Guardian: Climate change researchers have been able to attribute recent examples of extreme weather to the effects of human activity on the planet's climate systems for the first time, marking a major step forward in climate research.
The findings make it much more likely that we will soon – within the next few years – be able to discern whether the extremely wet and cold summer and spring so far experienced in the UK this year are attributable to human causes rather than luck, according to the researchers....
UK weather: will we ever get a summer?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 10th, 2012
Guardian: Will we ever get a summer? Who knows? Forecasters are reluctant to go into too much detail for more than 48 hours ahead and the Met Office is extremely cautious in its look ahead to the end of September.
They are certainly not ready to promise long unbroken periods of sunshine any time soon – saying unsettled weather will remain with us into the Olympics – but that doesn't mean there won't be some fine spells. These just might be shorter than we hope.
The Met Office's most recent three-month...
As U.S. sees record heat, extreme weather pummels 4 continents
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 10th, 2012
Mongabay: It's not only the U.S. that has experienced record-breaking extreme weather events recently, in the last couple months extreme weather has struck around the world with startling ferocity. In addition to the much-covered heatwaves, wildfires, and droughts in the U.S., killer floods struck India, the worst drought yet recorded plagued South Korea, and massive forest fires swept through Siberia to name just a few.
Fires in Siberia: Exceptionally dry and warm conditions have led to hundreds of wildfires...
Global warming linked to freak weather
Posted by Financial Times: None Given on July 10th, 2012
Financial Times: As the US bakes in a searing heatwave and Russia mourns the deaths of more than 100 flood victims, scientists have produced what they say is groundbreaking research linking climate change to recent extreme weather. Global warming “significantly” increased the odds of some of last year’s most unusual weather, including the brutal Texas drought and the freakishly warm November in Britain, according to findings released Tuesday alongside the latest “state of the climate” report in the Bulletin of the...
Climate change may lead to fewer but more violent thunderstorms, study says
Posted by Phys.Org: None Given on July 10th, 2012
Phys.Org: Researchers are working to identify exactly how a changing climate will impact specific elements of weather, such as clouds, rainfall, and lightning. A Tel Aviv University researcher has predicted that for every one degree Celsius of warming, there will be approximately a 10 percent increase in lightning activity.
This could have negative consequences in the form of flash floods, wild fires, or damage to power lines and other infrastructure, says Prof. Colin Price, Head of the Department of Geophysics,...
Study forecasts global increase in freak weather
Posted by Independent: Martin Hickman on July 10th, 2012
Independent: Heatwaves and flooding are more likely in coming decades because of climate change, according to a new report which found that global warming probably caused freak weather around the world last year.
The burst of heat in the UK in November and Texas’s driest summer for 100 years were more likely to have happened because of climate change, according to the study.
However other freak weather events such as floods in Thailand were unlikely to have been caused by an increase in man-made greenhouse...
Intense Heat Has Lasting Impact Across U.S
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 10th, 2012
National Public Radio: 2012 is off to the warmest start since at least 1895, when record-keeping began. While the latest heat wave finally broke across much of the U.S., it factored in dozens of deaths and forced many employers to shift workers' schedules. The intense heat also left many farmers and ranchers scrambling.
Climate change boosted odds of Texas drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 10th, 2012
New Scientist: Some things you really can pin on climate change - the heatwave that struck Texas last year, for instance. A long-term rise in temperatures due to greenhouse gas emissions made the hot weather 20 times more likely, modelling suggests.
The same study found that four other extreme weather events last year can be linked to climate change.
Until recently, climate scientists have been reluctant to blame individual weather events on climate change. There have been exceptions: studies have found that...
Oil firm accused over Kalamazoo spill ‘handled response like Keystone Cops’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 10th, 2012
Guardian: A scathing government investigation into a devastating oil spill on Michigan's Kalamazoo River found the pipeline company overlooked danger signs for five years before the accident and handled their response like the "Keystone Cops".
The July 2010 rupture of the Enbridge pipeline caused the most damaging onshore oil spill in US history, poisoning 35 miles of waterway and exposing 320 people to crude oil. Clean-up costs were more than $800m.
The US National Transportation Board said in presenting...