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Archive for July 12th, 2012
Many Amazon extinctions yet to come, study finds
Posted by LiveScience: Joseph Castro on July 12th, 2012
LiveScience: When species lose their natural habitat to deforestation and other causes, they don't immediately disappear. Instead, they gradually die off over several generations, racking up an "extinction debt" that must eventually be paid in full. New research shows that the Brazilian Amazon has accrued a heavy vertebrate extinction debt, with more than 80 percent of extinctions expected from historical deforestation still pending.
Only on msnbc.com Redux Pictures file Women in the infantry? Bad idea, female...
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Colorado’s ‘Most Destructive’ Fire Now Fully Contained
Posted by Climate Central: Alex Kasdin on July 12th, 2012
Climate Central: The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that the Waldo Canyon fire, the "most destructive' fire ever to rip through Colorado, was 100 percent contained. This does not mean that every blaze of the fire has been extinguished but means the fire's "boundaries are fully under control.' A spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, Pat Collrin, said that some parts of the Waldo Canyon fire could continue to "burn until fall.'
However, the smoke has cleared enough to inventory the unparalleled damage. After...
Drought parches more of U.S. Midwest, crops suffer
Posted by Reuters: Karl Plume on July 12th, 2012
Reuters: The worst drought in a quarter century tightened its grip on the Midwestern United States over the past week as sweltering temperatures and scant rainfall punished corn and soybean crops across the region, a report from climate experts said Thursday.
Nearly two-thirds of the nine-state Midwest region was in some stage of drought in the week ended July 10, up from just over 50 percent a week earlier, according to the Drought Monitor, a weekly report on drought throughout the country compiled by...
Fighting for Reproductive Rights; Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 12th, 2012
CNN: CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST: Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the program. I'm Christiane Amanpour. Tonight, two life-and-death issues, each controversial. But where the facts are incontrovertible, first reproductive rights. One hundred thousand women die in childbirth every year because of unintended pregnancies. And the leading cause of death is that amongst teenagers worldwide. One simple remedy could cut this number by a third and that is contraception. Yet it's not available to 222...
Spurred by Record Heat, Drought Stretches Across U.S
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on July 12th, 2012
Climate Central: Drought conditions have expanded and reached another record level for the 21st century as of Thursday, escalating concerns about the fate of the 2012 corn crop. As of Thursday morning, nearly 61 percent of the country was classified as being in at least moderate drought, up from about 56 percent just one week ago, which was the largest swath of the country to be affected by drought conditions since the Drought Monitor began in 2000.
According to the weather summary accompanying the...
Climate Change Deniers Resurface: Who Will You Believe?
Posted by Huffington Post: Bob Keefe on July 12th, 2012
Huffington Post: The temperature's cooling, the power is back on in Washington, D.C., the fires are almost out in Colorado and they've almost cleaned up from the flooding in Florida.
So naturally, those who continue to deny (at the peril of the rest of us) the connection between climate change and extreme weather disasters are once again raising their heads and raising their voices.
Sen. Jim Inhofe, the igloo-building, oil-state politician who recently authored a book proclaiming global warming is a hoax, used...
Research murky on danger of Asian carp invasion
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 12th, 2012
Associated Press: As scientists aboard a research boat activate an electric current, the calm Illinois River transforms into a roiling, silvery mass. Asian carp by the dozen hurtle from the water as if shot from a gun, soaring in graceful arcs before plunging beneath the surface with splashes resembling tiny geysers. Water quality specialist Thad Cook grunts as a whopper belts him in the gut. His colleagues duck and dodge to avoid the missile-like fish that plop onto the deck, writhing madly until someone can grasp...
Increase in Mountain Roads Causing Environmental Degradation in Southeast Asia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 12th, 2012
Yale Environment 360: The rapid expansion of roads across the rural mountains of Southeast Asia often triggers unintended environmental consequences that in many cases undermine the socioeconomic benefits, according to an article in the journal Nature Geoscience. While international organizations have supported “aggressive” efforts to expand road networks to increase agricultural development, trade, and tourism in remote regions, poorly designed mountain roads can cause landslides, soil erosion, and increased deforestation,...
Preventing Fires, Before Everything’s Aflame
Posted by Climate Central: Ari Phillips on July 12th, 2012
Climate Central: Wildfires have been national news this summer. Massive, destructive burns in Colorado and New Mexico have emblazoned websites and TV screens across the country. But just as the monsoon rains roll into the Southwest bringing much needed moisture, the nation's gaze over the fires will move on, too.
The wildfires are just the eye-catching flashpoint of a complex and ongoing process of forest management and restoration in the Southwest. Since the U.S. Forest Service began monitoring national forests...
Indigenous tribes end occupation of Belo Monte
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 12th, 2012
Mongabay: After occupying the construction site of the massive Belo Monte dam for 21 days, some 300 indigenous people have left and gone home. The representatives from nine Amazonian tribes abandoned their occupation after two days of meeting with the dam's builder, the Norte Energia consortium.
Belo Monte, if completed, will be the world's third largest dam, but has been opposed by indigenous groups and conservationists for decades. The dam will displace 16,000 people according to the Brazilian government,...