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Archive for July 15th, 2012
Climate Change Fuels the Perfect Firestorm
Posted by Climate Central: Michael Kodas on July 15th, 2012
Climate Central: The last time I chased wildfires across Colorado was in 2003, while serving as a seasonal wildland firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service. I was part of a crew of 20, bouncing through the Rocky Mountains in a battered school bus to put out fires with names like Crazy Woman and the Bluebird. It was a war fought with rakes, spades, axes, and chainsaws, in which I extinguished more flames with shovelfuls of dirt than I did with water. The year before, Colorado had lost 133 homes and more than 138,000...
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It’s Simple: Global Warming Is Causing the Extreme Weather
Posted by ABC News: Bill Blakemore on July 15th, 2012
ABC News: ----
Nature`s Edge Notebook #32
Observation, Analysis, Reflection, New Questions
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We want a clear answer.
Is manmade global warming responsible for the surge in severe heat events we`re seeing in recent years around the globe?
The world`s climate scientists have a clear answer:
Yes. It is.
"It`s about as solid as science ever gets," climatologist James Hansen tells ABC News.
But climate scientists often add a different and sometimes confusing answer to a slightly different...
Japan floods kill 25 and leave thousands cut off
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 15th, 2012
Associated Press: Thousands of people in southern Japan remain cut off by floods and mudslides triggered by torrential rains that have killed at least 26 people, local authorities say.
Evacuation orders issued a day earlier for a quarter of a million people were lifted in most areas on Sunday as the rains subsided, allowing many people to return home.
But thousands remained cut off by landslides or fallen trees that blocked roads in mountainous areas.
More than 3,000 people were left stranded in Yame, in...
Fugitive Methane Caught in the Act of Raising GHG
Posted by Forbes: James Conca on July 15th, 2012
Forbes: It turns out that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are much higher from using natural gas to produce electricity than from using coal. So much for the myth that replacing coal with gas will help stave off global warming.
The culprit of these GHG emissions is fugitive emissions of methane. Since methane is a far more potent GHG than CO2, this is bad. Fugitive losses include loss of methane from the well-head during flow-back return of the fluids, during drill-out following fracturing and during well-venting,...
11 killed in south China rains
Posted by Beijing News: None Given on July 15th, 2012
Beijing News: Landslides and floods triggered by torrential rains in southern China's Guizhou province have killed at least 11 people and damaged homes of 980,000 residents, officials said. Authorities are carrying out rescue work and handing out disaster relief goods, including quilts, rice and oil to the homeless, Xinhua reported. Hundreds of residents are being evacuated from areas prone to geological disasters. Rains have also wreaked havoc in the eastern province of Anhui and the central province of Hunan....
U.S. falls short in global energy efficiency rankings
Posted by Climate Central: Alex Kasdin on July 15th, 2012
Climate Central: The nonprofit American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) released a report this week ranking the top 12 global economies in terms of their energy efficiency. The U.S. was 9th, trailing not only the United Kingdom, which ranked 1st, but also behind the European Union and China.
The report, called the "International Energy Efficiency Scorecard,' analyzed the efficiency of the 12 largest global economies, which included Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,...
Japan: 240,000 evacuated amid Kyushu deluge
Posted by Japan Times: None Given on July 15th, 2012
Japan Times: Some 240,000 people from about 85,000 households in Kyushu were told to evacuate as storms that have already killed 22 people continued to dump more rain on the region Saturday, local authorities said.
To the rescue: Ground Self-Defense Force soldiers search for people swept away by floods in Aso, Kumamoto Prefecture, as heavy rains continued to fall over Kyushu on Saturday. KYODO
The orders were issued in four of Kyushu's seven prefectures - Fukuoka, Saga, Kumamoto and Oita. The police, meanwhile,...
New Zealand: Our frozen assets slowly melting away
Posted by The Press: None Given on July 15th, 2012
The Press: Scientists revealed this past week New Zealand's famous Franz Josef Glacier is dramatically retreating. Deidre Mussen investigates what the future holds for our nation's glaciers.
Over the past three decades, some New Zealand glaciers have quietly vanished.
Nameless and far from tourists' gaze, they have melted from our history books without creating a ripple.
And more are likely to follow, according to New Zealand's glacier godfather, Dr Trevor Chinn.
"It's like taking books out of a...
United Kingdom: Climate change scientist: Expect more droughts and floods
Posted by Bucks Free Press: James Nadal on July 15th, 2012
Bucks Free Press: A CLIMATE change scientist says the recent 'perverse' situation of floods and droughts occurring at the same time is a trend for the future.
Fiona Hewer, a Cookham Parish Councillor, has warned that the drastic flooding seen around the UK recently, while other areas, such as Thames Valley, including Cookham and Marlow, have hosepipe bans, is likely to reoccur.
The meteorologist, who used to work at the Met Office's top climate change research centre in Hadley, Exeter, said: "One of the things...
Climate Change and How the West Was Lost
Posted by Climate Central: Richard Manning on July 15th, 2012
Climate Central: For many people, global warming is merely a threat they hear about on TV, a headline they read in the paper, or news from a summit in a foreign city where bureaucrats bicker over parts per million. But where I live, it is a sound, a drone, real and seasonal, embedded in the same mix as the buzz of spring's calliope hummingbirds, the bugle of bull elk in fall, and the silence of deep winter. The trained ear cannot only pick it from the cacophony of nature, but also read in it signals of events: an...