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Archive for July 29th, 2012
Climate Change and the Next US Revolution
Posted by Truthout: Shamus Cooke on July 29th, 2012
Truthout: The U.S. heat wave is slowly shaking the foundations of American politics. It may take years for the deep rumble to evolve into an above ground, institution-shattering earthquake, but U.S. society has changed for good.
The heat wave has helped convince tens of millions of Americans that climate change is real, overpowering the fake science and right-wing media - funded by corporate cash - to convince Americans otherwise.
Republicans and Democrats alike also erect roadblocks to understanding...
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How about that weather?
Posted by Post-Standard: Editorial on July 29th, 2012
Post-Standard: The evidence:
* Central New York has had an unusually large number of 90-degree-plus days this summer, including a 101-degree sizzler July 17.
* A mild spring followed a mild winter with just 50.2 inches of snow instead of the normal 124.5 inches.
* Lack of precipitation is producing brown lawns and parched farms in Central New York. Farmer Jason Turek in King Ferry, Cayuga County, told staff writer Debra Groom this month his first bean harvest was about one-quarter of the normal yield....
Ozone layer could be further depleted by thunderstorms, scientists say
Posted by Indian Country: None Given on July 29th, 2012
Indian Country: What do climate change, ultraviolet radiation and ozone have in common?
Thunderstorms.
Maybe.
Scientists are positing a possible link between the three based on a new study. The logic goes something like this: Summer thunderstorms in the U.S. inject water vapor much higher in the atmosphere than anyone realized. The result is a “cascade of chemical reactions,” as the journal Nature put it, that may, coupled with global warming, punch more holes in the ozone layer. More holes in the ozone...
In Dallas area, high water use can be tied to affluence
Posted by Dallas Morning News: Melissa Repko on July 29th, 2012
Dallas Morning News: On hot summer mornings in Highland Park, landscaping trucks line residential streets. Lawnmowers hum. And sprinklers send water flowing across sidewalks, into gutters and down storm drains.
As Inge Grayson walks her schnauzer-poodle, Ernie, she passes yards still dewy from the morning’s automatic sprinkler cycle. And she notes the waste.
“You want a nice lawn, like everybody else. That goes without saying,” said Grayson, who recently cut her watering time in half. “I don’t know if people are...
Enbridge working fast to contain Wisconsin oil spill, restart pipeline
Posted by Reuters: Brendan O'Brien on July 29th, 2012
Reuters: Canada's Enbridge Inc. on Sunday raced to repair a major pipeline that spilled more than 1,000 barrels of oil in a Wisconsin field, provoking fresh ire from Washington over the latest in a series of leaks.
The spill on Friday -- almost two years to the day after a ruptured Enbridge line fouled part of the Kalamazoo River in Michigan -- has forced the closure of a major conduit for Canadian light crude shipments to U.S. refiners and threatens further damage the reputation of a company that launched...
40,000 evacuated from homes as floods peak in China
Posted by Shanghai Daily: Zha Minjie on July 29th, 2012
Shanghai Daily: MORE than 40,000 people in central China's Yellow River area have been evacuated from their homes to safer areas as flood waters peak in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces.
The water flow at Wubu Hydro Station in Wubu County in Yulin City, in Shaanxi, reached 10,600 cubic meters per second on Friday, the highest level since 1989, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said.
Recent torrential rain has seen water levels rise on the main artery and tributaries of the Yellow River's...
Canada: B.C. Premier Christy Clark derails bid to forge national energy strategy
Posted by Vancouver Sun: Brian Morton and Jason Fekete on July 29th, 2012
Vancouver Sun: B.C. Premier Christy Clark says her government will not sign onto any national energy strategy until British Columbia’s dispute with Alberta and the federal government over the Northern Gateway oil pipeline is resolved.
Clark’s announcement Friday during the final day of the annual Council of the Federation conference torpedoed any hopes of Canada’s 13 premiers agreeing to a new Canadian energy strategy that’s being trumpeted by Alberta’s Alison Redford, who has been sparring with Clark all week...
India’s farmers wait for more monsoon rains as crops struggle, food prices rise
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 29th, 2012
Washington Post: Kancharu Pawar, a 51-year-old farmer, gazed despondently at his soybean crop. The plants are only just poking out of the soil, even though it is halfway through the four-month rainy season.
"It should be two feet high by now, but it's not even coming off the ground,' he said. "There is no growth in the plants. There is no rain.'
India's monsoon rains, which run from June to September, so far are a fifth below average levels. Western India has been worst hit, with rains as much as 70 percent...
Chronic 2000-04 drought, worst in 800 years, may be the “new normal”
Posted by Oregon State: None Given on July 29th, 2012
Oregon State: The chronic drought that hit western North America from 2000 to 2004 left dying forests and depleted river basins in its wake and was the strongest in 800 years, scientists have concluded, but they say those conditions will become the “new normal” for most of the coming century.
Such climatic extremes have increased as a result of global warming, a group of 10 researchers reported today in Nature Geoscience. And as bad as conditions were during the 2000-04 drought, they may eventually be seen...
Green cowboys: New breed of ranchers shapes a sustainable West
Posted by Christian Science Monitor: Todd Wilkinson on July 29th, 2012
Christian Science Monitor: Zachary Jones is a saddle-hardened fifth-generation rancher even though, on the surface, he may not look like one. As he threads his pickup truck through the back pasture of a quintessential Western expanse – one carpeted in flaxen-colored grass in the shadow of Montana's Crazy Mountains – he bears little resemblance to the stereotype of the Stetson-wearing cowboy. No pointed boots or spurs. No denim. No bandanna. Not even a rifle mounted in the vehicle's back window.
Instead, Mr. Jones is wearing...