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Archive for August 19th, 2012
Canada: Climate change: How Toronto is adapting to our scary new reality
Posted by Toronto Star: Jennifer Wells on August 19th, 2012
Toronto Star: Michael D'Andrea had no notion that August day just how wrathful the afternoon would turn, how calamitous, what an effect it would have on the city's future.
It was an off-duty day for the director of Toronto's Water Infrastructure Management, who had planned a pleasant Niagara-on-the-Lake getaway with his wife in what was a hot, dry summer.
"We had lunch, we walked by the lake,' D'Andrea recounts of the pretty afternoon. And then came the reckoning: "I looked toward Toronto and said, 'Oh my...
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New bird discovered in Colombia, imperiled by hydroelectric project
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 19th, 2012
Mongabay: In a little-known dry forest in Colombia, scientists have discovered a new species of bird: the Antioquia wren (Thryophilus sernai). First seen in 2010, scientists photographed the new wren and recorded its vocalizations, from which they determined that the wren was brand new to science, according to a new paper in Auk.
"[It took] good ears and, good eyes, both in the correct moment and place," lead author Carlos Esteban Lara with the National University of Colombia told mongabay.com about the...
Weeds take root in crops, climate change, cuisine
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 19th, 2012
CBS News: The dictionary definition of a weed: "A plant considered undesirable, unattractive, or troublesome, especially one growing where it is not wanted." (American Heritage Dictionary) They insult us by their very existence. They bring out the killer instinct in us. We wage chemical warfare against them, and they win. This story is about the survival of the fittest and who might that be? No doubt about it: Weeds. "This is an absolute enemy of the state; there's no question whatsoever," said Stanley Culpeper,...
Green groups worry Congress will cut land conservation program amid drought
Posted by The Hill: Zack Colman on August 19th, 2012
The Hill: Even as lawmakers fret this summer’s severe drought might cause another Dust Bowl, environmental groups are sounding alarms that Congress is slated to cut a program designed to prevent such a catastrophe from occurring in dry years. Both the House and the Senate aim to cut funding for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which pays farmers to take crop land out of production and instead use that acreage to plant trees and grass. Both the House and Senate versions of the five-year farm bill would...
: We can’t hide from threat of rising sea
Posted by Delaware Online: None Given on August 19th, 2012
Delaware Online: No single storm, no single dry spell and no single flood makes the argument for climate change. There have always been freakish weather events.
To the contrary, it is the slow accumulation of data that should alarm us. We should worry about the succession of hotter than normal summers, the growing frequency of intense and unexpected thunderstorms, and the widespread flooding that keeps sweeping over farms and through small towns throughout the country.
More to the point, our concern should...
What’s going on with Colorado’s climate?
Posted by Denver Post: Ross Meyer on August 19th, 2012
Denver Post: Does the recent spate of devastating wildfires, sparse rain and snowfall, and record breaking high temperatures demonstrate that the Colorado climate is changing? Are natural variations the culprit, or might it be that global warming is the reason? This debate has been taking place in our country (and the world for that matter) for well over a decade, and it continues unabated today. So which is it? Let's look at some information, and then you decide.
No reasonable debate exists; the global climate...
Oklahoma heat, drought allow deadly amoeba to thrive
Posted by Associated Press: Tim Talley on August 19th, 2012
Associated Press: High temperatures and an ongoing drought are having an impact on more than just crops and livestock.
State health officials say they are also creating ideal conditions for the growth of a tiny, single-cell organism that lives in Oklahoma's rivers, lakes and ponds and can cause a disease that is almost always fatal.
The organism, Naegleria fowleri, is being blamed for the death of a 9-year-old Bryan County boy who came down with a case of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, or PAM, after swimming...
Status of water level in Pakistan’s dams ‘highly critical’
Posted by The News: None Given on August 19th, 2012
The News: The status of water level in five major dams is "˜highly critical' with meteorological department indicating no dramatic improvement due to low rain forecast in the coming days, sources told "The News" here on Saturday.
The sources in the Climate Change Ministry said the impact of fast changing climate situation has started showing its dire consequences and the office of the president has been informed about looming water crisis resulting in little likelihood of the country's reservoirs being...
Horses fall victim to hard times and dry times on the range
Posted by New York Times: Fernanda Santos on August 19th, 2012
New York Times: The land is parched, the fields are withering and thousands of the nation’s horses are being left to fend for themselves on the dried range, abandoned by people who can no longer afford to feed them. They have been dropping dead in the Navajo reservation in the Southwest, where neighbors are battling neighbors and livestock for water, an inherently scant resource on tribal land. They have been found stumbling through state parks in Missouri, in backyards and along country roads in Illinois, and...
Climate change puts East Coast in crosshairs
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 19th, 2012
USA Today: Inch by inch along parts of the Atlantic Coast, global climate change is running in what scientists warn is geology’s version of fast-forward — swamping and eroding beaches, wetlands and farm fields. Shorelines from North Carolina to Boston are in a ‘hotspot’ for sea-level rise and will see water levels rise at double the rate of most places on the planet, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The doubling is largely because of a geologic double whammy. The treasured lifestyle of residents along...