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Archive for August 23rd, 2012
Coal plants still pressured despite Romney plan, EPA court loss
Posted by Reuters: Valerie Volcovici on August 23rd, 2012
Reuters: Coal-fired power plants will face pressure and in some cases closure despite a Republican energy plan favorable to the industry and a court victory against new environmental rules.
As many as one-sixth of U.S. coal-fired power plants would close within eight years and be replaced by natural gas, according to an Energy Department estimate.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Thursday laid out his new energy policy that aims to promote oil and natural gas production and roll back...
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The Killer Drought of 2012 Eases — But Not By Much
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2012
Climate Central: The historic drought of 2012 continues to parch the nation, according to the latest version of the U.S. Drought Monitor, released Thursday. Although conditions have improved somewhat in the hard-hit states of Ohio and Indiana, nearly 63 percent of the U.S. remains at some level in drought as of August 21, the most recent date for which statistics are available.
It's possible to look at the new numbers optimistically. "The total area in moderate or worse drought actually increased, but that's not...
Why Forest-Killing Megafires Are The New Normal
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2012
National Public Radio: Fire scientists are calling it "the new normal": a time of fires so big and hot that no one can remember anything like it.
One of the scientists who coined that term is Craig Allen. I drive with him to New Mexico's Bandelier National Monument, where he works for the U.S. Geological Survey. We take a dirt road up into the Jemez Mountains, into a landscape of black poles as far as you can see.
Except they aren't poles. Every single tree is dead. For miles.
"You can tell me the next time you...
Drought eases for some U.S. states, worsens for others
Posted by Reuters: Carey Gillam on August 23rd, 2012
Reuters: Rainfall and cooler temperatures have combined to ease slightly the grip that the worst U.S. drought in over five decades is holding on some key farming states, but the suffering expanded in many others.
"There has been some improvement, at least in the eastern corn belt. And for the region as a whole we've seen a respite from the high temperatures," said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist with the University of Nebraska's National Drought Mitigation Center.
But he said the forecast for the next...
Arctic sea ice shrinks to record low, estimates show
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2012
Reuters: The area of ice in the Arctic Ocean has thawed to a record low, surpassing the previous 2007 minimum in a sign of climate change transforming the region, according to some scientific estimates.
Only on NBCNews.com Faith in Army's direction hits all-time low, survey shows Mormon in America: Church members on impact of Romney campaign Growing number of Latinos have no religious affiliation California school district sued over abstinence-only sex ed Jeanne Noonan for New York Daily Hidden health...
Arctic sea ice shrinks to record low, by some estimates
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2012
Reuters: The area of ice in the Arctic Ocean has thawed to a record low, surpassing the previous 2007 minimum in a sign of climate change transforming the region, according to some scientific estimates.
"We reached the minimum ice area today (Thursday). It has never been measured less than right now," Ola Johannessen, founding director of the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Norway, told Reuters.
"It is just below the 2007 minimum."
The U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC),...
How cities are using nature to cut pollution
Posted by Yale Environment 360: Jim Robbins on August 23rd, 2012
Yale Environment 360: In Puget Sound, one of America's great estuaries, killer whales, seals, and schools of salmon swim not far from more than 3 million people who live in the Seattle region. The presence of such impressive marine life, however, belies the fact that the sound is seriously polluted.
When it rains, storm water washes into the same system of underground pipes that carries the region's sewage, and 1 billion gallons a year overflow into the sound when area sewer systems contain more water than can be treated....
As Climate Changes, Urban Planners Help Cities Adapt
Posted by WBUR: Bob Oakes and George Hicks on August 23rd, 2012
WBUR: Despite the ongoing national political dissension over climate change, Boston and Cambridge, among other cities around the world, are searching for ways to cope with its effects.
A recent survey finds that "79 percent of cities worldwide report that in the past five years they perceived changes in temperature, precipitation, sea level, or natural hazards that they attribute to climate change."
JoAnn Carmin, co-author of the study, is Associate Professor of Environmental Policy and Planning...
UN calls for policies to counter drought threats worldwide
Posted by Press Trust of India: Yoshita Singh on August 23rd, 2012
Press Trust of India: As farmers from Africa to India struggle with insufficient rainfall, the United Nations has sought consolidated efforts to combat climate change threat and counter its effects on global food security.
"Climate change is projected to increase the frequency, intensity, and duration of droughts, with impacts on many sectors, in particular food, water, and energy," warned World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.
"We need to move away from a piecemeal, crisis-driven...
Bangladesh farmers caught in vicious cycle of flood and debt
Posted by Guardian: Syed Zain Al-Mahmood on August 23rd, 2012
Guardian: Seven-year-old Mili Begum knows her classroom like the back of her hand. She should, because she's been living in it for the past six weeks. The flood waters that surged through her village in the Sunamganj district of north-east Bangladesh have receded, but her family is one of many struggling to cope after losing both home and belongings.
The monsoon floods killed more than 100 people and displaced an estimated 600,000 in June and July, mainly in the north-east and south-east of the country....