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Archive for August, 2012
Is Antarctica’s warming natural or man-made?
Posted by Guardian: Eric Steig on August 24th, 2012
Guardian: Most people know that the Antarctic Peninsula is one of the most rapidly warming places on earth. But like everywhere else in Antarctica, the length of available temperature data is short - most records begin in 1957 (when stations were put in place during the International Geophysical Year); a few start in the late 1940s. This makes the recent rapid warming difficult to evaluate; in general, what's interesting is how the trend compares with the underlying variability. As anyone who's been there...
U.S. farmers hope Isaac will bring drought relief
Posted by Reuters: Sam Nelson on August 24th, 2012
Reuters: Tropical Storm Isaac, poised to hit Cuba on Saturday, will likely bring minimal relief from the worst U.S. drought in more than half a century, with rains expected in a limited area in the U.S. Southeast or possibly further west into Alabama and Mississippi, an agricultural meteorologist said on Friday.
"Computer maps have been all over the place but it looks like the storm will make landfall in Florida Sunday. That would bring the most rain, probably an inch to four inches or more in the southeast,"...
Why We’re Putting Ourselves on the (Pipe)Line With the Tea Party
Posted by Yes!: Will Wooten, Candice Bernd, Ron Seifert on August 24th, 2012
Yes!: On July 27, TransCanada Corporation announced that it had received the last permit required before breaking ground on the Gulf Coast Segment of the Keystone XL pipeline. Although this news elicited many emotions among landowners and local communities, surprise was not among them. The campaign to stop the pipeline is now entering its fifth year, and pipeline opponents everywhere are mobilizing.
The Tar Sands Blockade is a peaceful direct action campaign designed to unite everyone and anyone committed...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Why We’re Putting Ourselves on the (Pipe)Line With the Tea PartyCoal 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...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Coal plants still pressured despite Romney plan, EPA court lossThe 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),...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Arctic sea ice shrinks to record low, by some estimatesHow 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....