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Archive for September, 2012
California wildfire forces evacuation of Angeles national forest – video
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 3rd, 2012
Guardian: A wildfire rages in the hills above San Gabriel mountains in the Angeles national forest in California. Some 300 firefighters have been tackling the blaze which started near a campsite. Evacuations have been ordered in the surrounding areas as the fire has burned across more than five-and-a-half square miles
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on California wildfire forces evacuation of Angeles national forest – videoAnother whale dies after Fife mass stranding that left 16 dead
Posted by Independent: Hilary Duncanson on September 3rd, 2012
Independent: A whale thought to have been one of the 10 rescued from a mass stranding on a beach has died further down the coast.
The mammal died after becoming stranded just outside the Port of Leith, near Edinburgh.
Details of the latest death come as post-mortem examinations try to determine what caused 26 whales to be stranded at Pittenweem in Fife yesterday morning, resulting in the deaths of 16 of them at the time.
Work is also under way to remove the carcasses of those that died from the Fife...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Another whale dies after Fife mass stranding that left 16 deadWe can learn resilience from the natural world
Posted by Guardian: Andrew Simms on September 3rd, 2012
Guardian: Fire climates – places with little rainfall, lots of wind and long spells when it is hot and dry – are perfect for some species. Woodland giants like the sequoias of the west coast of North America release seed when their cones are heated to temperatures that only fire can reach. A lodgepole pine may hold its cones for half a century until the right conflagration comes along.
Big trees like firs, spruces and sequoias that live for 1,000 years or more can be extraordinarily resilient to heat and...
Kenya’s farmers spot opportunities in warming climate
Posted by AlertNet: Kagondu Njagi on September 3rd, 2012
AlertNet: For farmer Eunice Wambui, the erratic weather patterns that increasingly disrupt the crop season in her village are a headache. But the same warmer temperatures plaguing Wambui have given Philomena Nyokabi the opportunity to try her hand at horticulture.
Both women are farmers in Kenya's Rift Valley region, but while climate shifts have favoured Nyokabi's newfound niche cultivating fruit and vegetables, Wambui struggles to produce a profitable harvest of corn.
At her farm in Rongai, a dry lowland...
California wildfire prompts evacuation of Angeles national forest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 3rd, 2012
Associated Press: A wildfire that broke out in the Angeles national forest has cut short the Labor Day holiday weekend for thousands of visitors to the park.
The fire broke out near a campground Sunday afternoon and quickly grew to 3,600 acres, or about five and a half square miles. It sent a huge cloud of smoke that could be seen from the coast to the desert inland.
Campgrounds that typically attract up to 12,000 visitors on the holiday weekend, as well as rehabilitation centers and the private community of...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on California wildfire prompts evacuation of Angeles national forestRecord Temperatures and Wildfires in Eastern Russia
Posted by NASA: None Given on September 3rd, 2012
NASA: Forests and bog land in far eastern Russia have been burning since the beginning of June 2012. Contributing to the record fires have been the record temperatures of this past summer. This summer in Siberia has been one of hottest on record. The average temperature ranged around 93 degrees Fahrenheit and there doesn't seem to be any break in the weather coming anytime soon. The fires in eastern Russia have affected the districts of Krasnoyarsk, Tuva, Irkutsk, Kurgan, and the Republic of Khakassia....
Sun shade to fight climate change for $5bn a year
Posted by Reuters: Alister Doyle and David Fogarty on September 3rd, 2012
Reuters: Planes or airships could carry sun-dimming materials high into the atmosphere for an affordable price tag of below $5 billion a year as a way to slow climate change, a study indicated on Friday.
Guns, rockets or a pipeline into the stratosphere would be more expensive but generally far cheaper than policies to cut world greenhouse gas emissions, estimated to cost between $200 billion and $2 trillion a year by 2030.
Transporting a million tons of particles to at least 18km above the Earth every...
ALERT! Support Swedish Forest Blockade Targeting Limestone Mine in Important Old-Growth, Water-Rich Ecosystem
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on September 3rd, 2012
Support Swedish Forest Blockade Targeting Limestone Mine in Important Old-Growth, Water-Rich Ecosystem
TAKE ACTION!
The Finnish mining company Nordkalk, and national logging company Mellanskog, have started work on a limestone mine on the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, threatening a sensitive and unique natural environment of ecologically unique ancient forests [search], moorlands, and swamps. There is a major ongoing forest occupation against this logging and mining of critical ecosystems and groundwater destruction, which just this past Saturday managed to stop the initial forest clearing, pending an important Supreme Court decision that may establish a legal precedent for ecosystem protections nationwide. Supporting these sorts of community rebellions against ecocide, and for healthy local ecosystems, is what Ecological Internet's global network is all about.
Posted in Uncategorized Comments Off on ALERT! Support Swedish Forest Blockade Targeting Limestone Mine in Important Old-Growth, Water-Rich EcosystemIsaac’s remnants bring rain to drought-hit Midwest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 2nd, 2012
Reuters: The remnants of Hurricane Isaac brought rain to drought-stricken parts of the lower U.S. Midwest on Saturday after the storm killed at least 30 people on its trek across the Caribbean and Louisiana and Mississippi, authorities said.
Rainfall totals of no more than 3 inches were expected through the lower Ohio River Valley by Saturday night after Isaac lost much of its punch while passing over Missouri.
Top sustained winds had dropped to 20 miles per hour and flash flood threats were diminishing,...
Report: Climate change ruined summer of 2012
Posted by KST: Amy Joi O'Donoghue on September 2nd, 2012
KST: A report released Thursday by the National Wildlife Federation points to scorching wildfires, extreme heat, fish kills and ruined crops brought on by the choke hold climate change has had on the United States this summer.
"Ruined Summer: How Climate Change Scorched the Nation in 2012" details what it characterizes as dramatic and extreme weather events that have dominated the landscape - from July being the warmest month on record to the more than 113 million people in the U.S. living under "heat...