RSS Feed
Archive for October 29th, 2012
Hurricane Sandy Pummels East Coast
Posted by New York Times: James Barron and Brian Stelter on October 29th, 2012
New York Times: Hurricane Sandy churned relentlessly through the Atlantic Ocean on Monday on the way to carving what forecasters agreed would be a devastating path on land that is expected to paralyze life for millions of people in more than a half-dozen states, with extensive evacuations, once-in-a-generation flooding, widespread power failures and disruptions of mass transit. The huge storm, which picked up speed over the water on Monday morning, was producing sustained winds of 90 miles per hour, up from 75...
Posted in 
‘Frankenstorm’: Why climate change will not be denied in this election
Posted by Washington Post: Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite on October 29th, 2012
Washington Post: The false controversy created by climate change deniers has stymied government action on environmental issues and is a contributing factor to the deafening silence on climate change in the presidential election debates for "the first time in a generation.'
A Halloween week hurricane, dubbed a "Frankenstorm' by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has just changed that.
Deny it or not, violent, erratic climate events are happening and they are destroying lives and property. Climate...
Southern U.S. States Inch Towards Renewable Energy
Posted by Inter Press Service: Matthew Cardinale on October 29th, 2012
Inter Press Service: - With the U.S. East Coast virtually shutting down Monday with the arrival of Hurricane Sandy, the broader debate over transitioning to cleaner energy sources and slowing, if not halting, climate change is taking on ever greater urgency.
While some parts of the U.S. have been made significant strides towards such a shift, the south has generally lagged behind. That remains the case, but recent signs suggest that utility companies and even Republican officials are beginning to change their tune....
Yes, Hurricane Sandy is a good reason to worry about climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Brad Plumer on October 29th, 2012
Washington Post: Every time a major natural disaster barrels along, people want to know whether it has anything to do with global warming. Is climate change causing this storm? That drought? Will we see more disasters like it if the planet keeps warming?
When it comes to tropical cyclones like Hurricane Sandy, the climate links can be somewhat difficult to pin down. On the one hand, humans have warmed the planet about 0.8°C since the Industrial Revolution. As Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric...
New UN “atlas” links climate change, health
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 29th, 2012
Associated Press: Two U.N. agencies have mapped the intersection of health and climate in an age of global warming, showing that there are spikes in meningitis when dust storms hit and outbreaks of dengue fever when hard rains come.
Officials said Monday that their ''Atlas of Health and Climate'' is meant to be a tool for leaders to use to get early warning of disease outbreaks.
Though the data or conclusions aren't necessarily new, the way in which they are presented may sharpen governments' ability to respond...
Hurricane Sandy barrels toward Northeast; ‘Get out before you can’t’
Posted by LA Times: Richard Simon, Tina Susman and David Zucchino on October 29th, 2012
LA Times: Hurricane Sandy churned the Atlantic Ocean as it barreled northward bringing fierce winds, drenching rains and flooding to the nation's Northeast, where officials warned residents to stay home and ordered those along coastlines to head to high ground.
"Get out before you can't,' Connecticut's governor, Dannel Malloy, told residents of his state early Monday.
New Jersey's Gov. Chris Christie was more blunt: "Don't be stupid. Get out.'
Christie said Monday that there was already flooding along...
Slow-moving hurricanes such as Sandy on the rise
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 29th, 2012
New Scientist: Parts of New York City are already underwater as Hurricane Sandy bears down on the US east coast, bringing intense winds, torrential rain and a dangerous storm surge.
Sandy is merging with a winter storm from the west and an Arctic weather system, to become a hybrid "Frankenstorm". Its winds have strengthened, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), reaching sustained speeds of 150 kilometres per hour. Tropical-storm-force winds extend 780 kilometres from the storm's centre.
According...
Beating Rural Poverty in South America
Posted by Inter Press Service: Fabíola Ortiz on October 29th, 2012
Inter Press Service: The development of agriculture through the adoption of technological innovations will help Latin America leave behind its status as the most unequal region in the world, and will especially benefit the Southern Cone, one of the planet's largest food reserves.
"The Southern Cone is being watched with great interest as a food reserve, but we still can't precisely say how far the potential of our region will reach," Emilio Ruz, executive secretary of the Cooperative Programme for the Development...
Robert Redford Cuts 5 Anti-Fracking Ads
Posted by EcoWatch: Catskill Citizens For Safe Energy on October 29th, 2012
EcoWatch: Academy Award winning director and actor Robert Redford hopes that more people will turn their attention to one of the most contentious environmental issues of our time--fracking. Fracking is the process of injecting millions of gallons of chemically laced fluids into underground rock formations to release natural gas or oil. To that end, this summer he taped a series of ads on the issue.
Abundant shale gas reserves have been touted as a safe, clean energy supply that can help prevent climate...
Shallow Waters and Unusual Path May Worsen the Surge
Posted by New York Times: Kenneth Chang and Henry Fountain on October 29th, 2012
New York Times: Like a hand pushing water in a bathtub, the winds of a hurricane push the water of the Atlantic Ocean. When the windblown water runs up against land, the water piles up and flows inland. That describes a storm surge. “It’s almost a little bit like a tsunami,” said Klaus H. Jacob, a scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. When Hurricane Sandy makes landfall late Monday or early Tuesday, the pulse of windblown water will be “in a word, bad,” Dr. Jacob said. “It’s of course...