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Archive for January 20th, 2013
Will climate change get cold shoulder in Obama’s second term?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 20th, 2013
LiveScience: As President Barack Obama prepares to take the oath of office for the second time, he has promised that climate change will be a priority in his second term. The chances that significant climate action will actually happen, however, remain slim, policy experts say.
"I always have hope, but it is sometimes hard to see how real progress, substantial progress, is going to be made with the fact that the Congress is so polarized," said Travis Franck, a policy analyst for nongovernmental organization...
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Queensland farmers say a State Government draft agriculture strategy ignores possible effects of climate change
Posted by Courier-Mail: John McCarthy on January 20th, 2013
Courier-Mail: FARMERS have accused the State Government of ignoring the impact of climate change on farms in a draft strategy paper on how to double agriculture by 2040.
In a submission to the State Government, the Queensland Farmers Federation said the need for agriculture to mitigate the drivers of climate change and to adapt to a changing climate was missing from the agriculture strategy.
"Over the next 30 years, there is likely to be significant changes to temperatures and rainfall over Queensland that...
Is rebuilding in hurricane zones wise?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 20th, 2013
San Francisco Chronicle: Denise Tortorello, a real estate agent at Riviera Realty in Point Pleasant, N.J., said she can't tell yet where property values are headed since Hurricane Sandy demolished a string of beach towns built on a slender strip of barrier islands in the Atlantic.
"I'm sitting in my office, and I'm looking at the National Guard right outside out my window," she said. On a December day, the temperature outside was 65 degrees.
Just south in Mantoloking, second homes sell for up to $10 million. Many were...
Australia: City sizzles in record heat
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Ilya Gridneff, Tom Arup, Jacob Saulwick on January 20th, 2013
Sydney Morning Herald: SYDNEY endured its hottest ever day on Friday, with records smashed across the city and thousands of people suffering from the heat.
The mercury topped 45.8 at Sydney's Observatory Hill at 2.55pm, breaking the previous record set in 1939 by half a degree. The city's highest temperature was a scorching 46.5 degrees, recorded in Penrith at 2.15pm, while Camden, Richmond and Sydney Airport all reached 46.4 degrees.
More than 220 people had been treated for heat exposure or fainting by late afternoon,...
Bangladesh, US: Fighting cyclones together
Posted by Daily Star: Saleemul Huq on January 20th, 2013
Daily Star: Following hurricane Sandy, which hit the states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in the United States of America just before the presidential elections in 2012, there began a debate in the US on whether or not the hurricane was linked to human induced climate change. This was the first time that leading politicians started to openly discuss the possibility that climate change was real and even the Republican Mayor of New York, Bloomberg and Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie were willing...
Q&A: Climate change will bring dramatic effects to Wisconsin
Posted by Capital Times: Steven Elbow on January 20th, 2013
Capital Times: Sizzling summers, mild winters -- is this a normal variation in weather patterns or is it the onset of global warming?
Well, according to Dan Vimont, a UW-Madison climate scientist, it’s a bit of both. There are natural variations in year-to-year weather patterns, and there is indisputable evidence that not only is the global temperature rising, but greenhouse gasses emitted into the atmosphere by human activity is accelerating it.
Last year saw record warmth in the U.S., as well as in Madison...
Fracking for natural gas being powered by it, too
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 20th, 2013
Associated Press: Advances in hydraulic fracturing technology have powered the American natural gas boom. And now hydraulic fracturing could be increasingly powered by the very fuel it has been so successful in coaxing up from the depths. Oil- and gas-field companies from Pennsylvania to Texas are experimenting with converting the huge diesel pump engines that propel millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals thousands of feet down well bores to break apart rock or tight sands and release the natural gas trapped...
ALERT! Ecuadorean Tribe Will “Die Fighting” to Defend Rainforest
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on January 20th, 2013
By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal
TAKE ACTION!
Please support Ecuador's Kichwa villagers, who the Guardian newspaper reports vow to resist oil prospecting by state-backed company Petroamazonas at all costs. The Kichwa tribe has said they are ready to fight to the death to protect their rainforests which cover 70,000 hectares, adjacent and part of Yasuni [search] National Park, and huge additional Ecuadorean rainforests are threatened by new industrial oil auctions as well. Industrial development of rainforests for oil in the Amazon has a long history of destroying ecosystems including fouling water. Tell President Correa standing, intact old-growth forest ecosystems are a requirement for local advancement, and local and global ecological sustainability; and demand the invasion of indigenous nations' rainforests be halted.
Green Desert: Climate changes to disrupt Southwest
Posted by Desert Sun: K Kaufmann on January 20th, 2013
Desert Sun: On Jan. 11, the National Climate Assessment Advisory Committee — a consortium of 13 federal agencies — released its third draft report on the impact of climate change on the U.S. As seems to be the rule with federal documents, it’s monstrously long, but fairly readable and the online table of contents is easy to navigate.
I went directly to the section on the Southwest to see what’s in store for the desert. It’s unsettling reading.
Snowpack and streamflow amounts are projected to decline, decreasing...
Prepare for impact of climate change
Posted by Minneapolis Star Tribune: Editorial on January 20th, 2013
Minneapolis Star Tribune: If last year's March warmth, June deluge, July heat and autumn drought didn't convince doubters that global climate change has come to Minnesota, last week brought fresh evidence for them to consider. The John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon, canceled last year and in 2007 because of insufficient snow, faces the same problem this year and has been postponed. Organizers hope the race can be run in March. And three state House committees spent nearly two hours listening to five University of Minnesota...