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Archive for January 26th, 2013
Climate change: No more denying it
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2013
CBS: Withering drought, vast wildfires, town-leveling tornadoes, fierce heat -- not to mention superstorm Sandy -- all made 2012 one of the worst years in terms of lives lost and property destroyed from extreme weather.
Most scientists believe climate change is partly to blame for last year's wild weather. Jeffrey Kluger, Time magazine's senior editor for science and technology, spoke to Jim Axelrod and Rebecca Jarvis about the record temperatures and massive storms and why we're seeing more of these...
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United Kingdom: Endangered voles set to return
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2013
BBC: An endangered species is set to return to a Northumberland forest more than 30 years after it was wiped out.
Conservationists at Kielder Water & Forest Park plan to reintroduce water voles to the area after they disappeared.
The animals have not been spotted in the area since the 1970s.
Forestry Commission ecologist Tom Dearnley said they were "extremely keen" to see the project go ahead at Kielder.
Mr Dearnley said: "Areas like Kielder Burn and the North Tyne are good water vole...
CO2 Emissions Expected to Rise Significantly by 2030
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on January 26th, 2013
Guardian: Warnings that the world is headed for "peak oil" -- when oil supplies decline after reaching the highest rates of extraction -- appear "increasingly groundless," BP's chief executive said.
Bob Dudley's remarks came as the company published a study predicting oil production will increase substantially, and that unconventional and high-carbon oil will make up all of the increase in global oil supply to the end of this decade, with the explosive growth of shale oil in the U.S. behind much of the...
Climate plan drops off local leadership’s to-do list
Posted by Napa Vallley Register: Editorial on January 26th, 2013
Napa Vallley Register: It was front and center in President Barack Obama’s words to the nation during his inauguration speech this week. And Gov. Jerry Brown stressed its importance in his State of the State address Thursday.
Yet, fresh off Napa County leadership’s go-back-to-the-climate-plan-drawing-board edict to staff in December, there was no call for climate change urgency in Board of Supervisors Chairman Brad Wagenknecht’s local look-ahead earlier this month.
In fact, the word “climate” wasn’t in his 2013 opening...
Colorado’s lingering drought has ag economy anxious for spring
Posted by Denver Post: Joey Bunch on January 26th, 2013
Denver Post: The drought began for wheat farmers in 2011, said Darrell Hanavan, executive director of the Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee. It has cost the state's average 2.2 million-acre crop about $150.5 million so far. (Denver Post file)Related2013 National Western Stock Show & RodeoJan 24:Kansas teen shows National Western's grand champion steerJan 20:Denver's National Western Stock Show attendance up in 2013Jan 19:Farm bill's redraft raises worry in Colorado farm, ranch communities
After a devastating...
Top climate scientist denounces billionaires over funding for climate-sceptic organisations
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2013
Independent: A climate scientist who says he has been subjected to a vitriolic hate campaign has denounced the way that American billionaires have been able to secretly finance the climate-sceptic organisations that have attacked him.
Professor Michael Mann of Pennsylvania University, who has been targeted by climate-change sceptics for his work on global temperature records, said it was wrong for wealthy individuals such as the oil billionaire Charles Koch to surreptitiously finance the “counter-movement”...
Jerry Brown’s water plan faces mixed reviews
Posted by Sacramento Bee: David Siders and Jim Sanders on January 26th, 2013
Sacramento Bee: Nearly lost in the flurry of praise for Gov. Jerry Brown's State of the State address on Thursday were a handful of tersely worded statements from lawmakers objecting to his plan to build two water-diverting tunnels through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The controversy is decades old. Yet the pointed nature of the criticism – and the eagerness of even Democratic lawmakers to challenge Brown on a day in which tradition suggests restraint – laid bare how significant a test of Brown's...
Greenland may contribute less than Antarctica to sea level rise
Posted by Scientific American: Christa Marshall on January 26th, 2013
Scientific American: Portions of the Greenland ice sheet melted a "moderate" amount thousands of years ago during an extremely warm period, raising new questions about its likely behavior in the future amid rising temperatures, according to a new study from a team of international scientists.
The conclusions about the Eemian interglacial period, 130,000 to 115,000 years ago, enlighten an ongoing debate over a deceptively simple question: To what degree will Greenland add to rising seas in a warming world, and to what...
Australia: High price of Melbourne’s hot weather
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2013
Sydney Morning Herald: The costs will be borne through transport delays, increased energy demand, health impacts and increased mortality, anti-social behaviour, and impacts on plants and animals. Photo: Andy Zakeli
HOT weather in Melbourne is set to cost the city on average $46.5 million a year to the middle of the century, unreleased economic research has found.
The study commissioned by Melbourne City Council, undertaken by consultancy AECOM, found projected total costs for 2011-2051 for the Melbourne municipality...
Preserved lands defend against climate change
Posted by Daily Journal: Michele S. Byers on January 26th, 2013
Daily Journal: When President Obama referred to “our national treasure” during his inauguration speech, he wasn’t talking about the gold in Fort Knox.
He was referring to something far more precious, something “green” rather than gold — “our forests and waterways, our croplands and snowcapped peaks.”
In addition to providing clean water and air and fresh food, these open lands play a crucial role in mitigating the impacts of global climate change.
Following years of scant public discussion on climate change,...