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Archive for February 2nd, 2013
North Dakota went boom
Posted by New York Times: Chip Brown on February 2nd, 2013
New York Times: Long before the full frenzy of the boom, you could see its harbingers at the Mountrail County courthouse in Stanley, N.D. Geologists had pored over core samples and log signatures and had made their educated guesses, and now it was the hour of the “landmen,” the men and women whose job was to dig through courthouse books for the often-tangled history of mineral title and surface rights. Apart from a few fanatics who sometimes turned up at midnight, the landmen would begin arriving at the courthouse...
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Australia: Queensland is a state of extreme weather, and there will be more on the horizon
Posted by Sunday Mail: Brian Williams on February 2nd, 2013
Sunday Mail: BARELY a week ago all the talk was of fires, cattle dying in the thousands and Queensland slipping into the deadly grip of drought.
Wouldn't you know it, days later large slabs of the nation's east coast were in flood, some record-breaking.
Since the Millennium Drought that took up much of the 2000s, Queensland's weather has seesawed between floods, fires covering millions of hectares, cyclones and even a tremendous dust storm.
The latest shattering event ex-Cyclone Oswald was deemed remarkable...
Experts: Climate change to bring milder winter, more extreme weather to South Dakota in 2050
Posted by Argus Leader: None Given on February 2nd, 2013
Argus Leader: South Dakota in 2050 will have longer growing seasons, milder winters and more extreme weather events if national weather experts are correct in analyzing the effects of greenhouse gases on climate warming. A draft report released earlier this month by the National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee projects that at the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions, the average temperature in South Dakota will rise an additional 5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050. That comes as the National...
Drought causes ripple effect along mighty Mississippi River
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2013
National Public Radio: The persistent drought is raising questions about how the Mississippi River is managed - both upstream and down.
While cargo traffic upriver has gotten lots of attention, the drought is creating a different set of problems downriver at the mouth of the Mississippi, where saltwater has encroached.
An old-fashioned staff river gauge behind the New Orleans district office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shows the Mississippi is running just shy of 6 feet above sea level at the river bend....
Australia: Walls keep water out and flood bills down
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on February 2nd, 2013
Sydney Morning Herald: GRAFTON narrowly escaped a major flood this week to the reported delight of the NSW Premier, Barry O'Farrell, and no doubt the town's 18,000 or so residents.
The northern New South Wales town averted disaster thanks to an 8.1 metre levee which held - just. The Clarence River, swollen by rain from the powerful remnants of ex-tropical cyclone Oswald, rose to 8.08 metres.
''It was very close,'' Scott Greensill, the general manager for the Clarence Valley shire, said. The river ''was the highest...
Australia: When Sydney’s rivers run high
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2013
Sydney Morning Herald: There will always be a risk of flood in Brisbane. There will always be a risk of flood on the Gold Coast, a city built on a flood plain and at the convergence of a number of tropical river systems.
But it is western Sydney, say emergency management and flood experts, that might be the most vulnerable area to floodwater in the country, at least in its potential to claim life.
''Absolutely it is the biggest flood risk in the state,'' says Steve Opper, the director of community safety at the State...
United Kingdom: Floods: a disaster waiting to happen
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2013
Guardian: On the night of 31 January 1953, a high tide was expected, but what came with it was something no one had predicted. A storm was gathering over the North Sea, with low atmospheric pressure sucking up the waves, raising the sea level dramatically, and high winds whipping the waves to fury. When it hit the UK's east coast, the waters broke high over seawalls and surged as far as 10 miles inland. There was no warning and, with primitive communications, little ability to tell people of the danger when...
Australia: Climate change signals raining down but proof will take centuries
Posted by Age: Peter Hannam on February 2nd, 2013
Age: For Australia, 2013 looks like being a "year of living extremely" if January is anything to go by.
The Bureau of Meteorology says January was the hottest ever month in just over a century of records.
Nationwide, the January average maximum temperature anomaly was 2.28 degrees, "a substantial increase" on the previous record of 2.17 degrees set in 1932.
And, thanks to the unusual scale of the massive heatwave that dominated the first half of January, all states and territories posted above-average...
Murkowski unveils blueprint for energy policy
Posted by Anchorage Daily News: Sean Cockerham on February 2nd, 2013
Anchorage Daily News: The Senate's top Republican on energy issues, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, has crafted a blueprint for U.S. energy policy that calls for increased drilling while opposing laws to cap greenhouse gases that are blamed for global warming.
"Energy 20/20" is a signal of how the Republicans want to proceed on energy policy in the coming years as the nation wrestles with contentious debates over oil drilling, fracking and climate change.
Murkowski, top ranking Republican on the Senate energy committee,...
German Upper House Passes Resolution to Tighten Fracking Rules
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 2nd, 2013
Reuters: Germany's upper house of parliament passed a resolution on Friday urging Chancellor Angela Merkel's government to tighten the rules for controversial modern drilling techniques, or fracking, for unconventional gas.
The resolution piles the pressure on the government to draw up clear rules for the practice, which critics say could increase seismic risks and even pollute drinking water.
The Bundesrat upper house, which represents Germany's 16 federal states, passed a resolution that demands an...