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Archive for February, 2013
Impact Of Climate Change On Agriculture Will Be Mixed: USDA
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 9th, 2013
RedOrbit: Over the next 25 years, increasing temperatures will have a “generally detrimental” impact on most types of crops and livestock, according to one of two reports detailing climate change and adaptation strategies released earlier this week by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The report, entitled “Climate Change and Agriculture in the United States: Effects and Adaptation,” states that the effects of global warming will be mixed over the next 25 years.
Higher temperatures may force crop...
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Comments Off on Impact Of Climate Change On Agriculture Will Be Mixed: USDAKerry promises ‘fair, transparent’ review of planned Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 9th, 2013
Associated Press: Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday promised a "fair and transparent" review of a Canadian company's plan to pipe oil from western Canada to refineries in Texas.
In his first comments about the controversial Keystone XL pipeline since becoming secretary of state, Kerry said he is waiting for a review begun by his predecessor, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and hopes to make a decision in the "near term." The State Department has jurisdiction over the $7 billion pipeline because it crosses an international...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Kerry promises ‘fair, transparent’ review of planned Keystone XL oil pipeline from CanadaUS to decide soon on Canada pipeline project
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 9th, 2013
Agence France-Presse: The United States will make a decision soon on the fate of a controversial Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline, new Secretary of State John Kerry vowed Friday, as he met his Canadian counterpart.
In a sign of the strong ties between the two North American neighbors, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird was the first foreign leader to be met by Kerry at the State Department since he took over the job a week ago.
"The Keystone XL pipeline is a huge priority for our government and for the Canadian economy,"...
Migrating ocean microbe may help protect coastlines
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 9th, 2013
Scientific American: From butterflies to lobsters, climate change is expected to spur migration of species, with potentially devastating consequences for ecosystems and economies.
But in the case of a one-celled organism dwelling in the oceans named Amphisteginid foraminifera, a change in its habitat may lessen the devastation to some coastlines at risk from erosion and powerful storms.
In a new study, scientists report that the discus-shaped creatures are likely to shift their ocean range by hundreds of miles...
Record snow in a warming world? The science is clear
Posted by Daily Climate: Marlene Cimons on February 9th, 2013
Daily Climate: As the Northeast digs out from under a mammoth blizzard, it might seem easy for climate change skeptics to point to such intense storms as evidence that global warming isn't real.
The reality is that such snowstorms often don't occur despite global warming, but because of it.
They would be wrong.
"Climate change contrarians and deniers love to cherry-pick individual events to argue that they are somehow inconsistent with global warming, when they are not," said Michael Mann, director of...
Saving a Shrinking Lake
Posted by Inter Press Service: Ngala Killian Chimtom on February 9th, 2013
Inter Press Service: Approaching the Lake Chad basin from Gulfe, a small locality 45 kilometres from Cameroon's Far North Regional capital Maroua, the atmosphere of despair is palpable: dusty air, fierce and unrelenting winds, wilting plants and sand dunes suggest that this once lush area is undergoing a terrible change.
Nothing breaks the expanse of sparse vegetation but the occasional withered tree and some scorched shrubs.
Bordered by Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria, Lake Chad once spanned 25,000 square kilometres...
Winter Storm Batters Northeast; 500,000 Without Power
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 9th, 2013
Associated Press: A storm that forecasters warned could be a blizzard for the history books, with a potential for up to 3 feet of snow, clobbered the New York-to-Boston corridor on Friday, grounding flights, sending office workers home early and knocking out power to half a million customers across the Northeast.
By Friday night, more than 18.5 inches of snow had fallen in parts of central Connecticut, and more than 16 inches covered parts of Mansfield, Mass., a half-hour drive southwest of Boston. Throughout the...
Bangladesh faces mass migration, loss of land from climate change
Posted by Malaysian Star: Raveena Aulakh on February 9th, 2013
Malaysian Star: It is hard to imagine Shamisur Gazi sprinting up a tree. He is 86, has a hump on his back and, at the best of times, he needs a cane to walk.
But people do extraordinary things in extraordinary circumstances.
On May 25, 2009, a few hours before Cyclone Aila hit Bangladesh and India, Gazi remembers the rain — it was relentless, it came down in brown sheets and visibility was barely two metres.
The wind was fierce, but toward mid-afternoon, it suddenly picked up more momentum and began toppling...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Bangladesh faces mass migration, loss of land from climate changeRapacious War Against Nature: Indonesian Palm Oil
Posted by Huffington Post: Dr. Reese Halter on February 9th, 2013
Huffington Post: A couple decades ago just prior to my postgraduate studies at The University of Melbourne I had the privilege of visiting an Indonesian rainforest. I encourage everyone to spend one night in a tropical rainforest; its rich array and cacophony of jungle life will change your life -- forever.
A lot has changed since then -- the ferocity and scale of 'The War Against Nature' is heartbreaking -- 300 football fields an hour of priceless tropical rainforests are being felled to make room for unregulated...
Storm’s Heavy Snow and High Winds Lash at the Northeast
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 9th, 2013
New York Times: A vast storm system descended on the Northeast on Friday, bringing high winds, deepening snow and threats of flooding to southern New England and reopening the old wounds of Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey and New York. After a day of pelting wet snow, five states — New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island — had declared states of emergency, and Massachusetts had banned vehicles from every road in the state. As dusk fell, conditions quickly deteriorated. Major highways...
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