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Archive for June 19th, 2013
Satellites show shrinking US aquifers in drought-stricken areas
Posted by ClimateWire: Stephanie Paige Ogburn on June 19th, 2013
ClimateWire: Albuquerque District's Rio Grande coordinator, measures the water level in the Rio Grande with a calibrated survey rod. Image: Flickr/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
In New Mexico, the Rio Grande is trickling through Albuquerque at only a quarter of its normal flow. The parched range and pastureland in the southwest part of the state are all rated in poor condition by the Department of Agriculture.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor published Thursday, 45 percent of the state is suffering from...
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Climate change threatens trouble in the near future, World Bank says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 19th, 2013
Washington Post: The World Bank is beginning to commit billions of dollars to flood prevention, water management and other projects to help major Asian cities avoid the expected impact of climate change, a dramatic example of how short the horizon has become to alleviate the effects of global warming. Places such as Bangkok, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City are now considered "hot spots' that will bear the brunt of the impact as sea levels rise, tropical storms become more violent, and rainfall becomes both more sporadic...
Climate change a factor in UK’s unusual weather – Met Office
Posted by RTCC: John Parnell on June 19th, 2013
RTCC: Climate change is just one of the factors behind recent unusual weather patterns in the UK.
That was the conclusion from a Met Office summit of climate scientists convened on Tuesday to investigate the underlying causes of a series of washout summers and colder than average winters.
Weather patterns in northern Europe, the UK and the North East of the US are affected by the position of the jet stream.
When the jet stream moves further south, it draws more rainfall in and around the UK making...
Greenland’s Great Melt Is Pinned On Climate Change
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on June 19th, 2013
Climate News Network: First: the story so far. For a few days in July 2012, almost 97% of the surface of Greenland began suddenly to thaw. This was a melt on an unprecedented scale. Greenland carries a burden of three million cubic kilometres of ice and even in the summer, most of it stays frozen, partly because of the island’s high latitude and partly because ice reflects sunlight, and tends normally to serve as its own insulator. The event was so unusual, and so unexpected, and on such a scale that nobody seriously...
World’s poorest will feel brunt of climate change, warns World Bank
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 19th, 2013
Guardian: Millions of people around the world are likely to be pushed back into poverty because climate change is undermining economic development in poor countries, the World Bank has warned.
Droughts, floods, heatwaves, sea-level rises and fiercer storms are likely to accompany increasing global warming and will cause severe hardship in areas that are already poor or were emerging from poverty, the bank said in a report.
Food shortages will be among the first consequences within just two decades, along...
New diseases threaten Britain’s livestock and crops because of global warming
Posted by Independent: Tom Bawden on June 19th, 2013
Independent: Britain faces a wave of deadly new animal and plant diseases that threaten to wipe out crops and livestock as a direct result of global warming, the World Bank's top agricultural expert has warned.
The country can expect to import more diseases, such as the deadly Schmallenberg virus that arrived from overseas about 18 months ago and is sweeping through new-born cattle and sheep spread by midge bites, the expert said.
Rachel Kyle, the World Bank's vice president for sustainable development,...
Feds don’t do enough to prepare for severe weather, report says
Posted by LA Times: Neela Banerjee on June 19th, 2013
LA Times: Federal efforts to bolster community preparedness for extreme weather events are a fraction of what the government spends on cleaning up the damage from storms, tornadoes and drought, according to a new analysis of federal data by the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning Washington think tank.
The report estimated that from 2011 to 2013, the federal government spent about $136 billion on weather-related disaster relief and recovery but only $22.4 billion on a total of 43 preparedness programs,...
World Bank warns global warming woes closing in
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 19th, 2013
Agence France-Presse: The World Bank on Wednesday, June 19, warned that severe hardships from global warming could be felt within a generation, with a new study detailing devastating impacts in Africa and Asia.
The report presents "an alarming scenario for the days and years ahead -- what we could face in our lifetime," said World Bank President Jim Yong Kim.
"The scientists tell us that if the world warms by two degrees Centigrade (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) -- warming which may be reached in 20 to 30 years -- that...
California senators want more information on oil well ‘acid jobs’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 19th, 2013
Reuters: California state legislators on Tuesday told regulators and oil industry lobbyists they wanted more information about the use of acid to increase flows in wells in a technique that is used more often in the state than the controversial fracking method. California's century-old oil sector has come in for greater scrutiny as companies make early attempts to tap the Monterey shale, a deep formation that holds an estimated 15 billion barrels of oil - twice that of North Dakota's widely publicized Bakken...
Colorado wildfire destroys more than 500 homes, new blazes menace West
Posted by Reuters: Keith Coffman and Alex Dobuzinskis on June 19th, 2013
Reuters: The number of homes destroyed by a Colorado wildfire rose above 500 on Tuesday as rain dampened the flames and allowed damage assessment teams to enter charred neighborhoods, and other threatening blazes grew in Alaska and elsewhere in the West. Authorities said the so-called Black Forest Fire, which has burned in the rolling hills outside Colorado Springs for the past week and killed at least two people, was 85 percent contained by Tuesday. The most destructive fire in Colorado's history has charred...