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Archive for July 18th, 2013
Warm and buttery: Greenland’s ice flow speeding up
Posted by LiveScience: Becky Oskin on July 18th, 2013
LiveScience: Greenland's massive ice sheet is accelerating its slide toward the ocean because bigger surface melts in recent years are softening the interior of the ice like a stick of butter, a new study finds. For more than a decade, scientists have reported rapid melting and shrinking at many of Greenland's outlet glaciers, which snake into the ocean. Studies suggest warmer ocean water and rising atmospheric temperatures contribute to the melting ice. The new study finds the interior ice sheet also speeded...
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Five Ways Climate Change Threatens Energy in Texas
Posted by National Public Radio: Michael Marks on July 18th, 2013
National Public Radio: The Department of Energy released a report recently looking at how climate change and extreme weather could make our power supplies more vulnerable. Given that it’s the nation’s leader in energy production, Texas was prominently featured.
The report looks at both current and future threats to the energy sector from climate change. There are three major trends, it says:
Air and water temperatures are increasing
Water availability is decreasing in certain regions
Storms, instances of flooding,...
After wildfire tragedy, talk of warming’s role is dicey.
Posted by InsideClimate: Katherine Bagley on July 18th, 2013
InsideClimate: Scientists agree that climate change was very likely one of the underlying triggers for the Yarnell Hill wildfire in Arizona that killed 19 firefighters on June 30. But while some of the nation's media have acknowledged global warming's link to the tragedy, others have ignored it entirely. The discrepancy highlights an ethical question that is expected to increasingly confront publications and TV networks as climate-related calamities are set to rise: Amid loss of life in weather disasters, when...
Marshes on the move: experts track rising sea levels along Sound
Posted by Journal News: None Given on July 18th, 2013
Journal News: The oak and hickory trees at the edge of a Long Island Sound salt marsh stand silent but could serve as future markers of climate change. Surrounded by thorns, poison ivy and some mosquitoes on a recent day, the trees’ positions were measured relative to the marsh grass and other wetland plants. Scientists expect to return in a decade with their tape measure and GPS unit and again calculate the distance between the woods and the marsh. The goal of their research is to see if the marshes are keeping...
Climate change forces US Forest Service to shift its strategy on larger fires
Posted by KPCC: Molly Peterson on July 18th, 2013
KPCC: Climate change is forcing the US Forest Service to rethink how it fights large wildfires. Global warming has increased the intensity of fires, forcing the USFS to spend more and more of its money fighting them. Now the agency has decided that it should be less aggressive in attacking big blazes, so long as they are not threatening property.
In 1991, the US Forest Service's spent 13 percent of its budget on fire management. Today, because of climate change, that figure is more than 50 percent,...
United Kingdom: Millions told to ration water as heatwave sends demand up by 50 percent
Posted by Telegraph: Steve Hawkes and Louise Gray on July 18th, 2013
Telegraph: Four of Britain's biggest water companies Severn Trent, Affinity, South East and Yorkshire told customers to cut back and use water "wisely" as temperatures hit a record 32 degrees centigrade.
The Met Office issued a "level three heat health watch" for London and the south-east amid predictions that July could be the driest since records began 247 years ago.
Affinity, a water company that supplies three-and-a-half million homes across north London and the home counties, issued an alert admitting...
Reid blames climate change for Nevada fires, seeks funding for prevention
Posted by Fox: None Given on July 18th, 2013
Fox: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is pleading for more spending on fire prevention as his home state of Nevada endures widespread wildfires, and says "climate change" is to blame for the devastating blazes.
"The West is burning," Reid said Wednesday.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Nevada Democrat said the conditions that help the fires spread are fueled by climate change.
"Why are we having them? Because we have climate change. Things are different. The forests are drier,...
California wildfire forces thousands to flee homes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2013
Associated Press: A wildfire pushed toward southern California mountain communities on Wednesday night, forcing people to flee from thousands of homes and threatening thousands more.
Idyllwild, Fern Valley and smaller surrounding communities in the mountains southwest of Palm Springs were under evacuation orders affecting some 2,200 homes and 6,000 residents and visitors, US forest service spokeswoman Carol Jandrall said.
People were being allowed home long enough to pick up essential items before evacuating...
Japan: Fukushima rainfall caused steam above reactor, says Tepco
Posted by Guardian: Justin McCurry on July 18th, 2013
Guardian: The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant said on Thursday that radiation levels were stable after vapour was detected coming from one of the three reactors that went into meltdown after the triple disaster in Japan in March 2011.
Video images showed the vapour, which is thought to be steam, rising from the damaged building housing reactor No 3.
Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), reeling from recent criticism of its handling of contaminated water at the plant, said the reactor's...
Climate Change 10000 Times Faster Than Evolution
Posted by Discovery: Larry O'Hanlon on July 18th, 2013
Discovery: Evolution can be fast, but not fast enough to keep up with the rate of human-caused climate change, say two researchers who have studied the evolution rates of hundreds of species in the past.
In fact, many vertebrate species would have to speed up their evolution rate 10,000 times to match today's pedal-to-the-metal rate of global warming, according to John Wiens, an ecology and evolutionary biology professor at the University of Arizona, and Ignacio Quintero, a postgraduate research assistant...