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Archive for August 18th, 2013
Warming trend a sign of climate change in Clear Lake
Posted by Press Democrat: Guy Kovner on August 18th, 2013
Press Democrat: Clear Lake, a haven for bass anglers and jetskiers at the foot of a dormant volcano in Lake County, is also a sentinel for climate change in California.
Satellite measurements of the shallow, 68-square-mile lake’s surface water temperature show a pronounced warming since 1992, matching the trend at five other lakes in California and Nevada, including Lake Tahoe.
The lakes’ warming is “primarily due to climate change,” said Geoffrey Schladow, director of the Tahoe Environmental Research Center....
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United Kingdom: Flood insurance scheme inadequate, says study
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on August 18th, 2013
Guardian: The government's new scheme to protect homes in England and Wales from flooding vastly underestimates the number of properties at risk due to climate change, says a study from the London School of Economics (LSE).
As many as 800,000 homes in England and Wales are likely to be at significant risk of flooding in a decade, even on optimistic assumptions of fewer homes being built in flood plains, with the number rising to 1.5m by 2050. That compares with about 370,000 homes at significant risk in...
United Kingdom: Balcombe anti-fracking protest – in pictures
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 18th, 2013
Guardian: Protesters are preparing a six-day 'action camp' in protest against fracking at the west Sussex site. After discussions with local police, Cuadrilla has in the past few days halted drilling activities at the site and removed some equipment. The company has also urged protesters not to attempt anything that could compromise their own safety
United Kingdom: Fracking protesters march in Sussex in biggest show of strength so far
Posted by Guardian: Matthew Taylor and Fiona Harvey on August 18th, 2013
Guardian: Thousands of people marched through the Sussex countryside on Sunday in the biggest show of strength to date for the UK's anti-fracking movement, the start of a three-day campaign against exploratory drilling near the village of Balcombe in west Sussex.
Organisers had hoped to attract about 1,000 people but as supporters from around the country arrived in coaches and by train, police estimated that there were more than double that number. The march comes before direct action demonstrations that...
Wanted: Another Green Mayor
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 18th, 2013
New York Times: New York has been a dirty, gritty city practically forever, but it has also had farsighted leaders who qualify as green visionaries, going back to the 19th century. They preserved valuable real estate as irreplaceable public parkland; dreamed up an astonishing system of aqueducts to carry clean mountain water, unpumped and unfiltered, to city taps; and built a walkable, ridable, electric-train metropolis generations before “smart growth” and “transit-oriented development” were buzzwords. The latest...
United Kingdom: Coastal city flooding ‘could cost more than £600bn a year’
Posted by Independent: John Von Radowitz on August 18th, 2013
Independent: Flooding of major coastal cities could cost the world economy more than £600bn a year by 2050, say scientists. Three cities in the US – Miami, New York and New Orleans – and Guangzhou in China are together expected to shoulder 43 per cent of the burden. Other cities facing the highest flood losses in 2050 included Mumbai, Jakarta, Boston, Bangkok and Abidjan, while in Europe, the cities of Marseille, Naples and Athens were also at risk. The loss estimate is based on projections of climate change,...
As the world drowns
Posted by Pioneer: William Collins on August 18th, 2013
Pioneer: Expensive news, everyone: The worldwide cost of the melting Arctic ice may total up to $60 trillion dollars, according to a University of Cambridge study.
That's nearly a year's worth of global economic output we'll all have to spend coping with the extreme weather and other climate-changing impacts triggered by the now unfrozen methane hovering in the atmosphere.
Is the world ready for this? No.
The global response to the emergency wrought by climate change is in tatters. The most recent...
Coastal New Hampshire braces for rising seas
Posted by Seacoast Online: Deborah McDermott on August 18th, 2013
Seacoast Online: The coastal communities of New Castle, Rye and North Hampton all face significant repercussions in coming years from rising sea levels and increasing storm surges. It's a threat very much on the minds of town officials, who are beginning to plan for the future.
All three "are in the process right now of starting to evaluate their resources" and are discussing incorporating rising ocean waters and storm surge into their planning, said Dylan Smith of the Rockingham Planning Commission.
Each faces...
United Kingdom: No place for mob rule over fracking
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 18th, 2013
Telegraph: When British energy company Cuadrilla announced that it was going to start exploratory drilling for oil and gas on the outskirts of the sleepy West Sussex village of Balcombe, the residents were understandably concerned -- and they voiced their objections in a peaceful and responsible manner. They set up gazebos and bunting at the roadside; there was tea, music and even a cricket match. But then a hard core of outside activists turned up who transformed the protest into something quite different....
Climate change to trigger frequent, severe heatwaves
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 18th, 2013
Press Trust of India: Climate change is set to trigger more frequent and severe heatwaves in the next 30 years regardless of the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted into the atmosphere, a new study has warned.
Extreme heat waves such as those that hit the US in 2012 and Australia in 2009 dubbed three-sigma events by the researchers are projected to cover double the amount of global land by 2020 and quadruple by 2040, researchers said.
Meanwhile, more-severe summer heat waves classified as five-sigma events will...