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Archive for August, 2013
Wildfires to Become Bigger, Smokier and More Frequent by 2050
Posted by Nature World: James A. Foley on August 29th, 2013
Nature World: Wildfires will burn longer, wider and create more smoke by the year 2050, according to a new study by Harvard University researchers that brings with it some bad news for fire crews battling blazes across the western United States.
California's Rim Fire, for instance, has burned nearly 200,000 acres of forest since it ignited two weeks ago and fire crews don't expect to have the largest active wildfire in the country contained for another two weeks to come.
If predictions made by the Harvard...
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Another Grand Canyon Discovered Beneath Greenland’s Ice
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 29th, 2013
National Public Radio: A major feature of the Earth has escaped notice - until now.
Scientists reported Thursday that they've discovered a vast canyon, twice as long as the Grand Canyon. It carves a deep scar from the center of the world's largest island out to the coast. And, oh one more detail: It's buried beneath as much as 2 miles of ice.
Yes, we're talking about icy Greenland.
You may not think of it when you fly over, but beneath all that ice is a hidden terrain of bedrock. Jonathan Bamber from the University...
Bobby Jindal doesn’t think Big Oil should have to clean up its mess
Posted by Grist: John Upton on August 29th, 2013
Grist: Oil and gas companies have ruined coastal wetlands that formerly helped protect Louisiana from storms and floods, but Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) doesn`t believe they should have to pay to repair the damage.
The governor opposes a lawsuit filed last month by the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East. The suit seeks billions of dollars from energy companies, including BP and ExxonMobil, to restore coastal ecosystems that have been trampled to make way for oil and gas infrastructure along...
Future Wildfire Seasons to Be Longer, Smokier, and Cover More Area
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 29th, 2013
Yale Environment 360: Fire seasons will be three weeks longer, generate twice as much smoke, and cover a larger area of the western U.S. by 2050, a new study from Harvard researchers finds. The risk of large fires could also increase by a factor of two to three. In general, the biggest driver for future fires in Western states will be temperature, but driving factors can vary from region to region, the researchers say. In the Rockies, for example, moisture in the forest floor is the biggest predictor. Wildfires in the...
Huge canyon under Greenland ice
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 29th, 2013
BBC: One of the biggest canyons in the world has been found beneath the ice sheet that smothers most of Greenland.
The canyon - which is 800km long and up to 800m deep - was carved out by a great river more than four million years ago, before the ice arrived.
It was discovered by accident as scientists researching climate change mapped Greenland's bedrock by radar.
The British Antarctic Survey said it was remarkable to find so huge a geographical feature previously unseen.
The hidden valley...
Why Keystone XL Flunks the Climate Test
Posted by EcoWatch: Michael Brune on August 29th, 2013
EcoWatch: In June President Obama set a climate test for his decision on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. He said he will not approve the pipeline if it would significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution. Today the Sierra Club, Oil Change International and 13 partner groups have released a report that settles the issue unequivocally: Keystone XL would be a climate disaster. The State Department, though, tried to ignore this 181-million metric ton elephant. It argued in its environmental review...
The Yosemite Inferno in the Context of Forest Policy, Ecology and Climate Change
Posted by New York Times: Andrew C. Revkin on August 29th, 2013
New York Times: Assessing the drivers of wildfire trends in the American West these days can be akin to Hercule Poirot’s task on the Orient Express, on which there was one murder with 12 final suspects — all of whom were guilty. For western [wild]fire (it’s hard to see how the wild part of that word applies any more, given how many human factors are involved), the suspects are a century of accumulated “fire debt” from fire suppression efforts, development and road construction, natural fluctuations in drought and...
Around oil and gas fields in Texas, water supplies run thin
Posted by Dallas Morning News: James Osborne on August 29th, 2013
Dallas Morning News: Jack Watts has been drilling water wells in the countryside around Fort Worth for decades.
And in the last five years he has seen something he says he’s never seen before. Customers around the natural gas fields atop the Barnett Shale are turning on their taps to find their wells have run dry, the victim of falling groundwater levels beneath their homes.
“Before, you just had the cities and the co-ops and ranchers watering their cattle, some dry-land farming,” Watts said. “But with the shale...
Record-Breaking $17 Billion in Crop Loss Stresses Need for Federal Insurance Program Reform
Posted by EcoWatch: Dana Gunders on August 29th, 2013
EcoWatch: Extreme weather means lost food as drought, flood and other weather-related farming hazards threaten and destroy crops. But what are we to do, since we can’t fight weather? Or can we?
As we enter this new frontier of the wild, wild weather, one of the most promising strategies for reducing both the material and financial losses is to build the resilience of our farms. Practices such as cover cropping, no-till and efficient irrigation have shown to reduce crop losses associated with extreme weather....
Massive Wildfire Prompts New Travel Restrictions Through Yosemite
Posted by Reuters: Laila Kearney on August 29th, 2013
Reuters: Firefighters determined to keep a massive blaze from invading the heart of California's Yosemite National Park took advantage of cooler weather early on Thursday to slow the spread of flames ahead of a holiday weekend marking the end of the peak summer tourist season.
Progress came after a long stretch of Yosemite's main east-west road was closed on Wednesday through the western half of the park as crews tightened their grip on the blaze, extending containment lines around 30 percent of the fire's...