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Archive for August, 2013
Recent Devastating Wildfires Could Be Result Of Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 2nd, 2013
RedOrbit: The larger, more destructive wildfires devastating some regions of the western US could be fueled by climate change, according to new research appearing in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology.
These erratic fires are more difficult to contain, as well as more dangerous to people living in the area and likely to cause catastrophic damage, lead author and Michigan State University assistant professor of geography Lifeng Luo and his colleagues said.
Furthermore, they predict the...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Recent Devastating Wildfires Could Be Result Of Climate ChangeFracking firm begins tests at Balcombe oil site as protests enter ninth day
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 2nd, 2013
Guardian: The energy firm Cuadrilla has started testing equipment ahead of exploratory oil drilling in West Sussex as anti-fracking protests at the site entered a ninth day. The project has been subject to days of delays because of protests led by Frack Off campaigners designed to halt delivery of equipment to the site. On Friday a Cuadrilla spokesman said: "Testing of equipment started last night but we haven't started drilling yet." Drilling could start later on Friday. Campaigners fear the project at...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fracking firm begins tests at Balcombe oil site as protests enter ninth dayState Dept. Watchdog Launches Inquiry into Keystone XL Environmental Analysis
Posted by Hill: Zack Colman on August 2nd, 2013
Hill: The State Department’s internal watchdog has “initiated an inquiry” into whether the contractor Foggy Bottom used for a draft environmental analysis on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline had a conflict of interest.
The move is a response to allegations from several outside groups, Doug Welty, a spokesman with the State Department Office of Inspector General, told The Hill on Friday.
The development raises the possibility of another redo of the analysis assessing Keystone’s environmental impact....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on State Dept. Watchdog Launches Inquiry into Keystone XL Environmental AnalysisThe academic turned protester behind anti-fracking group Frack Off
Posted by Telegraph: Gordon Rayner on August 2nd, 2013
Telegraph: Dr Edward Lloyd-Davies, 39, worked until last year as a research fellow at the University of Sussex’s Astronomy Centre, but now tours the country attending demonstrations and speaking at town hall meetings. The campaign group behind the disruption of an exploratory drilling operation in Balcombe, West Sussex, does not publicise the identities of its leaders, but its website is registered in Dr Lloyd-Davies’s name and he helped found Frack Off two years ago. He has convictions for assault and trespass...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on The academic turned protester behind anti-fracking group Frack OffWildfires top Californians’ climate-change fears, survey shows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2013
Press-Enterprise: California residents’ No. 1 fear about climate change is that it will cause more severe wildfires, according to a survey released Wednesday, July 31.
A majority of residents also say state government should act right away to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, rather than wait until the economy improves, found the report by the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan research group based in San Francisco.
The survey of 2,103 adults was conducted statewide from July 9-23, a period...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Wildfires top Californians’ climate-change fears, survey showsClimate Changing 10 Times Faster than in Past 65 Million Years
Posted by Nature World: James A. Foley on August 1st, 2013
Nature World: Stanford University climate researchers warn that the likely rate of climate change over the next century will be 10 times faster than the rate of any climate shift in the past 65 million years, meaning the planet will undergo one of the largest changes in climate since the dinosaurs went extinct.
Noah Diffenbaugh, an associate professor of environmental Earth system science, and Chris Field, a professor of biology and of environmental Earth system science at the Stanford Woods Institute for the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate Changing 10 Times Faster than in Past 65 Million YearsTwo Climate Analysts Fault Gas Leaks, but Not as a Big Warming Threat
Posted by New York Times: Andrew C. Revkin on August 1st, 2013
New York Times: Two prominent analysts of human-driven global warming have offered fresh criticisms of the way Anthony Ingraffea, a Cornell University engineering professor, has been portraying the contribution of natural gas leaks to climate change. The researchers are Raymond Pierrehumbert, a climate scientist at the University of Chicago, and Richard A. Muller, a physics professor at the University of California, Berkeley who is best known of late for his research corroborating the extent of recent climate warming....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Two Climate Analysts Fault Gas Leaks, but Not as a Big Warming ThreatNew Poll Shows Californians Strongly Oppose Fracking
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on August 1st, 2013
EcoWatch: A majority of Californians oppose expanded fracking in the Golden State, according to a new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan research foundation. As oil companies gear up to frack massive petroleum deposits in the Monterey Shale, the poll also found that 65 percent of Californians say the state should act immediately to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The poll--the second this summer to find strong California opposition to fracking--puts new pressure on state lawmakers...
Alaska’s heat wave breaking records, killing salmon
Posted by Grist: John Upton on August 1st, 2013
Grist: Something smells fishy about a record-breaking heat wave in Alaska. It might be the piles of dead salmon. The Land of the Midnight Sun has been sweating, relatively speaking, through a hot and sun-soaked summer. From the AP: Anchorage has set a record for the most consecutive days over 70 degrees during this unusually warm summer, while Fairbanks is closing in on its own seasonal heat record. The National Weather Service said Alaska’s largest city topped out at 70 degrees at 4 p.m. Tuesday,...
Aerial Pictures Reveal Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2013
ScienceDaily: As a result of climate change, certain undesirable aquatic plants are starting to invade German water bodies. Even popular recreation areas like Lake Starnberg have been affected, leading to a growing need to monitor the spread of these plants. Up to now, regular monitoring has proven to be a costly process. But in a new approach, researchers at Technische Universität München (TUM) have developed a quicker and less expensive method.
Taking a dip in a freshwater lake can quickly lose its appeal...