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Archive for November 10th, 2013
Australia: Abbott government hints could reduce Australia’s emissions target
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 10th, 2013
Guardian: The Abbott government appears to be reconsidering its longstanding policy to reduce Australia's emissions by between 5% and 25% of 2000 levels by 2020 – a crucial and internationally-scrutinised goal which had retained bipartisan support since 2009, throughout Australia's tumultuous political debate over climate policy.
The prime minister, Tony Abbott, and the environment minister, Greg Hunt, have regularly repeated the Coalition's commitment to increasing Australia's emissions reduction target...
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Australia on track for warmest ever year
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on November 10th, 2013
Guardian: Australia is "on track" for its warmest ever calendar year, temperatures in October 1.43C above the long-term average and more than 100 heat-related records broken in the past 12 months, according to a new report.
The Climate Council study, called Off the Charts, says that the country has just had its warmest ever 12-month period, from 1 November 2012 to 31 October 2013. This is the third month in a row that this 12-month temperature record has been broken.
The report, drawn from Bureau of...
Philippines Devastated by Typhoon Millions Affected
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on November 10th, 2013
Environment News Service: Super Typhoon Yolanda, known outside the Philippines as Haiyan, battered parts of the Philippine archipelago on Friday, making landfall six times before blowing westward on Saturday over the South China Sea towards northern Vietnam and southern China.
The worst storm in Philippine history blasted through the country, packing winds of 235 kilometers per hour (147 miles per hour) with gusts of 275 kph (170 mph). Yolanda`s storm surge caused ocean waters to rise up to six meters (20 feet).
Only...
ALERT! Given Typhoon #Haiyan, UN Must Fully Assess Climate Change Risk and Feedbacks
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on November 10th, 2013
TAKE ACTION HERE NOW!
Typhoon Haiyan, believed to be the biggest storm on record to make landfall, clearly demonstrates the risk posed by extreme super storms intensified by abrupt climate change. Yet the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) the United Nations science body that assesses the state of climate science is failing to carry out a comprehensive risk assessment that takes into account amplifying positive feedbacks and worse case scenarios. Without such a transparent and comprehensive climate risk assessment, that is free of government interference, the world finds it difficult to assess climate risk and is unlikely to embrace urgent emissions cuts, protect and restore ecosystems, and implement a global carbon tax. Demand such reforms at the IPCC.
Discuss Alert: http://www.climateark.org/shared/alerts/sendsm.aspx?id=ipcc_reform#discuss
UN expert warns climate change happening now
Posted by Deutsche Welle: None Given on November 10th, 2013
Deutsche Welle: Climate change is erasing jobs, choking water supplies and permanently shifting the way people live, a new report from the UN University has revealed. Climate expert Dr Koko Warner warns that action is needed now.
The United Nations University has released the second volume of Pushed to the Limit, a study that examines evidence of loss and damage caused by climate change from the perspective of affected people in nine vulnerable countries. In the run up to the climate conference in Warsaw, Dr...
Emergency Work ‘Overwhelming’ in Typhoon-Ravaged Central Philippines
Posted by Voice of America: Simone Orendain on November 10th, 2013
Voice of America: In the typhoon-ravaged central Philippines, emergency workers are trying to push their way through piles of debris to recover bodies and get aid to people who have been stranded without food and water. Officials expect the number of dead to be in the thousands.
Most of those deaths are in Tacloban, a coastal city of Leyte Province. That is where Super Typhoon Haiyan first bore down on the country, leaving a trail of devastation across dozens of islands.
?Thousands of houses have been reduced...
Horror stories as 10,000 feared dead in Typhoon Haiyan
Posted by USA Today: Sunshine Lichauco de Leon and Calum MacLeod on November 10th, 2013
USA Today: As many as 10,000 people may have died when one of the most powerful typhoons ever recorded destroyed entire villages and devastated cities with huge waves and winds of nearly 150 mph. On Sunday, the Philippines were still trying to comprehend the destruction that Typhoon Haiyan brought to this string of islands in the Pacific. Corpses hung from tree branches and were scattered along sidewalks and among flattened buildings. People raided grocery stores and gas stations in search of food, fuel and...
Peru uses climate twist to lure tourists to shrinking glacier
Posted by Reuters: Mitra Taj on November 10th, 2013
Reuters: In its heyday, the Pastoruri glacier in central Peru, drew daily throngs of tourists packed into dozens of double-decker buses 16,000-feet (5,0000-meters) high into the Andes to ski, build snowmen and scale its dizzying peaks.
It was so bright with ice and snow that sunglasses were mandatory.
But in less than 20 years, including at least 10 of the hottest on record, Pastoruri has shrunk in half, and now spans just a third of a square mile (0.9 square km).
Melting ice has given way to slabs...
Global warming finally reaches the last Arctic region
Posted by Grist: Kathleen Rühland on November 10th, 2013
Grist: Lakes of the Hudson Bay Lowlands, in northeast Canada, are showing evidence of abrupt change in one of the last Arctic regions of the world to have experienced global warming, according to Canadian research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal.
The research team consisting of Kathleen Rühland, John Smol, and Neal Michelutti from Queen’s University Ontario, Andrew Paterson of Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment, and Bill Keller from the Laurentian University Ontario, retrieved...
California on course driest year on record
Posted by San Francisco Chronicle: Peter Fimrite on November 10th, 2013
San Francisco Chronicle: Thirsty California may get a smidgen of rain this coming week, but it is not likely to change what, so far, has been the driest calendar year in recorded history.
No rain at all fell in San Francisco in October and only 3.95 inches has fallen since Jan. 1, the smallest amount of precipitation to date since record keeping began 164 years ago, according to the National Weather Service.
Things can still change, but the storm predicted to roll in Monday and Tuesday has already petered out, according...