Archive for November 12th, 2013

How climate change will impact the Southeast USA

USA Today: Rising sea levels, warming temperatures, heat waves, worsening air quality and stresses on the water supply are issues the Southeast will face over the next 20 years because of man-made climate change, according to a report released Tuesday. "The Southeast is a key part of the problem," said Keith Ingram, director of the Southeast Climate Consortium and a professor at the University of Florida. "With 26% of the total population of the U.S. living there, the region emits 25% of the country's total...

This map shows why the Philippines is so vulnerable to climate change

Washington Post: The Philippines is extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change for two main reasons: geography and development. As my colleague Brad Plumer points out in an excellent piece on what the Philippines' experience with Typhoon Haiyan tells us about global efforts to adapt to climate change, a recent United Nations report identified the country as the third-most at-risk from climate change in the world, ranked behind the South Pacific island nations of Vanuatu and Tonga. But the Philippines...

500 million to go thirsty as climate warms

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: HALF A BILLION more people will be unable to access clean water as a result of climate change, according to a new international study. Approximately 1.3 billion people today live in areas of water scarcity. A increase in temperature of 2°C by 2100 — a midrange prediction from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — is expected to expose an additional eight per cent of the world's population to new or worsening water scarcity. A more extreme rise in temperature of five degrees, reveals that...

Researchers study how preserve tree species amid climate change

Tuscon Sentinel: Two researchers at Arizona State University are aiming to help officials manage trees based on how different types are affected by climate change. Janet Franklin, a geography professor, and Pep Serra-Diaz, a postdoctoral researcher, are using computer models to study how quickly a tree species and its habitat will be exposed to climate change. That information is used to locate areas with specific elevations and latitudes where trees could survive and repopulate. "This is information that would...

Precipitation Changes Linked To Global Warming

RedOrbit: According to Eliza Doolittle from “My Fair Lady,” the rain in Spain lies mainly on the plain. However, according to a new study from the scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), the location and intensity of rain is changing around the globe, not only in Spain. The study, published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals that observed changes in global (ocean and land) precipitation are directly affected by human activities and...

Little Preparation for a Great Disaster

Inter Press Service: Despite the government's early warnings and evacuation of up to 800,000 people from vulnerable areas, the category 5 -- the highest level -- Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda to Filipinos) has left some communities and coastal zones in the central Philippine islands of Visayas in complete ruins. Widely characterised as history's strongest-ever typhoon, Haiyan made landfall in the Philippines on Nov. 8, slightly weakening before claiming the lives of thousands of people and inflicting severe economic damage...

Tribal dispute puts Alaska village in limbo

Associated Press: The flood-prone village of Newtok near Alaska's storm-battered coast is running out of time as coastal erosion creeps ever closer to the Yup'ik Eskimo community. As residents wait for a new village to be built on higher ground nine miles away, a dispute over who is in charge has led to a rare intervention by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which ruled that the sitting tribal council no longer represents the community of 350 as far as the agency is concerned. Council leaders are appealing the...