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Archive for January 2nd, 2014
Australia’s hottest year recorded in 2013
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on January 2nd, 2014
Guardian: Australia experienced its hottest year on record in 2013, the Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed, with temperatures 1.2C above the long-term average.
The bureau said the new high, which breaks the record set in 2005 by 0.17C, "continues the trend' of steadily rising temperatures in Australia, which has seen the country warm by about 1C since 1950.
The year saw a number of individual records fall, including: The warmest summer and spring seasons ever recorded.
7 January was the hottest summer...
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Surprising “Lake” Bigger Than West Virginia Found Inside Greenland Ice
Posted by National Geographic: Brian Clark Howard on January 2nd, 2014
National Geographic: A vast aquifer "lake" lies trapped under southeastern Greenland, scientists report, based on ice core results. The finding may help reveal a changing climate's effects on the world's massive, but shrinking, ice sheets.
Greenland's ice sheet, the second largest in the world, covers some 656,000 square miles (1,710,000 square kilometers). Together with Antarctica's even more vast ice sheet, its melting in a warming climate is a big factor in projections of future sea-level rise.
That is why the...
UK floods: Homes ‘left exposed’ by Environment Agency job cuts
Posted by Telegraph: Peter Dominiczak on January 2nd, 2014
Telegraph: The ability to cope with floods in England and Wales could be put at risk because of government cuts to the Environment Agency that will result in the loss of hundreds of front-line staff.
Officials working on flood risk management will be sacked as the agency sheds about 15 per cent of its workforce to save money.
More than 1,500 jobs will be cut by October, leading to fears that the agency will not be able to cope with serious flooding next year. The agency's chief executive has said that...
Australia swelters after record hot 2013; farmers slaughter cattle, bushfire warning
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 2nd, 2014
Reuters: A searing heatwave is baking central and northern Australia, piling more misery on drought-hit cattle farmers who have been slaughtering livestock as Australia sweltered through the hottest year on record in 2013.
Temperatures have topped 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit)in large parts of Australia's key agricultural regions for most of the past week, with the mercury topping 48 degrees Celsius in the central west Queensland town of Birdsville.
The heatwave is moving east across Australia,...
Australia endures hottest year on record
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 2nd, 2014
Agence France-Presse: Australia experienced its hottest year on record in 2013, the Bureau of Meteorology said Friday, enduring the longest heatwave ever recorded Down Under as well as destructive bushfires. "2013 was Australia's warmest year since records began in 1910," the bureau said in its annual climate statement. "Mean temperatures across Australia have generally been well above average since September 2012. Long periods of warmer-than-average days have been common, with a distinct lack of cold weather." The...
Battle for Survival May Yield the Rain Forest’s Diversity
Posted by New York Times: Carl Zimmer on January 2nd, 2014
New York Times: The diversity of a tropical rain forest can be hard to fathom for people who have not seen one. Three acres of jungle may be home to more than 650 species of trees — more species than grow in the entire continental United States and Canada combined. It’s tempting to look at all those species living so close together as a picture of peaceful coexistence. But Phyllis D. Coley and Thomas A. Kursar, a husband-and-wife team of ecologists at the University of Utah, see them as war zones. Hordes of insects...
United Kingdom: River of Plastic Found Beneath the Thames
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on January 2nd, 2014
Environment News Service: Thousands of pieces of plastic have been discovered submerged along the river bed of the upper Thames Estuary by scientists at Royal Holloway, University of London and the Natural History Museum.
Flowing through the city of London, the 346 km (215 mile) long River Thames is often considered clean, with pollution a thing of the past. Rising at Thames Head in Gloucestershire, the Thames flows into the North Sea via the Thames Estuary. On its way, the river drains the whole of Greater London.
Some...
Pennsylvania appeals state Supreme Court ruling on fracking law
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 2nd, 2014
Reuters: The state of Pennsylvania appealed on Thursday against a December decision from the state Supreme Court that struck down parts of an oil and gas law.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court voted 4-2 in mid-December saying key provisions in Act 13, a 2012 law that governs oil and gas drilling, is unconstitutional.
In a state known for its shale gas bounty, the decision broadened the rights of local governments to restrict the controversial fracking process within their city limits, dealing a blow to...
Man sets tap water on fire, sparks debate
Posted by CNet: Chris Matyszczyk on January 2nd, 2014
CNet: I confess that I've tried to set many things in my life on fire.
The curtains at my house, for example. Oh, and then there were my ambitions.
But I've never thought of turning a lighter on next to a running tap to see what happens. Possibly because I imagine that nothing would.
However, a North Dakota resident called Jacob Haughney decided to see whether he could make a little magic occur.
He posted a video of the proceedings to YouTube, where it has stirred scientific imaginations. ...
Fate of Exxon’s Burst Pegasus Pipeline To Be Decided in 2014
Posted by InsideClimate: Lisa Song on January 2nd, 2014
InsideClimate: Industry analysts and others who have wondered whether ExxonMobil will restart the broken Pegasus pipeline that leaked Canadian oil across an Arkansas suburb should get their answer in 2014. The 65-year-old pipeline hasn't shipped any oil since it ruptured on March 29, costing Exxon as much as $450,000 a day in lost revenue, or up to $124 million as of Jan. 1. It's unclear when exactly the company might resume pumping oil through the 858-mile line that crosses dozens of waterways, farms and residential...