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Archive for January 30th, 2014
Parts of England see wettest January since records began
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2014
Guardian: Large parts of England have endured the wettest January since records began, according to new figures released by the Met Office, as troops headed to the Somerset Levels to help deliver assistance to flood-hit communities.
A large area from east Devon to Kent and inland across parts of the Midlands has already seen twice the average rainfall for the month.
Two days before the end of the month, the figures show that south-east and central southern England have already recorded twice their average...
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United Kingdom: A flooded village waits for the high tides
Posted by Telegraph: Joe Shute on January 30th, 2014
Telegraph: From Burrow Mump, an 80ft high Triassic--age hill that looms over the Somerset Levels, water stretches as far as the eye can see. Miles of field and salt marsh have simply been swallowed up in the deluge. Bruised grey juggernaut clouds glide through the skies above; yet more rain falls on this sodden land.
At the top of the Mump is the ruin of St Michael's Church, built by the monks of Athelney Abbey, one of several monasteries that used to dot the Somerset Levels. It was these monks who, in centuries...
Antarctic ice shelves could disappear
Posted by New Zealand Herald: Jamie Morton on January 30th, 2014
New Zealand Herald: A number of floating ice shelves in Antarctica are at risk of disappearing entirely in the next 200 years, as global warming reduces their snow cover, a new study has found.
Their collapse would enhance the discharge of ice into the oceans and increase the rate at which sea-level rises.
Scientists have been observing ice-shelf retreat around the Antarctic Peninsula since the early 1990s, but a new model provides for the first time a strong basis for the prediction of future changes - a major...
Much North Dakota’s Natural Gas Is Going Up In Flames
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2014
National Public Radio: A remarkable transformation is underway in western North Dakota, where an oil boom is changing the state's fortunes and leaving once-sleepy towns bursting at the seams. In a series of stories, NPR is exploring the economic, social and environmental demands of this modern-day gold rush.
North Dakota's oil boom isn't just about oil; a lot of natural gas is being produced, too. But there's a problem with that: The state doesn't have the pipelines needed to transport all that gas to market. There's...
Keystone Foes Say Two Pipelines Are Worse Than One
Posted by Bloomberg: Mark Drajem on January 30th, 2014
Bloomberg: Opponents of Keystone XL now want to block its construction by showing that two oil pipelines from Canada to the U.S. are worse than one.
The Sierra Club said TransCanada Corp.’s (TRP) Keystone and the proposed expansion of Enbridge Inc.’s (ENB) Alberta Clipper should be reviewed together to account for how the combination would contribute to climate change. The San Francisco-based environmental group filed a petition today with 15 other groups, asking the U.S. State Department to revise its Keystone...
Tests Said to Find Formaldehyde in West Virginia Tap Water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 30th, 2014
New York Times: Tests on the water supply in Charleston, W. Va., a week after a chemical spill tainted the city’s water system turned up traces of formaldehyde, suggesting that “there’s a lot more we don’t know” about the consequences of the spill, an environmental expert told a state legislative committee on Wednesday. That expert, Scott Simonton, a member of the state’s Environmental Quality Board, told the panel that he could guarantee that some West Virginians were breathing formaldehyde gas when they showered,...
Less Snow Threatens Antarctica’s Fragile Ice Shelves
Posted by LiveScience: Becky Oskin on January 30th, 2014
LiveScience: Antarctica's summer meltwater ponds are beautiful killers. Given an escape route down to the ice, the sapphire-blue water jacks open fractures and crevasses in ice shelves, breaking them apart.
Most ice shelves -- floating, frozen plateaus permanently attached to the shore -- have a thick blanket of snow that protects them from meltwater. The snow soaks up water like a sponge. But climate change may soon transform these downy snow blankets into threadbare sheets, putting more ice shelves in the...