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Archive for February 3rd, 2014
Greenland’s Jakobshavn Glacier Is Moving at Record Speeds, Study Finds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 3rd, 2014
Yale Environment 360: Greenland's Jakobshavn Glacier is flowing into the ocean at a record pace of more than 17 kilometers per year, according to research by U.S. and German scientists. The glacier, which drains 6 percent of the massive Greenland ice sheet, moved at a rate of 46 meters per day in the summer of 2012 — four times the glacier's 1990s summer pace. The unprecedented speed appears to be the fastest ever recorded for any glacier or ice stream in Greenland or Antarctica, the researchers report in the journal...
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Drought Intensifies in Western U.S
Posted by Climate News Network: Kieran Cooke on February 3rd, 2014
Climate News Network: In recent days California has announced its most severe water restrictions ever as drought continues to hit the state. Scientists say the region’s rainfall has been declining over the years and the consequences are serious.
January is the month when Californians put on their rain jackets--but not this year.
It’s the month which is usually wettest in the western U.S., when rivers and reservoirs are replenished: this year there was virtually no rain through January in much of the region, following...
Great Lakes Water Levels Are in Unusual Decline
Posted by LiveScience: Becky Oskin on February 3rd, 2014
LiveScience: The Great Lakes share a surprising connection with Wisconsin's small lakes and aquifers -- their water levels all rise and fall on a 13-year cycle, according to a new study. But that cycle is now mysteriously out of whack, researchers have found.
"The last two decades have been kind of exceptional," said Carl Watras, a climate scientist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Water levels have been declining since 1998, Watras told Live Science....
Hundreds of Vigils to Be Held Tonight in Protest of Keystone XL
Posted by EcoWatch: Duncan Meisel on February 3rd, 2014
EcoWatch: In the last 48 hours, people across the country have stepped up to go the extra mile to stop Keystone XL. Two hundred events have been planned from coast-to-coast for Monday evening, Feb. 3, and more are being listed every hour.
Every one of those actions will be sending the same message: it’s time for President Obama to be a climate champion, not the pipeline president, and reject Keystone XL. Standing together, we can be heard.
President Obama clearly has all the evidence he needs to reject...
More coastal habitat for geese in Alaska due to rising temperatures, melting sea ice
Posted by Summit County: None Given on February 3rd, 2014
Summit County: Dwindling sea ice spells trouble for polar bears and walrus colonies, but some other animals are benefiting from global warming — at least for now.
Warming temperatures have resulted in more high quality habitat for geese along the Arctic coast of Alaska, according to a U.S. Geological Survey study.
The research focused on black brant geese that migrate by the thousands each summer to the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska to undergo their wing molt, during which time the birds are flightless...
Arctic icy lakes lose thickness
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 3rd, 2014
BBC: The ubiquitous shallow icy lakes that dominate Alaska's Arctic coastal plain have undergone a significant change in recent decades.
These lakes, many of which are no more than 3m deep, melt earlier in the season and retain open water conditions for much longer.
And 20 years of satellite radar also now show that far fewer will freeze right through to the bottom in winter.
The results of the space-borne survey are published in The Cryosphere.
What is happening to the lakes is an example...
Property Owners Threaten Second Suit Over Delay on Fracking Study
Posted by Bloomberg: Gerald B. Silverman on February 3rd, 2014
Bloomberg: A coalition of property owners announced Jan. 31 that it will sue New York state over its delay in issuing a long-awaited environmental impact statement on hydraulic fracturing unless the state provides a reasonable timeline by Feb. 13 for finalizing the process.
The lawsuit would be the second of its kind to compel the Department of Environmental Conservation to issue a supplemental generic environmental impact statement (SGEIS) on fracking.
In the first instance, the bankruptcy trustee of...
Keystone: The Pipeline to Disaster
Posted by Huffington Post: Jeffrey Sachs on February 3rd, 2014
Huffington Post: The new State Department Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone Pipeline does three things. First, it signals a greater likelihood that the pipeline project will be approved later this year by the administration. Second, it vividly illustrates the depth of confusion of US climate change policy. Third, it self-portrays the US Government as a helpless bystander to climate calamity. According to the State Department report, we are trapped in the Big Oil Status Quo We Can Believe In. The proposed...
Billionaire Climate Activist Steyer Urges Review of ‘Defective’ Keystone Report
Posted by Bloomberg: Jeff Kearns on February 3rd, 2014
Bloomberg: Billionaire Tom Steyer, a Democratic Party donor and Keystone XL foe, called on U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to begin a review of the “defective” environmental analysis on the pipeline released last week.
The final environmental impact statement on Keystone “has suffered from a process that raises serious questions about the integrity of the document,” Steyer, who hosted President Barack Obama at his San Francisco home in April, wrote to Kerry yesterday in a letter.
Steyer is the former...
Playing politics w/ California drought
Posted by LA Times: Editorial on February 3rd, 2014
LA Times: As California's drought continues, and more than a dozen rural communities ponder what to do when their drinking water runs out sometime in March, it would be nice if the state's Republican politicians brought some straightforward plans for relief to the table. But what many of them are bringing instead is a tired political tactic barely, and laughably, disguised as a remedy for the lack of rainfall.
The "man-made California drought" is the term House Republicans use to describe the state's current...