RSS Feed
Archive for February 22nd, 2014
What gradual climate warming could mean for Michigan tourism
Posted by Detroit Free Press: None Given on February 22nd, 2014
Detroit Free Press: Using models based on 100 years of historical weather data, researchers at the University of Maryland in 2008 created climate projections to help gauge the economic impact of a changing environment on states throughout the country.
Models predict a 5- to 10-degree increase in average temperatures and a 20 to 40 percent boost in precipitation. Despite the extra rainfall, Michigan would be drier because hotter temperatures would mean more evaporation. The Great Lakes would experience an increase...
Posted in 
Obama To Propose Changes to Wildfire Funding in Budget
Posted by Weather Channel: None Given on February 22nd, 2014
Weather Channel: Obama wants the Interior and Agriculture Departments, the two agencies tasked with fighting wildfires, to be able to draw funds from a special disaster account when the cost of tackling fires exceeds their annual budget. That's the same approach the federal government currently takes when responding to hurricanes and tornadoes.
The official said the new approach was aimed at providing more certainty for agencies fighting fires.
The proposal will be included in the annual budget Obama will send...
Obama to Propose Shift in Wildfire Funding
Posted by New York Times: Coral Davenport on February 22nd, 2014
New York Times: President Obama’s annual budget request to Congress will propose a significant change in how the government pays to fight wildfires, administration officials said, a move that they say reflects the ways in which climate change is increasing the risk for and cost of those fires.
The wildfire funding shift is one in a series of recent White House actions related to climate change as Mr. Obama tries to highlight the issue and build political support for his administration’s more muscular policies,...
Antarctic glacier thinned as rapidly in past
Posted by ClimateWire: Stephanie Paige Ogburn on February 22nd, 2014
ClimateWire: The Pine Island Glacier, which sits on part of west Antarctica, is the single largest contributor to global sea-level rise.
That is because the enormous glacier, which constitutes 10 percent of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, is thinning rapidly, allowing more and more of its land-based ice to reach the sea. How fast this rapid thinning goes on, and for how long, will determine how quickly sea levels rise in the future.
Now, a group of researchers from the British Antarctic Survey, working with...
Drought: Feds cut water to Central Valley farmers to zero
Posted by Associated Press: Kurtis Alexander on February 22nd, 2014
Associated Press: Central Valley farmers took a crippling blow Friday when U.S. officials made the unprecedented announcement that they would get no irrigation water from the federal government this year because of the drought.
But growers in a region with the country's most productive soil said the loss of one of their chief water supplies won't be their problem alone: Consumers will be hit hard in the form of higher prices at the produce market.
California's unusually dry weather is forcing producers of fruits,...
Nebraska judge’s decision another obstacle for Keystone XL
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 22nd, 2014
Associated Press: Just as pressure was building on President Obama to make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline that would carry oil from Canada to refineries in Texas, the project ran into another obstacle - and it came again from Nebraska.
A judge's decision Wednesday to overturn a Nebraska law that allowed the pipeline guarantees the legal fight will continue for at least several more months. It also could leave Nebraska's decision in the hands of the state Public Service Commission, a little-known board that...
Fund invests in Kenya forest project, boosts UN scheme
Posted by Reuters: Stian Reklev on February 22nd, 2014
Reuters: Luxembourg-based Althelia Climate Fund has invested $10 million in a Kenyan project that is part of a United Nations scheme to take a market-based approach to curbing destruction of forests in developing nations. The move is the latest sign of growing private sector investment into projects underlying the U.N.'s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) mechanism. The 30-year project will protect 200,000 hectares of forest in Kenya, generating 1 million carbon credits...
Amid California Drought, Migrating Birds Enjoy Pop-Up Cuisine
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 22nd, 2014
National Public Radio: Millions of birds migrate through California this time of year, but the waterways and wetlands they rely on for food and rest are largely dry due to the ongoing drought. So farmers are keeping their fields flooded to make temporary wetlands, providing a place for migrating birds to rest and eat.
Rice farmer Douglas Thomas is one of these farmers. On a recent morning some 3,000 snow geese float in his rice fields in California's Central Valley. He's watching a young bald eagle awkwardly dive at...