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Archive for February, 2014
New ethanol industry blooms in Iowa, but it could soon be uprooted
Posted by Des Moines Register: None Given on February 23rd, 2014
Des Moines Register: The line of headlights begins close to 6 a.m. as trucks and other vehicles file into the $250 million construction project south of this northwest Iowa town of 3,900.
Some of the 300 construction workers come from Iowa. But most — with license plates from Nebraska, Texas and Minnesota — fill about every apartment, hotel and trailer in a 30-mile radius. The workers pack the local Casey’s for breakfast pizza, line up at Fareway’s meat counter and drop by Don Jose’s for dinner.
“I’m pretty sure...
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United Kingdom: Risk of nuclear leak sparks call installation of flood defences
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 23rd, 2014
Independent: Managers of a nuclear waste dump on the Cumbria coast have been ordered to start preparations to defend the site against floods and erosion, amid fears that radioactive material could one day leak into the sea.
Much of the waste buried in vaults and concrete trenches at the Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) near the village of Drigg originates from one of the world's most contaminated nuclear sites, Sellafield, a few miles away. The waste dump is expected ultimately to require protective flood...
Drought Could Drain More Than Brazil’s Coffee Crop
Posted by National Public Radio: Lourdes Garcia-Navarro on February 23rd, 2014
National Public Radio: Brazil, a country usually known for its rainforests, has been facing a severe drought in its breadbasket region, leaving people in the cities without water and farmers in the countryside with dying crops. Global prices for coffee, in particular, have been affected.
Scientists in Brazil say the worst is yet to come - yet no one in the government, it seems, is listening.
On a recent day, farmer Juliano Jose Polidor walks through the desiccated remains of his cornfields.
What's happened to...
Small Nebraska agency might further complicate Keystone fight
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 23rd, 2014
Reuters: A small Nebraska state commission that has never considered a major oil pipeline route could soon play a pivotal role in deciding the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline, a project brimming with political risk for both the U.S. and Canadian governments.
A court ruling this week reinstating the Nebraska Public Service Commission's authority over TransCanada Corp's $5.4 billion project from the Alberta oil sands has raised new questions about a long-delayed project that Canada considers crucial to...
Wildlife casualties of floods grow amid fears over ‘polluted’ wetlands
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 23rd, 2014
Guardian: Seals, moles, hedgehogs, badgers, mice, earthworms and a host of insects and seabirds are among the unseen casualties of the floods, storms and torrential rains of the last few weeks, say wildlife groups.
As the waters started to subside across England, conservationists reported that about 600 guillemots, puffins, razorbills, kittiwakes and gulls have been washed up on the south coast and 250 seals drowned in Norfolk, Cornwall and the Channel Islands. A further 11,000 seabirds are reported to...
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...
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,...