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Archive for April 1st, 2014
‘Some Say World Will End in Fire:’ Climate Panel Paints Mad Max World of Famine, Fire, War
Posted by Truthdig: Juan Cole on April 1st, 2014
Truthdig: The poet Robert Frost wrote,
"Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I`ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice."
Well, we know the answer to his question, and he gets his first wish. It is fire, i.e., massive global warming, that threatens the world as we know it.
The most [pdf] pressing...
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As Scientists Examine Landslide, Questions About Logging’s Potential Role
Posted by National Geographic: Warren Cornwall on April 1st, 2014
National Geographic: Scientists hoping to better understand what triggered the tragic landslide in western Washington are eyeing two prime suspects: rising groundwater that weakened slide-prone soils, perhaps exacerbated by logging; and the Stillaguamish River, which persistently chewed away at the bottom of the hillside. The March 22 landslide wiped out an entire neighborhood near the small town of Oso, leaving at least 27 dead and another 22 missing. But answers to what caused the hillside to come thundering down...
Will the new IPCC report help climate action?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 1st, 2014
Guardian: The release of the latest report (PDF) from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is yet another sober warning on the perils humanity faces from global warming.
The threats seem written from the dystopian blockbuster Hunger Games: global food-stocks are risk, melting sea ice, thawing permafrost, dying coral reefs, heat waves, mega-rains, and a death toll amongst the poor, weak and elderly. Except for one thing. The effects of climate change are happening now.
As Graham Readfern writes,...
West Virginia bill signed to regulate storage tanks after spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 1st, 2014
Reuters: West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin on Tuesday signed a bill regulating above-ground chemical storage tanks, a measure prompted by a spill in January that tainted water supplies for some 300,000 people. The new law requires above-ground tanks in critical areas near public water supplies to be registered with the state Department of Environmental Protection, which will perform annual inspections. "The Elk River chemical spill has made us all - in our communities and across our nation - take...
Despite help from late-winter storms, California snowpack only 32 percent of normal
Posted by Valley Tribune: Steve Scauzillo on April 1st, 2014
Valley Tribune: A string of late-winter storms was not sufficient to knock out the state’s three-year drought, leaving critical snowpack levels in the Sierra Nevada two-thirds below normal and predictions of a “gloomy” summer for farmers and many urban communities, state water managers said Tuesday. Though the Northern California snowpack rose from 27 percent of average on March 1 to 32 percent, hopes for a “March miracle” were dashed as surveyors carrying hand-held probes climbed down from the snow-covered slopes...
Steelhead Drive Is Gone After Mudslide, Along With Many Lives Lived on It
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 1st, 2014
New York Times: The words, recorded by the Snohomish County emergency response system in the frantic minutes after a giant wall of earth slid down the mountain here on the morning of March 22, were breathy and labored. "All the homes on Steelhead Drive are gone," a man said with long pauses between his words.
Those eight words proved bleakly authoritative. Though there were victims from elsewhere in the narrow Stillaguamish River Valley among the 28 confirmed dead by the medical examiner and 20 others still...
Droughts to Become More Severe, Frequent Over Nearly a Third of Earth: Study
Posted by Wunderground: Terrell Johnson on April 1st, 2014
Wunderground: As much as a third of the planet will likely experience more intense and more frequent droughts by the end of the century if global warming proceeds unchecked, according to a study released last month.
That's because warming temperatures will mean both less rainfall and less soil moisture for many of the affected areas mentioned in the study, titled "Global Warming and 21st Century Drying" and published in the March issue of the scientific journal Climate Dynamics.
Even though climate change...
IPCC: Climate Change Is Taking a Growing Toll in California
Posted by KQED: Molly Samuel on April 1st, 2014
KQED: The latest report from the United Nations` Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change focuses on impacts from climate change, both current and looming, and recommendations for how to adapt. It also ratchets up considerably the confidence levels for those predicted impacts.
KQED`s Forum hosted a segment on the report Tuesday morning. And the New York Times has this story on the scope of the IPCC`s work, the expected impacts from climate change - hunger, thirst, flooding, violent conflicts, mass...
Asia responding to future of climate change
Posted by Associated Press: Elaine Kurtenbach on April 1st, 2014
Associated Press: Challenges such as extreme weather, rising seas and worsening scarcity of drinking water are forcing many Asian governments to confront the changes being wrought by a warming planet even as some point to rich Western nations as major culprits. Millions of people in the region have already been displaced by floods and droughts thought related to global warming, a United Nations scientific panel said in a report meant to guide policymakers and form the foundation for a new climate treaty due next...
Emergency crews face toxic challenge in Washington state mudslide
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 1st, 2014
Reuters: Recovery teams struggling through thick mud up to their armpits and heavy downpours at the site of a devastating landslide in Washington state are facing yet another challenge - an unseen and potentially dangerous stew of toxic contaminants.
Sewage, propane, household solvents and other chemicals lie beneath the surface of the gray mud and rubble that engulfed hundreds of acres of a rural community on March 22 and left dozens of people dead or missing, authorities said.
The official death toll...