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Archive for April, 2014
Fracking, Seismic Activity Grow Hand in Hand in Mexico
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 3rd, 2014
Inter Press Service: Scientists warn that large-scale fracking for shale gas planned by Mexico’s oil company Pemex will cause a surge in seismic activity in northern Mexico, an area already prone to quakes. Experts link a 2013 swarm of earthquakes in the northern states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo León to hydraulic fracturing or fracking in the Burgos and Eagle Ford shale deposits – the latter of which is shared with the U.S. state of Texas. Researcher Ruperto de la Garza found a link between seismic activity and fracking,...
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UN – climate ‘perfect storm’ already here. Time to slay Zombie Big Oil
Posted by Guardian: Dr Nafeez Ahmed on April 3rd, 2014
Guardian: The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report on the impacts of global warming this century has been widely recognised as clarifying beyond all doubt that we do, indeed, face an unprecedented planetary emergency. Moreover, not one that will arrive far into the future, but that's happening right now.
The perfect storm is here
The report states unequivocally that:
"… recent climate-related extremes, such as heat waves, droughts, floods, cyclones, and wildfires,...
Number of missing in Washington mudslide drops to 13, official says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 3rd, 2014
Reuters: The number of people missing in the mudslide in Washington state has dropped to 13, down from 20 earlier on Wednesday, incident command spokeswoman Sheri Badger said.
The reduction represents a sharp decrease from the days soon after the March 22 mudslide, when at one point authorities had received up to 176 missing person reports related to the disaster. The current death toll stands at 29.
Amazon Studied to Predict Impact of Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 3rd, 2014
ScienceDaily: hree extreme weather events in the Amazon Basin in the last decade are giving scientists an opportunity to make observations that will allow them to predict the impacts of climate change and deforestation on some of the most important ecological processes and ecosystem services of the Amazon River wetlands.
Scientists from Virginia Tech, the Woods Hole Research Center, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, funded by NASA, are collaborating with Brazilian scientists to explore the ecosystem...
Teams set to inspect New Mexico nuclear waste site after leak
Posted by Reuters: Joseph L. Kolb on April 2nd, 2014
Reuters: Inspection teams were set to venture into an underground nuclear waste disposal vault in New Mexico on Wednesday to look for the source of a radiation leak nearly seven weeks ago that exposed 21 workers and forced a shutdown of the facility.
The planned inspection would mark the first time since the mishap that workers have been sent deep into the salt caverns of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, where drums of plutonium-tainted refuse from nuclear weapons factories and laboratories are buried....
Why Arctic ice is disappearing more rapidly than expected: River ice reveals new twist on Arctic melt
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 2nd, 2014
ScienceDaily: A new study led by Lance Lesack, a Simon Fraser University geographer and Faculty of Environment professor, has discovered unexpected climate-driven changes in the mighty Mackenzie River's ice breakup. This discovery may help resolve the complex puzzle underlying why Arctic ice is disappearing more rapidly than expected.
Lesack is the lead author of "Local spring warming drives earlier river-ice breakup in a large Arctic delta." Published recently in Geophysical Research Letters, the study has...
California snow levels remain low, signaling less water for summer
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 2nd, 2014
Reuters: Snow levels atop California's Sierra Nevada mountains, key indicators of how much water will be available for drought-stricken farms, residents and wildlife this summer, remained precariously low despite recent storms, officials said Tuesday. The snowpack, which melts in the spring and feeds streams and reservoirs throughout the state, has just a third of the amount of water it normally contains this time of year, said Mark Cowin, director of the state Department of Water Resources. "We're already...
‘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...
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,...