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Archive for April, 2014
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...
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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...
Canada: As climate changes nations will covet our fresh water: scientists
Posted by Calgary Herald: None Given on April 1st, 2014
Calgary Herald: Top scientists say the latest international report on climate change shows that Canadians must wake up to the impact of warming temperatures on land, on water and in communities across the country.
They say the Intergovernmental Report on Climate Change, released Sunday in Japan, shows changes are on their way and further delays in responding to them only narrow the options.
"We no longer have the option of choosing between mitigation and adaptation," Debra Davidson, a University of Alberta...