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Archive for May 16th, 2014
100 percent of California in highest stages of drought
Posted by Climate Central: Andrea Thompson on May 16th, 2014
Climate Central: It might not seem possible, but California's drought just got worse. According to Thursday's release of the U.S. Drought Monitor, 100 percent of the state is now in one of the three worst stages of drought.
As of May 15, California was completely in the three highest stages of drought, severe, extreme and exceptional.
The latest report, which indicated that rain had improved conditions in parts of Texas and the Plains states, revealed that California got no relief. In fact, a heat wave likely...
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New $1.1B sea wall protects New Orleans against major storms but may cultivate complacency
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 16th, 2014
ClimateWire: Looming 26 feet over the bayou, the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal-Lake Borgne Surge Barrier stands as a concrete and steel sentinel against the rising and heaving ocean.
The 1.4-mile-long wall, also known as the IHNC barrier, protects vital commercial arteries and more than 350,000 people in New Orleans. An ambitious and expensive project built on soft soils and hard lessons, this Great Wall of Louisiana is a bulwark against once-in-a-century storms.
The problem: After Hurricane Katrina drowned...
Attacked for position on climate change, Marco Rubio explains himself
Posted by Miami Herald: Marc Caputo on May 16th, 2014
Miami Herald: Marco Rubio denies being a climate-change denier. But the Florida Senator isn't a believer, either.
Call him a skeptic. For now.
"I think all science deserves skepticism," Rubio said in an interview about what he does and doesn't believe about global warming and what to do about it.
And right now, Rubio doesn't want to take too much action.
In the wake of a new White House report on climate change that paints a bleak picture for his home county, his state, the nation and the planet, Rubio...
Wildfires are growing, and growing more costly
Posted by NBC: None Given on May 16th, 2014
NBC: The wildfires raging across California are the latest example of a grim reality: Wildfires are getting more dangerous, and they’re costing us more, too.
U.S. taxpayers are paying about $3 billion a year to fight wildfires — triple what it cost in the 1990s — and big fires can lead to billions of dollars in property losses.
The bad news: It’s going to get worse.
Researchers say a potent combination of climate change and homebuilding near wildfire-prone areas is already translating into bigger,...
Smoke plumes from San Diego fires visible from space
Posted by LiveScience: Megan Gannon on May 16th, 2014
LiveScience: Smoke from wildfires raging in Southern California can be seen from space. In this satellite image, captured by NASA's Earth-watching Aqua spacecraft on Wednesday, May 14, sandy-colored plumes stretch out over the Pacific Ocean from San Diego County, where firefighters are battling intense blazes. The fire started Wednesday just north of San Diego, fueled by dry conditions, gusty winds and temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius). The blaze split into several separate fires...
Are California Wildfires Sign of Climate Change?
Posted by Union of Concerned Scientists: None Given on May 16th, 2014
Union of Concerned Scientists: The exceptional heat in Southern California and the dangerous wildfires occurring since May 13 may be a sign of climate change given their severity and timing. As of Friday, May 16, over 10,000 acres have burned throughout Southern California and several locations have surpassed previous temperature records.
The role of the Santa Ana winds
One factor key to both the heat and wildfires ravaging Southern California is the role of the Santa Ana winds. The Santa Ana is defined as strong, extremely...
El Niño threatens food crop yields – but scientists can predict ‘bad years’
Posted by Blue and Green: Ilaria Bertini on May 16th, 2014
Blue and Green: Warming and cooling trends caused by the climatic phenomena El Niño and La Niña could significantly reduce maize, rice and wheat yields by up to 4%, according to a new study.
El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a climate variation pattern that periodically occurs in South America. It triggers a stream of warm waters that cause extreme weather events, such as extreme rainfall and droughts. La Niña is its cooling equivalent.
A team of researchers has investigated the way in which these patterns...
Parched: A New Dust Bowl Forms in Heartland
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 16th, 2014
National Geographic: In Boise City, Oklahoma, over the catfish special at the Rockin' A Café, the old-timers in this tiny prairie town grouse about billowing dust clouds so thick they forced traffic off the highways and laid down a suffocating layer of topsoil over fields once green with young wheat.
They talk not of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, but of the duster that rolled through here on April 27, clocked at 62.3 miles per hour.
It was the tenth time this year that Boise City, at the western end of the Oklahoma...
An illustrated guide to our collapsing Antarctic glaciers
Posted by Quartz: Gwynn Guilford on May 16th, 2014
Quartz: Structurally critical glaciers from the West Antarctic ice sheet are disappearing way faster than we realized, two teams of scientists recently reported.
Their papers--one from NASA and the University of California, Irvine, the other from the University of Washington--both say there`s nothing we can do to stop it.
Here`s how the glaciers in question will collapse.
Topography
The West Antarctic ice sheet is located about 1,000 km (600 miles) southeast of Argentina`s southern tip. The bulk...
Report: Climate change affecting corporate bottom lines
Posted by Al Jazeera: Dexter Mullins on May 16th, 2014
Al Jazeera: Climate change isn’t just causing the ice caps to melt, it’s costing corporations big bucks and forcing some to factor its likely impact into their long-term plans.
A new report from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) released Friday says 63 of America’s S&P 500 companies are already paying to counter the effects of climate change. The past few years of extreme drought, stronger hurricanes and severe flooding have caused immense damage to some businesses’ core assets, requiring millions of dollars...