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Archive for June 15th, 2014
Refreezing Water Causes Weird Warps in Greenland’s Ice
Posted by Climate Central: Andrea Thompson on June 15th, 2014
Climate Central: The flat, glistening, white expanse of the Greenland Ice Sheet, stretching out across hundreds of thousands of square miles, appears placid, unchanging ... boring even. But this tranquil surface belies the turmoil taking place below, at the base of the ice sheet. There, scientists have discovered sections of ice up to a kilometer thick and tens of kilometers long where meltwater has refrozen to the base of the ice sheet, setting off a dynamic process that causes the layers of ice to build up over...
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Frozen underworld discovered beneath Greenland ice sheet
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 15th, 2014
Guardian: Scientists have discovered a frozen underworld beneath the ice sheet covering northern Greenland.
The previously unknown landscape, a vast expanse of warped shapes including some as tall as a Manhattan skyscraper, was found using ice-penetrating radar loaded aboard Nasa survey flights.
The findings and the first images of the frozen world more than a mile below the surface of the ice sheet are published on Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Scientists said the findings could deepen...
California wildfire prompts hundreds of home evacuations
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 15th, 2014
Reuters: Hundreds of firefighters on Sunday were battling a wildfire in southern California that prompted the evacuation of about 500 homes, local officials said. The Shirley Fire was only five percent contained and burning over 800 acres, sending smoke plumes across the Kern River Valley, about 130 miles (209 km) north east of Los Angeles. Mandatory evacuations of about 500 homes in proximity to the blaze northeast of the city of Bakersfield started Saturday, according to a statement from the Kern County...
Photographer Captures Drought Turn California Farms Into Kingdom of Dust
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 15th, 2014
National Geographic: Photographer Matt Black isn't just covering a story when he's capturing the lives and landscapes of California's historic drought. He's showing us how modern farming and natural forces are irrevocably altering his own childhood home.
Black grew up just outside Visalia in California's Central Valley, the rural agricultural area that is the increasingly dry heart of not just California, but also the nation's productive farmland. Back then, the region was rich in water resources for farming. "When...
Gov. Scott oil-drilling interests alarm Everglades environmentalists
Posted by Bradenton Herald: Steve Bousquet on June 15th, 2014
Bradenton Herald: Gov. Rick Scott’s six-figure stake in a French energy company is angering environmentalists because the firm is involved in oil drilling in Collier County near the Everglades. Scott and the Cabinet oversee the Department of Environmental Protection, which regulates oil drilling in Florida, and Scott has invested in businesses that could be regulated by DEP and other state agencies. Asked if he supports drilling in a county where he owns a $9.2 million home, Scott did not directly answer. He said:...
Global warming poses threat to Southwest water supply
Posted by Desert Sun: None Given on June 15th, 2014
Desert Sun: The biggest reservoir in the United States is dropping 1 foot each week. Lake Mead's rapidly sinking water level is set to reach an all-time low in July, driven down by a 14-year drought that scientists say is one of the most severe to hit the Colorado River in more than 1,200 years.
The water behind Hoover Dam supplies vast areas of farmland and about 25 million people in three states, and this critical reservoir stands just 40 percent full.
Droughts and even decades-long mega-droughts have...
Safer climate disasters
Posted by Project Syndicate: None Given on June 15th, 2014
Project Syndicate: Too often, participants in the climate-change debate make an erroneous distinction between protecting ourselves from the longer-term impact of global warming and better preparing ourselves against today’s extreme weather events. Recent reports from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have sought to break down this artificial divide. While seeking to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, we must work toward more effective disaster-risk management.
Adaptation to climate...
Dried up: poverty in America’s drought lands
Posted by Deseret News: Amy McDonald on June 15th, 2014
Deseret News: This story is part of the Deseret News National Edition, which focuses on the issues that resonate with American families.
In more than two decades working at a Central California food bank, Sandy Beals has never seen anything like this spring.
Last month alone, FoodLink of Tulare County served 22,000 people who came in for food - 5,000 more than it usually serves each month and a 12 percent increase from the same month last year. For Beals, who runs the food bank, the spike in hunger traces...
Calif: High-intensity oil extraction ban headed ballot
Posted by Santa Barbara Independent: Lyz Hoffman on June 15th, 2014
Santa Barbara Independent: Seven months and one day removed from their controversial approval of Santa Maria Energy’s 136 cyclic steam injection wells, the Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Friday to place a measure on the November ballot that would ban new cyclic steaming, hydraulic fracturing, and acidizing operations in the unincorporated areas of the county. Although the four-hour hearing’s conclusion was foregone — it was either put the initiative on the ballot or adopt it outright — its messages...
India’s plant, animal species under severe threat: Govt report
Posted by Outlook: None Given on June 15th, 2014
Outlook: India's plant and animal species, particularly in the global biodiversity hotspots of Himalayas, Western Ghats, Northeast and the Nicobar Islands, are under severe threat due to overexploitation, forest fires and climate change, says an official report.
The Environment Ministry report, came out in the midst of raging debate between environmental protection and industrial growth, rings alarm bells over destruction of forest and biodiversity in the country, which is home to 45,000 species of plants...