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Archive for July 10th, 2014
Safe Coast Virginia: Report outlines the climate change threat
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 10th, 2014
Daily Press: That's the nut of the latest report on the impact of climate change on Hampton Roads released Wednesday by the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
"Safe Coast Virginia: Climate Change Threats and Practical Solutions for Coastal Virginia" contains no big surprises, but CCAN director Mike Tidwell said it is the first to aggregate the latest science, tell the stories of real people experiencing climate change and recommend 10 achievable ways to mitigate and adapt to the inevitable impacts of a rising...
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As climate changes, world weather agency calls for new baseline
Posted by Age: Peter Hannam on July 10th, 2014
Age: The World Meteorological Organisation says it`s time to shift climate baselines because global warming is increasingly setting a new "normal" for weather conditions.
The widely used 1961-90 baseline should be retained as a "stable reference" for climate study but a more current data set -- updated every decade -- should be adopted to gauge changes in heatwave and rainstorm frequency already under way, the WMO said.
"Rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases are changing the Earth`s...
Loss of snowpack and glaciers in Rockies poses water threat
Posted by Yale 360: Ed Struzik on July 10th, 2014
Yale 360: When Rocky Mountain explorer Walter Wilcox hiked up to Bow Summit in Canada’s Banff National Park in 1896, he took a photo of a turquoise lake that later caught the eye of a National Geographic magazine editor. In the photo, which was eventually published, the glacier feeding the lake was just a mile upstream.
Since then, the snout of Peyto Glacier has receded more than three miles from the broad valley it carved out thousands of years ago. Remnants of ancient tree trunks the glacier bulldozed...
Climate change could affect your drinking water
Posted by Connection: Lisa Spinelli on July 10th, 2014
Connection: Drinking cups of clear tap water could be a luxury we are less likely to take for granted in the near future as climate-change culprits affect our waterways—and our water bills. #The increased development of Northern Virginia, along with agricultural uses, have been slowing down the Potomac’s fast-moving water for a number of years; add climate-change factors like rising air and water temperatures and we now have what the Shenandoah Riverkeeper Jeff Kelble calls a “double whammy” on the river. ...
No respite from ‘worst storm in decade’
Posted by Radio New Zealand: None Given on July 10th, 2014
Radio New Zealand: The storm has caused "millions of dollars" of damage to electricity networks after hurricane-force winds since Tuesday snapped concrete power poles and felled massive trees from Cape Reinga to Kaiwaka. A Far North farmer described it as the worst since Cyclone Bola in 1988. The MetService said on Thursday night that Northland could get up to 150 millimetres of rain between now and Saturday morning, as well as winds that could reach gale-force in exposed places. The winds are also likely to be strong...
Fracking could supply one third UK gas by 2035
Posted by RTCC: Megan Darby on July 10th, 2014
RTCC: Indigenous shale gas could provide more than a third of the UK’s gas supplies in 2035. If the UK fails to invest in gas production it will depend on imports for 90% of its supplies.
These were among the conclusions of National Grid’s latest Future Energy Scenarios report, published on Thursday. The owner and operator of the UK’s core gas and electricity networks, National Grid also has a strategic role in predicting patterns of energy supply and demand.
While National Grid is not directly involved...
Cities and businesses prepare for threat climate change poses to water
Posted by Guardian: Larissa Bulla on July 10th, 2014
Guardian: Cities are home to half the world's population and produce a staggering 80% of global GDP. As more of us continue to migrate to cities, these numbers are widely expected to grow. According to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), urban climate change risks are increasing too.
We are already witnessing the consequences of this. Last winter's historic flooding in England wreaked havoc on homes and businesses, costing small businesses alone some £830m and counting....
D.C. will feel like South Texas in summer by 2100 thanks to climate change, says report
Posted by Washington Post: Angela Fritz on July 10th, 2014
Washington Post: Washington D.C.`s summers are going to get a little warmer, according to a study by Climate Central.
Climate change will transport our already hot summer weather to an even hotter destination late this century, according to a new report from Climate Central on Wednesday.
The report examines projected summer temperatures in 2100 in 1,001 U.S. cities and matches them to locations in today`s climate they will most closely resemble.
Washington D.C. is in for quite a change, according to the...
Transgender Algae Shows how Males and Females Evolved Separately
Posted by Nature World: Jenna Iacurci on July 10th, 2014
Nature World: Using a certain type of "transgender" green algae, scientists have discovered the genetic origin of male and female sexes, showing how they evolved from a more primitive mating system into a single-celled relative.
Led by James Umen of the Enterprise Institute for Renewable Fuels at the Danforth Plant Science Center, the research team identified the master regulatory gene for sex determination in the multicellular alga Volvox carteri.
They discovered that it has acquired new functions compared...
Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining Decimates Fish Populations in Appalachia
Posted by EcoWatch: Matt Wasson on July 10th, 2014
EcoWatch: A study from researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) published this month provides strong new evidence that mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia is devastating downstream fish populations.
That’s hardly news for long-time followers of the controversy surrounding mountaintop removal, a coal mining practice that involves blowing off the tops of mountains to access thin seams of coal and dumping the waste into valleys below. In 2010, a group of 13 prestigious biologists published...