Archive for August, 2014

Rich nations have moral duty to help island nations as climate change shifts weather patterns

Sydney Morning Herald: Small island nations, particularly those in the Pacific, are already experiencing "extreme effects" from global warming, and rich nations including Australia have a "moral responsibility" to help them cope with future unavoidable threats, a senior World Bank executive said. Atoll nations including Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands are seeing shifting rainfall patterns, rising sea-levels and ocean acidification that are forcing islanders to move, said Rachel Kyte, the World Bank's special...

‘Ban Fracking in North Carolina’

Stokes News: An occasionally raucous crowd of nearly 450 sent a message to Raleigh Monday: Ban Fracking in North Carolina. In rapid sequence, with no breaks, for four solid hours, 84 speakers appeared before the members of the NC Mining and Energy Commission in Reidsville, to comment on the state`s proposed rules on Oil and Gas exploration. The theme was apparent: Either ban oil and gas drilling entirely, or write a better set of rules to protect citizens more than drillers. Or, as one speaker said, "Make...

A climate for change

Berkshire Eagle: Modest efforts to confront human-caused global warming are being overwhelmed by the pace of climate change, according to a draft of a major United Nations report to be released this fall. This conclusion is hardly surprising given what was already known. What would be surprising if there was meaningful reaction to it not sabotaged by politics. A copy of the draft report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was obtained by The New York Times, and while the report could change in the weeks...

Fires and drought have transformed New Mexico forests

Las Cruces News: Gambel oak and other shrubs whose roots survived a lightning-sparked wildfire in 2013 sprout on many slopes once dominated by ponderosa pines. Black, mangled masses of wood and dead barley plants loom over the new growth, which also includes aspens, grass and wildflowers. The barley grew last fall from seeds the U.S. Forest Service dropped to minimize erosion after the Silver Fire. Pines survived in many areas within the 139,000-acre burn scar. But in other places, the trees were incinerated --...

Local salamanders could shed light on life under climate change

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Does a rough life as a youngster foretell hard times as an adult? A Virginia Commonwealth University researcher wants to know if that’s true -- for salamanders. Doctoral student Julie Charbonnier is studying whether deprivation in early life affects how the little amphibians might fare in a world changed by global warming. “How does your childhood impact you later in life?” asked Charbonnier, summarizing the work. The object of her attention is the spotted salamander, a dark little cigar...

Amid oil and gas boom, Colorado continues role as earthquake lab

Denver Post: University of Colorado researcher Will Yeck checks seismometers where he is monitoring activity around Greeley in the wake of a May 31 earthquake there. Some in the area believe the earthquake, at 3.2 magnitude, may have been caused by wastewater injection wells used in fracking. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)Aug 23:Let's make a deal: How Colorado came to a fracking compromiseAug 7:Colorado commission votes to pull lawsuit over Longmont oil, gas ruleAug 5:Six petitions seeking Colorado ballot measures...

Corporate farms get blame as key water-pollution culprit

Blade: Perhaps former President Theodore Roosevelt said it best when he addressed a Buffalo audience in 1910, most likely in his trademark fist-pounding, cantankerous style. "Civilized people,' Mr. Roosevelt said, "should be able to dispose of sewage in a better way than by putting it into drinking water.' Hailed by historians as a key ally of naturalist John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club, during the fledgling days of the American conservation movement, Mr. Roosevelt was no doubt using that...

Drought conditions cause record years fSouthern Calif lifeguards

Press Telegram: The endless summer. That’s what lifeguards are calling the past 12 months. As the hot and dry weather parches the state, people are fleeing to the beach. Southern California guards are rescuing swimmers at record levels. Beaches are hitting capacity. Unusually warm water and large swells have amplified the crowds and danger. Guards are manning the towers more, even during typically mellow months, and taxpayers must cover a burgeoning overtime bill. Los Angeles County beaches in 2014 saw...

California Drought Threatens Nation’s Most Productive Farming Valley

NBC: In the rich farmland of the San Joaquin Valley it's summertime , peak growing season for many crops. But every sunbaked, scorching day brings another test of water reserves in a region running on empty. The dearth of irrigation water from rivers or reservoirs has forced growers in the valley 80 miles north of Los Angeles to rely almost entirely on water pumped from wells. "I'm worried from a couple of standpoints," said grower Stuart Woolf, as he stood in a field of tomatoes at harvest time....

Will Climate Change Denialism Help the Russian Economy?

Inter Press Service: The recent call from Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev for "tightening belts" has convinced even optimists that something is deeply wrong with the Russian economy. No doubt the planned tax increases (introduction of a sales tax and increases in VAT and income tax) will inflict severe damage on most businesses and their employees, if last year's example of what happened when taxes were raised for individual entrepreneurs is anything to go by - 650,000 of them were forced to close their businesses....