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Archive for December, 2014
Losing Paradise: Climate change is changing Mount Rainier
Posted by Olympian: None Given on December 21st, 2014
Olympian: If the scientists are right, the end is near for a Northwest treasure — at least as we know it.
Climate change is melting Mount Rainier’s glaciers at six times the historic rate.
For years now, the melting has sent floods of water and rock pounding down the mountain, filling up rivers, killing old-growth forests and endangering historic national park buildings.
The glacial outbursts also are tearing up the roads that provide access to the park’s wonders, testing the National Park Service...
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Managing Mount Rainier’s problems: The old ways no longer work
Posted by Bellingham Herald: Rob Carson on December 21st, 2014
Bellingham Herald: Warned by geologists that the South Tahoma Glacier is aimed like a fire hose at the main entrance to Mount Rainier National Park, the National Park Service responded this summer with a traditional approach. Just past the log archway at the park’s Nisqually entrance, where outfall from the glacier crosses the main entrance road, contractors replaced a big culvert with a bigger one. The new culvert is enormous — tall enough inside for a regulation-height basketball hoop with room left over for dunks....
Mount Rainier: Case study of a changing Earth
Posted by Bellingham Herald: Rob Carson on December 21st, 2014
Bellingham Herald: At the foot of the Nisqually Glacier, the roar of rushing water and grinding rock is so loud you have to shout to be heard.
Water bursts from an ice cave the size of an aircraft hangar, its arched roof dripping in the sun. Flurries of stones clatter down canyon walls.
Paul Kennard, a National Park Service geomorphologist here with a team of researchers using laser scanners to locate the volume and sources of rock coming off the glacier, wears a helmet for protection against stones streaking...
Climate models can’t read the story of Rainier
Posted by Bellingham Herald: Rob Carson on December 21st, 2014
Bellingham Herald: Global climate models agree that temperatures will rise in the Pacific Northwest through the 21st century. But making specific and accurate predictions for an area as small and unusual as Mount Rainier National Park is beyond the scope of current climate knowledge and computing power. The park is essentially a square that measures about 20 miles on a side, with a mountain in the middle. Global climate models — mathematical representations expressed in computer code — are broad overviews that offer...
Signals India ecological laws being diluted under current govt worrying
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 21st, 2014
NDTV: Former environment minister Jairam Ramesh has said he is worried that ecological laws are being violated under the current government.
"If we are going to dismantle the entire edifice of environmental laws and regulations, as this government seems to be doing, then what conviction and credibility will we carry internationally on climate change I don't know," Mr Ramesh told NDTV.
Raising his concerns about the TSR Subramanium committee report, which was appointed by the government to have a...
Park both protected and burdened
Posted by Olympian: None Given on December 21st, 2014
Olympian: If you’ve ever driven into Mount Rainier National Park through the Nisqually entrance, you might know the feeling.
As you pass beneath the massive log arch and begin easing your car through tree-lined curves, there’s a sense of entering another reality.
Susan Dolan says she always feels it.
“Every time I drive through that entrance, I feel touched by the legacy,” said Dolan, who manages the Cultural Landscapes Program for the National Park Service from her office in Seattle.
The feeling...
Answer on human-caused climate change is in
Posted by Sacramento Bee: Peter H. Gleick on December 21st, 2014
Sacramento Bee: As our planet warms, scientists and the general public are increasingly asking if human-caused climate change influences the extreme weather events we see all around us. Until recently, the answer was always “we don’t know yet.” Today, the answer is increasingly “yes.” Earth is in a remarkable transition from a world in which human influence on climate has been negligible to one in which our influence is increasingly dominant. One of the most active research areas in the climate sciences is the...
First U.S. Coal Ash Rule Disappoints Environmental Groups
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on December 21st, 2014
Environment News Service: The first national regulations to provide for the safe disposal of the ash left after burning coal to produce electricity were announced Friday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
After years of delaying action on issuing a coal ash rule, the EPA was under a court order to issue new safeguards by December 19. On that date, the final rule for coal combustion waste was issued under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
The National Resources Defense Council, NRDC, and other environmental...
New York fracking ban is bad news shale gas producers
Posted by Rediff: None Given on December 21st, 2014
Rediff: A ban on fracking by the New York state is a small setback for India's largest private firm, Reliance Industries, which has invested $7 billion in US shale gas.
On Thursday, the New York state banned fracking for health reasons. It said fracking, with horizontal drilling and chemical-laced water, could increase the risk of cancer, skin rashes, and upper respiratory tract problems.
If the rest of the states in the US follow, it could put billions of dollars of investment at risk.
Analysts...
Fracking ban reflects power of committed citizens
Posted by Poughkeepsie Journal: Jimmy Buff on December 20th, 2014
Poughkeepsie Journal: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead
New Yorkers were treated to a front-row seat of Mead’s words in actions last week when, after years of fighting, fracking was banned here. And while the anti-fracking movement had grown large and loud, it began with a few individuals and groups who managed to forestall a headlong rush into an action that could have had irreversible consequences for...