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Archive for March 22nd, 2015
Calif Fourth Year Of Drought, New Regulations & $1 Billion In Relief
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2015
National Public Radio: KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: Winter is coming to an end here in California. And you would barely notice it ever happened. This January was the driest on record since the state started keeping records in 1895. That means we are entering year four of a major drought with no relief in sight. This week, California's governor, Jerry Brown, announced plans for a $1 billion drought-relief package. And state water officials introduced water-saving measures for homes and businesses. Molly Peterson has reported extensively...
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The Everglades’ Mammals Are Disappearing, and We Can Definitely Blame the Pythons
Posted by Nature World: None Given on March 22nd, 2015
Nature World: Researchers have long had anecdotal evidence that the mammal population in the Florida Everglades - a region famous for its wild and rich biodiversity - was on the decline. That's right, 'mammals' - as in all that's cute, furry, savage, and sly - ranging from skunks, to bats, to even bobcats. Now a new study has found the first concrete example of this decline, with invasive pythons named as the primary killers of the region's disappearing marsh rabbits.
If you know anything about rabbits, you...
Eden Project scheme preserve coast redwood trees future generations
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2015
Guardian: At the moment they are whippy saplings needing the support of canes to stand straight. Over hundreds – and hopefully thousands – of years, they will soar high into the Cornish sky.
Clones of some of the oldest and biggest coast redwoods have been flown in from the western seaboard of the USA to the Eden Project in the far south-west of Britain as part of a hugely ambitious scheme to preserve the magnificent trees for future generations.
Coast redwoods are the tallest living things on Earth,...
Monstrous melt: Distant Antarctica glaciers have scientists worried
Posted by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Editorial on March 22nd, 2015
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The great ice sheet of West Antarctica has begun sliding into what scientists believe is an irreversible collapse. It will take a century, but once glaciers that took tens of thousands of years to form are gone, the absence will result in a sea level rise in the Northern Hemisphere of at least 10 feet.
If this were the only scenario to worry about, it would be more than enough to qualify as a catastrophe. Unfortunately, West Antarctica isn't the only ice formation that may disappear from the bottom...
Welcome to ‘Double El Niño’ and more extreme weather
Posted by Public Radio International: None Given on March 22nd, 2015
Public Radio International: We’re about to experience a “double El Niño” -- a rare weather phenomenon that climatologists had warned about several months ago.
That means two consecutive years of the concentration of warm water in the Pacific Ocean that brings West Coast storms, quiet hurricane seasons in the Atlantic and busy ones in the Pacific. The danger is that this could mean more than a few months of odd weather, but instead usher in a new phase of climate change. Last year was the warmest year on record; 2015 looks...
Climate change: China official warns huge impact
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2015
BBC: Climate change could have a "huge impact" on China, reducing crop yields and harming the environment, the country's top weather scientist has warned, in a rare official admission.
Zheng Guogang told Xinhua news agency that climate change could be a "serious threat" to big infrastructure projects.
He said temperature rises in China were already higher than global averages.
China, the world's biggest polluter, has said its emissions of gases that cause climate change will peak by 2030.
However,...
Top China weather expert warns on climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2015
Agence France-Presse: China's top weather official has issued a stark warning on climate change, saying that rising temperatures could have "huge impacts" on the world's most populous country, state media reported Sunday.
Global climate change will reduce crop yields, lead to "ecological degradation" and create unstable river flows, Xinhua news agency quoted Zheng Guoguang, chief of China's Meteorological Administration, as saying.
"As the world warms, risks of climate change and climate disasters to China could...
Climate change threatens world iconic ecosystems
Posted by Zee News: None Given on March 22nd, 2015
Zee News: Without better local management, world's most iconic ecosystems are at risk of collapse under climate change, warn researchers.
Protecting places of global environmental importance such as the Great Barrier Reef and the Amazon rainforest from climate change will require reducing pressures like over-fishing, fertiliser pollution and land clearing, they said.
Writing in the journal Science, an international team of researchers warned that localised issues, such as declining water quality from...
Great Barrier Reef: Australian PM Tony Abbott saving World Heritage site his top priority
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 22nd, 2015
Independent: A plan to save Australia’s Great Barrier Reef from destruction was announced yesterday as Prime Minister Tony Abbott sought to persuade the United Nations that the World Heritage site was not “in danger”.
The reef has lost about 50 per cent of its coral in the past 30 years, due partly to ocean acidification caused by greenhouse gas emissions; the dumping of spoil from the dredging of sea channels; and pollution from agricultural chemicals. Plagues of venomous crown-of-thorns starfish, which eat...