Archive for March 29th, 2015

Record heat in Antarctica

Mongabay: The temperature at a base in Antarctica hit a record high last week, reports Weather Underground. On March 24, 2015 Argentina's Esperanza Base reported a temperature of 63.5°F (17.5°C), which may be the warmest temperature ever recorded on the content. The previous high was set a day earlier at 63.3°F (17.4°C), according to a blog post by Christopher C. Burt. "The 17.5°C (63.5°F) temperature at Esperanza occurred just one day following a reading of 17.4°C (63.3°F) measured at Base Marambio...

Rise govt insurance rates to mirror rising waters, flood debt

Washington Post: At her small beach house that sits in a flood zone, Nancy Loft-Powers worries. The prospect of rising water, she said, isn’t what bothers her. It’s the expected rise in the cost of her $7,500 yearly flood insurance. “My insurance is more than my mortgage,” Loft-Powers said in a phone interview from her year-round home in Deerfield Beach, Fla., near Fort Lauderdale. “I live by the beach in an old neighborhood. I pay [too much] insurance for a crap house that’s not great.” This April Fool’s Day,...

Melting ice slows down ocean circulation

Living on Earth: The Atlantic Conveyor Belt is a system of ocean currents that bring warm temperatures and important nutrients to the waters off of East Coast America and Western Europe. But as global warming melts ice in Greenland, the influx of fresh water seems to be slowing the northward drift down and could shut the system down altogether. Climate scientist Michael Mann tells host Steve Curwood that could spell trouble for the ocean and the economy. Transcript CURWOOD: It's Living on Earth. I'm Steve Curwood....

Wildfires Tied to Drought, Heat & Topography, Not Beetles

Climate Central: In 2012, when the High Park Fire tore through a northern Colorado forest replete with dead trees left in the wake of a mountain pine beetle infestation, blame for the fire's spread across 87,000 acres was often placed primarily on the beetles. The High Park Fire, which killed one person and destroyed 259 homes, and the attention to the beetles in its wake were part of the impetus for a new University of Colorado study showing that bark beetle infestations and the dead trees they leave behind have...