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Archive for April 12th, 2015
Canada: Feds request provincial input to devise national climate plan
Posted by Globe and Mail: Shawn McCARTHY and Adrian Morrow on April 12th, 2015
Globe and Mail: This week could mark a turning point in Canada's struggle to shed its international image as a climate-change laggard, but could also lay bare the fault lines running through the country's attempts to deal with what many would argue is the defining environmental struggle of the century.
While Ontario will join Quebec in implementing cap and trade, British Columbia has instead opted for a simpler carbon tax. Saskatchewan, meanwhile, is looking to new green technologies. Alberta, for its part, is...
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Geoengineering projects around the world – map
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 12th, 2015
Guardian: ETC Group has produced a world map of geoengineering that represents the first attempt to document the expanding scope of research and experimentation in the large-scale manipulation of Earth or climate systems.
Volunteers helping study climate change in Joshua Tree
Posted by Desert Sun: Ian James on April 12th, 2015
Desert Sun: Carrying notebooks and GPS devices, researchers walked through the desert of Joshua Tree National Park conducting a scientific survey, methodically scanning the ground for lizards.
Leading the group were ecologists from UC Riverside. But the rest of the researchers were "citizen scientists" – volunteers from Maine, Minnesota and Canada who signed up through the Earthwatch Institute to support a week of scientific research in the desert.
The volunteers have been providing critical support for...
Canada: Beneath the tar sands is even dirtier oil, industry is salivating
Posted by Grist: None Given on April 12th, 2015
Grist: The price of crude oil has slumped to its lowest point in six years, and that has sent some major oil companies scrambling to get out of expensive tar-sands projects in Alberta, Canada. Shell has pulled out of one of its largest lease applications, and Petrochina is attempting to get rid of its tar-sands assets. Environmentalists have watched the slowdown with great hope.
Yet at the same time, some of those very same companies are positioning themselves to tap into an even more dirty and expensive...
When Climate Science Clashes With Real-World Policy
Posted by Climate Central: John Upton on April 12th, 2015
Climate Central: When a San Francisco panel began mulling rules about building public projects near changing shorelines, its self-described science translator, David Behar, figured he would just turn to the U.N.'s most recent climate assessment for guidance on future sea levels.
He couldn't.
Nor could Behar, leader of the city utility department's climate program, get what he needed from a 2012 National Research Council report dealing with West Coast sea level rise projections. A National Climate Assessment...
An oasis as drought turns lush California to desert
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 12th, 2015
Guardian: In Rancho Mirage, southern California, lush private gardens flourish in absurd contrast to the parched surrounding landscape. But green lawns like these are under threat, as the drought that has plagued the state since 2012 refuses to let up. In January last year, when rainfall figures for the preceding 12 months slumped to the lowest levels since records began in 1885, governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency. He is now enforcing residential water restrictions after another snowless winter....