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Archive for May 18th, 2015
Study Finds Sun Belt Population Growth & Warming Climate Could Quadruple Exposure to Extreme Heat
Posted by New York Times: Andrew C. Revkin on May 18th, 2015
New York Times: A valuable study published this week in Nature Climate Change projects that exposure to extreme heat in the United States is likely to rise enormously by mid century, driven equally by demographic shifts boosting Sun Belt populations and projected changes in heat waves in a warming climate. Seth Borenstein at the Associated Press has written a nice summary of the research, undertaken by a multi-disciplinary team at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., and the City University...
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5 Reasons This Clearcut Nearly Half a Million Trees Is a Horrible Idea
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on May 18th, 2015
EcoWatch: The largest San Francisco Bay Area forest clearcut in 100 years will begin in August. An estimated 450,000 healthy, mature trees in the Oakland and Berkeley hills and county parklands will be cut down and chopped into logs and piles of wood chips. Included in the deforestation plan: 325 acres of trees in Tilden Regional Park 200 acres of trees in Anthony Chabot Regional Park 152 acres of trees in Claremont Canyon Preserve 162 acres of trees in Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve 112...
Protesters gather in Seattle to block access to Shell oil rig
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2015
Reuters: About 200 protesters gathered at the Port of Seattle on Monday to block access to a Royal Dutch Shell drilling rig headed for the Arctic this summer to resume exploration for oil and gas reserves.
Holding signs reading "Shell No" and "Seattle Loves the Arctic," protesters gathered early to prevent workers from reaching the rig, one of two that Shell will store in Seattle before sending to the Chukchi Sea off Alaska.
Environmental groups have planned days of demonstrations over Shell's plans,...
Low Snowpack Raising Drought Concerns Oregon & Washington
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2015
Yale Environment 360: While drought conditions in California and the southwestern U.S. have been dominating news headlines, Oregon and Washington could also soon be facing dangerously dry conditions due to low snowpack levels, as these photos show. Although the region has seen several months with average or just-below average precipitation, unusually warm temperatures on land and offshore led to most of that moisture arriving in the form of rain rather than snow. Like many parts of the western U.S. and Canada, the Pacific...
5 Signs the California Drought Could Get Worse
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on May 18th, 2015
EcoWatch: California is entering its fourth year of drought, with high temperatures, water shortages and increased wildfires. The state has taken some steps to address the impacts of that, including addressing greenhouse gas emissions and rationing its diminishing water supply. But there are signs that the impacts of drought on the state could get even worse.
1. A new study shows that if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at current rates, some parts of Los Angeles area could be experiencing temperatures...
Washington State Declares Drought Emergency
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2015
Huffington Post: Drought isn't just a California problem, folks. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee declared a statewide drought emergency on Friday, with snowpack and stream flows dramatically below normal.
“We’re really starting to feel the pain from this snowpack drought," Inslee said at a press conference. "Impacts are already severe in several areas of the state. Difficult decisions are being made about what crops get priority water and how best to save fish. ... We have some tough, challenging months ahead of us....
NASA: Massive Antarctic Ice Shelf Disappear Completely Few Years
Posted by ThinkProgress: None Given on May 18th, 2015
ThinkProgress: An Antarctic ice shelf roughly half the size of Rhode Island will disintegrate completely within the next few years, according to a NASA study released Thursday.
In 2002, two-thirds of the Larsen B Ice Shelf - which had been intact for more than 10,000 years - broke up in less than six weeks. The remaining portion of the ice shelf covers about 625 square miles along the Antarctic Peninsula, extending toward the southern tip of South America.
Using data collected from airborne surveys and radar,...
Bangladesh: Dhaka slum dwellers among most vulnerable climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 18th, 2015
Daily Star: The government should formulate a policy for bettering water and sanitation services in slums and coordinating relevant non-government organisations' activities, speakers told a workshop yesterday.
Stakeholders' collaboration will expedite the urban climate resilience process and reduce overlapping of activities, they said, adding that the five million slum dwellers in Dhaka were the most vulnerable to and affected by climate change.
The daylong workshop revealed findings of a research on these...
Canada plans to cut emissions by 30 percent by 2030
Posted by Associated Press: Rob Gillies on May 18th, 2015
Associated Press: Canada announced Friday it plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 amid international efforts to create a new framework for addressing climate change.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government said it formally submitted its target to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ahead of the major climate change conference in Paris in December.
The U.S. has committed to a 26 percent to 28 percent cut by 2025 from 2005 levels....
‘Disaster after disaster’ hits Marshall Islands climate change kicks in
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on May 18th, 2015
Al Jazeera: “They came and told us to evacuate to the next house, which is stronger, because there will be a flood. The tide went up to the front porch and I was scared because of the big waves,” said 7-year-old Keslynna Myo Sibok, a resident of Majuro, the capital of the Republic of the Marshall Islands -- a remote chain of 29 low-lying coral atolls and five islands that lies in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and has found itself on the front lines of climate change.
Keslynna sat in the front yard of her...