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Archive for May 21st, 2015
Antarctic in ‘dramatic’ ice loss
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 21st, 2015
BBC: Satellites have seen a sudden dramatic change in the behaviour of glaciers on the Antarctica Peninsula, according to a Bristol University-led study.
The ice streams were broadly stable up until 2009, since when they have been losing on the order of 56 billion tonnes of ice a year to the ocean.
Warm waters from the deep sea may be driving the changes, the UK-based team says.
The details of the satellite research are published in Science Magazine.
They include more than 10 years of space...
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Santa Barbara Oil Spill Adds Pipeline Operator Dismal Safety Record
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 21st, 2015
National Public Radio: Texas-based Plains All American Pipeline is reported to have a number of previous infractions. One of the company's pipelines also spilled an estimated 10,000 gallons near Los Angeles a year ago.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
Near Santa Barbara, Calif., oil from a spilled pipeline now stretches across nine miles of Pacific Ocean coastline. The leak itself was stopped last Tuesday. Today, federal investigators are on the scene trying to pinpoint what caused it and why the line didn't automatically shut...
Elders Take Action on Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 21st, 2015
Huffington Post: Elders around the world may be our best hope for solving the "super wicked" problem of climate change. Short-term thinking created our current climate predicament. Despite warnings and predictions from the scientific community, the developed world spewed greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Given that problems, solutions, costs, and benefits play out over time frames spanning generations, the situation calls for intergenerational climate-change activism. Why would seniors enlist in the crusade?...
Climate: Limiting Future Warming 1.5°C Not Impossible
Posted by Nature World: None Given on May 21st, 2015
Nature World: It has been said that our lofty goal of preventing the world from warming an additional 2 degrees Celsius is utterly inadequate. After all, research has already shown that means to keep to this two-degree limit are slipping away. And yet, despite all the speculation, one new study says that it is even possible to limit future warming to a more ambitious goal of 1.5 degrees C by 2100.
That's at least from a purely technological standpoint, according to researchers at the International Institute...
Sudden and Rapid Ice Loss Discovered in Antarctica
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 21st, 2015
Agence France-Presse: The pace of climate change in Antarctica can now be measured in dog years.
Several massive glaciers in the southern Antarctic Peninsula suddenly started to crumble in 2009, a new study reports today (May 21) in the journal Science.
"Out of the blue, it's become the second most important contributor to sea level rise in Antarctica," said lead study author Bert Wouters, a remote sensing expert and Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.
The discovery means Antarctica's...
Glaciers in Antarctic thought stable suddenly melting massive rate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 21st, 2015
Independent: A sudden and massive melting of glaciers in a part of the Antarctic that was thought to be relatively stable has been detected by satellites monitoring the polar ice sheet, scientists have said.
Many glaciers in the Southern Antarctic Peninsula have become unstable since 2009, releasing vast amounts of ice into the sea equivalent to about 56bn tonnes of meltwater each year, the researchers said.
Multiple glaciers along a stretch of coastline 750km long have suddenly and consistently started...
Cleanup of oil-fouled California beach enters third day
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 21st, 2015
Reuters: Cleanup crews labored through a third day to scoop up patches of crude oil from a pipeline spill that closed two California state beaches and fouled offshore waters, shattering an environmental balance that U.S. Coast Guard officials said on Thursday may take months to restore.
Up to 2,500 barrels (105,000 gallons) of petroleum, according to latest estimates, gushed onto San Refugio State Beach and into the Pacific about 20 miles (32 km) west of Santa Barbara on Tuesday when an underground pipeline...
Safe long-term storage large amounts carbon dioxide in saline aquifers?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 21st, 2015
ScienceDaily: The carbon dioxide (CO2) at the Bravo Dome gas field in New Mexico is volcanic in origin, and its emplacement began more than a million years ago, not 10 thousand years ago, as previously estimated. Averaged across the reservoir, only 20% of the CO2 has dissolved into the field's saline brine over 1.2 million years, while the rest remains as a free gas trapped by the cap-rock, suggesting that safe long-term storage in geological sites is viable.
This study documents the first field evidence for...
California oil spill: Aerial images reveal devastation 100,000 gallons oil spills
Posted by Independent: Andrew Buncombe on May 21st, 2015
Independent: From the air the oil shimmers, dark and sinister. On the ground, it is sticky and foul. A series of images released by environmental activists have revealed the true crisis confronting a stretch of California coastline after more than 100,000 gallons of oil were leaked into the ocean. As Governor Jerry Brown issued an emergency proclamation declared to speed the dedication of resources to the area, clean-up teams north of Santa Barbara embarked on a third day of efforts to remove patches of oil....
Once-parched Texas city orders evacuation due to floods
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 21st, 2015
Reuters: A North Texas city that a few months ago was in a drought so severe that it had to recycle sewage water for drinking ordered residents on Thursday to evacuate certain areas due to flooding.
Wichita Falls, about 125 miles northwest of Dallas, issued a mandatory evacuation order for hundreds of residents in vulnerable neighborhoods due to rising water levels on the Wichita River.
Wichita Falls and other parts of Texas that had been in an extreme drought for about a year have had their water situation...