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Archive for May 30th, 2015
Conservationists Warn Hunting, Development Threaten New Species
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 30th, 2015
National Public Radio: Crawford Allan of TRAFFIC, an anti-wildlife trafficking organization, tells NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates that the rarity of some of these species in Southeast Asia make them desirable to illegal trade.
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Sir Ranulph Fiennes calls urgent action on climate change after witnessing Arctic melting
Posted by Independent: Tom Bawden on May 30th, 2015
Independent: Sir Ranulph Fiennes has added his voice to calls for urgent action to tackle climate change after seeing the effects of warming on the planet first-hand during trips to the Arctic. Sir Ranulph, the first to cross Antarctica on foot as well as to visit both the North and South Poles by surface, said it would be “suicide” to put commercial interests over global warming. He said he knows from personal experience that the warming climate has significantly changed the landscape of the Arctic, melting...
Protecting Mauna Kea: Notes From the Summit
Posted by San Diego Free Press: None Given on May 30th, 2015
San Diego Free Press: I went to the Thirty Meter Telescope construction site near the summit of Mauna Kea for the first time, today. Four-wheel drive is recommended for the road that twists steeply with hairpin turns up the Mountain, so ten of us piled into a Kanaka uncle’s (older native Hawaiian man’s) pick-up truck to go see the summit. Leaving from the visitor center parking lot at 9,200 feet the road ascends over 5,000 feet to an elevation close to 14,000. While my ears popped, my sense of wonder grew. Conversations...
More flooding in Texas after week of storms
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 30th, 2015
Reuters: Rain showers caused flooding on roads in parts of Texas early on Saturday, an official said, after severe weather killed at least 21 people earlier in the week, prompting U.S. President Obama to declare a disaster in the state.
Texas has endured record rainfall for the month of May. This week, flooding turned streets into rivers, ripped homes off their foundations, swept over thousands of vehicles and trapped people in cars and houses.
Obama signed a disaster declaration late on Friday to free...
More heavy rain soaks Texas as it grapples with floods have killed 28
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 30th, 2015
Guardian: The Dallas-Fort Worth area saw another round of heavy rain on Saturday, as Texas tried to recover from flooding and heavy storms that have left at least 28 people dead there and in Oklahoma, prompting President Obama to sign a disaster declaration.
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a flash flood warning until 8.45am Saturday for Johnson and Tarrant counties. There were no immediate reports of rescues on Saturday morning.
Rivers around the Dallas area have all swelled in the last week....
California’s snowpack: Now zero percent of normal—a worst case scenario for state’s water supply
Posted by Slate: None Given on May 30th, 2015
Slate: California's current megadrought hit a shocking new low this week: On Thursday, the state's snowpack officially ran out. At least some measurable snowpack in the Sierra mountains usually lasts all summer. But this year, its early demise means that runoff from the mountains--which usually makes up the bulk of surface water for farms and cities during the long summer dry season--will be essentially non-existent. To be clear: there's still a bit of snow left, and some water will be released from reservoirs...
Alaska recorded its hottest temperature so early in the season Memorial Day weekend
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 30th, 2015
Washington Post: In decades of weather records, Alaska had never seen a temperature above 90F before May 23. But this Saturday, the small city of Eagle – about 200 miles east of Fairbanks – soared to 91 degrees, the hottest temperature ever recorded so early in the calendar year in our 49th state.
Eagle joined a host of other weather stations in Alaska’s interior that set record highs Saturday, including Fairbanks which climbed to 86.
Between May 16 and May 24, Eagle hit 80 or higher for a remarkable 9 straight...
This has been a month of extreme weather around the world
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 30th, 2015
Associated Press: Even for a world getting used to wild weather, May seems stuck on strange. Torrential downpours in Texas that have whiplashed the region from drought to flooding. A heat wave that has killed more than 1,800 people in India. Record 91-degree readings in Alaska, of all places. A pair of top-of-the-scale typhoons in the Northwest Pacific. And a drought taking hold in the East. “Mother Nature keeps throwing us crazy stuff,” Rutgers University climate scientist Jennifer Francis says. “It’s just been...
Earth’s 5th deadliest heat wave in recorded history kills 1,826 in India
Posted by Weather Underground: Jeff Masters on May 30th, 2015
Weather Underground: The death toll from India's horrid May heat wave has risen to 1,826, making this year's heat wave the second deadliest in India's recorded history--and the fifth deadliest in world history. According to statistics from EM-DAT, the International Disaster Database, India's only deadlier heat wave was in 1998, when 2,541 died. With over 400 deaths recorded in just the past day and the heat expected to continue over India for another week, the 1998 death toll could well be exceeded in this year's heat...
The Quest to Quench World’s Thirst for Water
Posted by Guardian: Chris Johnston on May 30th, 2015
Guardian: The average Briton uses 150 liters of water a day; the average American gets through 570 liters (150 gallons) of the stuff. The world is getting thirstier and the global demand for fresh water is rising by 640 billion liters (169 billion gallons) a year. Population growth is one factor, not only the need for drinking water and sanitation but also the need to produce more food. Agriculture accounts for 70 percent of water use. Even the push for biofuels to reduce consumption of fossil fuels has...