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Archive for June 19th, 2015
Excerpts from Pope Francis encyclical on the environment
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 19th, 2015
Reuters: Pope Francis on Thursday issued a major encyclical on the environment, called "Laudato Si (Praise Be), On the Care of Our Common Home". Here are some key excerpts from the official English version:
ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND ITS CAUSES
"In recent decades this warming has been accompanied by a constant rise in the sea level and, it would appear, by an increase of extreme weather events, even if a scientifically determinable cause cannot be assigned to each particular phenomenon. Humanity is called...
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2015 is likely to beat 2014 as the warmest year on record
Posted by Mashable: None Given on June 19th, 2015
Mashable: The Earth just had its warmest May on record, hottest spring and mildest year-to-date, according to new data released Thursday. The climate statistics indicate the year is on course to set another milestone for the warmest year on record, surpassing the previous warmest year, set in 2014.
The data, released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), also bolsters the clarion call for climate action released by Pope Francis, since they are a sign of longterm warming caused by...
Will Pope Francis’s climate message break through where others have failed?
Posted by Science: Marianne Lavelle on June 19th, 2015
Science: The leader of the world's largest Christian faith might succeed in doing something that many experts have failed to achieve: communicating the urgency of global warming. That’s one reaction Pope Francis’s encyclical on climate change and the environment, Laudato Si ("Praised Be"), released today. It includes a call for "a new dialogue" on the planet's future, an accessible summary of climate science, a stinging critique of international talks that have produced ineffectual environmental agreements,...
Senate panel advances $30B bill that targets EPA rules
Posted by Hill: Rebecca Shabad on June 19th, 2015
Hill: The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday advanced a $30.01 billion spending bill that takes aim at President Obama’s environmental regulations.
The bill would fund the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Interior Department for fiscal 2016, which begins Oct. 1, by $400 million below the level Congress enacted for 2015 and $2.2 billion less than Obama’s request.
Lawmakers voted 16-14 to advance the bill to the Senate floor. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), the ranking member on the...
Drought devastates cherry crop, puts some growers out of business
Posted by LA Times: Louis Sahagun on June 19th, 2015
LA Times: A winter heat wave, late frosts and mandatory water restrictions devastated this year's Leona Valley cherry crop.
A winter heat wave, late frosts and mandatory water restrictions devastated this year's Leona Valley cherry crop.
Dave Shields started the engine of his tractor on a recent weekday and began toppling the hundreds of drought-stricken cherry trees he and his wife planted 15 years ago in this north Los Angeles County foothills community.
A winter heat wave, late frosts and marauding...
EPA defends controversial biofuels program at Senate hearing
Posted by Reuters: Chris Prentice on June 19th, 2015
Reuters: The U.S. environmental regulator on Thursday defended its handling of the nation's controversial renewable fuels program at a congressional hearing, the first since its new biofuels targets last month provoked a furor among corn farmers and oil refiners.
At the hearing by the Senate subcommittee on regulatory affairs and federal management, U.S. lawmakers criticized the agency for years-long delays to quotas and for last month setting unattainable targets for the amount of corn-based ethanol and...
Championing environment, Francis takes aim global capitalism
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 19th, 2015
New York Times: The encyclical on the environment that Pope Francis released on Thursday is as much an indictment of the global economic order as it is an argument for the world to confront climate change. It offers blistering criticism of 21st-century capitalism, expressing skepticism about market forces, criticizing consumerism and cautioning about the costs of growth. But where Francis’ environmental and economic agendas meet, he leaves something of a paradox, and ammunition potentially for both sides in the...
This Land Was Made for You and Me … And Fracking?
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on June 19th, 2015
EcoWatch: This week in Colorado, the BLM launched a scoping process—a “big picture” project evaluation designed to inform the public and solicit feedback before the agency drafts the RMP for Colorado’s Front Range. Sadly, BLM’s public process seems fatally flawed from the start. The seven scheduled hearings are far removed from the majority of Coloradans who will be affected by the new plans. For example, the BLM failed to schedule a scoping hearing in Denver, the state’s most populous city, which gets 40...
Alaska’s Heat Wave Ignites Fires as Glaciers Rapidly Melt
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on June 19th, 2015
EcoWatch: Climate change has caused Alaska’s glaciers to melt so quickly that a one-foot thick layer of water could completely cover the entire state of Alaska every seven years, according to a new study. Alaskan glaciers have lost 75 billion metric tons of ice every year from 1994 through 2013, The Washington Post's Chris Mooney reported from the study, which was recently accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. Mooney also reported...
NOAA: Hottest Spring and Hottest Year to Date on Record
Posted by EcoWatch: Cole Mellino on June 19th, 2015
EcoWatch: This past May was the hottest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). "The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for May 2015 was the highest for May in the 136-year period of record, at 0.87°C (1.57°F) above the 20th century average of 14.8°C (58.6°F)," said NOAA. This breaks the previous record, which was set last May. Latest global temperature data are breaking records http://t.co/2KE9n5zs1X 2015 still hottest year to date...