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Archive for June 22nd, 2015
To Increase Disaster Aid, Do Not Mention Global Warming
Posted by ClimateWire: Manon Verchot on June 22nd, 2015
ClimateWire: Charities looking for donations after a natural disaster may want to avoid linking the disaster to climate change, a study from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, suggests.
Researchers found that climate change skeptics are more likely to justify withholding aid if a drought, typhoon or flood is attributed to climate change than if appeals for aid do not mention the phenomenon.
"What our work suggests is that when a disaster occurs and organizations are appealing to the public for aid,...
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What would Pope Francis do?
Posted by InsideClimate: John H. Cushman Jr. on June 22nd, 2015
InsideClimate: The Holy Father doesn’t give carbon credits or air conditioners his imprimatur. He favors a legally binding climate treaty tailored to the needs of the poor. And he has guidance on natural gas, boycotts, and paying the social costs of carbon. Fifty-five paragraphs into his wide-ranging encyclical on the global environment and the climate crisis, Pope Francis arched an ecclesiastical eyebrow at how much air conditioning you are using. "People may well have a growing ecological sensitivity," he wrote,...
Climate review promised after dispute with top water scientists
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 22nd, 2015
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A major review of the risks of climate change in the Murray Darling Basin is likely within the next seven years. The proposed timeline has been revealed to RN Breakfast after a dispute between the Murray Darling Basin Authority and some of Australia's leading water scientists over the predicted drying of the basin in the coming decades. The scientists say that the $11 billion Murray Darling Basin Plan doesn’t currently take into account the lower average rainfall patterns and more frequent and...
California climate plan has inland condemning coastal elitism
Posted by Bloomberg: Esmé E Deprez on June 22nd, 2015
Bloomberg: The way inland California lawmakers see it, the only benefit to their constituents from Governor Jerry Brown’s expansion of carbon pollution laws will be cleaner air to breathe as they wait at the unemployment office. Brown and other Democrats are pushing legislation to reduce greenhouse gases caused by burning fossil fuels to a fraction of what they were a quarter-century ago. The state would make utilities get a greater share of electricity from low-pollution sources, compel industries to cut...
Tribe sues US Department of Interior over fracking
Posted by Durango Herald: Ann Butler on June 22nd, 2015
Durango Herald: The Southern Ute Indian Tribe filed a lawsuit against the Department of the Interior on Thursday, challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s new hydraulic fracturing rule.
The rule, which is set to go into effect Wednesday, also is the subject of suits filed earlier this month, including a joint suit by the states of Colorado, Wyoming and North Dakota, as well as another filed by the Western Energy Alliance and Independent Petroleum Producers on behalf of 46 trade associations and royalty-owners...
Santa Barbara’s cautious relationship with water offers drought lesson
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 22nd, 2015
LA Times: First came the rain garden, where bees buzz around the lavender and sage. Then came the back patio, where bananas, guava, passion fruit, ginger and an herb garden are fed by water diverted from the clothes washer.
Later came the raised beds thick with kale, chard, strawberries and several varieties of squash. Finally, the native bentgrass, spread like a pale green carpet across the frontyard.
This is the home of Amy Steinfeld and Cameron Clark, a married couple who bought a 1905 Victorian farmhouse...
Climate change forecasts warmer & drier Australia
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on June 22nd, 2015
Sydney Morning Herald: How will climate change affect where I live?
That's the subject of intense research around the world, as scientists try to predict how increasing levels of greenhouse gases – and the additional heat they trap from the sun – will alter the climate of different regions.
For most regions of Australia, the climate will become warmer and drier, according to research by the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO. For most centres, that's akin to shifting northwards, or in Canberra's case, to a lower...
Looking for the fingerprints of climate changes on today’s extreme weather
Posted by Age: Tom Arup on June 22nd, 2015
Age: A heatwave strikes the city. Temperatures rise well over 40 degrees for several consecutive days. Train tracks buckle. Trees wilt. Lives are at risk. Sure, summers in the city are typically hot. But this seems a little more intense than most, and something similar happened just last year. Is this climate change? That's the question increasingly being asked by communities around the world as droughts, heatwaves and floods bring devastation to their door. For a long time, climate scientists had...
How California’s Drought Could Spur Ecological Rebirth
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 22nd, 2015
Guardian: Jennifer and Lawrence Kesteloot like to begin the day with breakfast in their San Francisco backyard garden. For the last several months, they’ve had guests: iridescent green-and-red Anna’s hummingbirds, drawn by wildflowers planted to replace what had been dead brown turf grass and concrete.
The Kesteloots hadn’t considered hummingbirds when imagining their garden. Mostly they were concerned about not using much water amidst the deprivations and uncertainties of California’s drought.
Related:...
Typhoon to hit China’s Hainan, seen easing drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 22nd, 2015
Reuters: The first typhoon of the year to hit China is expected to make landfall on or near the southern island of Hainan on Monday, which should help ease a severe drought on the tourist center and rubber producer, state news agency Xinhua said.
Typhoon Kujira will sweep over the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea before hitting land somewhere between Wanning on Hainan and Zhanjiang in the neighboring province of Guangdong, bringing strong winds and heavy rainfall, Xinhua said late on Sunday.
It...