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Archive for July 8th, 2015
Governor of drought-parched Oregon to order water usage review
Posted by Reuters: Shelby Sebens on July 8th, 2015
Reuters: Oregon's governor plans to order state agencies to review their water usage and to draft strategies to conserve water in the parched state, following similar moves in neighboring drought-stricken California, a spokesman said on Wednesday. Governor Kate Brown plans to issue the directive later this month and asked residents of the West Coast state on Wednesday to conserve water and for state agencies to help raise awareness of drought conditions, her office said. "Drought is a slow moving disaster,"...
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Why This Tea Party Congressman Wants Stop Debating Whether Climate Change Is Real Or Not
Posted by ThinkProgress: None Given on July 8th, 2015
ThinkProgress: For a Republican from Florida, Rep. Curt Clawson does not sound like a Republican from Florida - at least when it comes to human-caused climate change.
At a Homeland Security subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, the freshman Tea Party Congressman seemed to part ways with his colleagues on the polarizing issue. Instead of denying the science behind climate change, Clawson said he`d rather not have that debate, and instead talk about solutions.
"All the chatter about is climate change real or not,...
Wild fish ecosystems resist impact of biodiversity loss
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 8th, 2015
ScienceDaily: New mathematics model shows that as the fish diversity of complex marine food webs declines, fish production resists the change, masking ultimate rapid loss Fish are a main protein source for over a billion people worldwide and is one of the most traded food commodities. However, many commercial fisheries have become unsustainable due to practices such as overfishing and habitat destruction. A study conducted by the National University of Singapore (NUS), Queen's University Belfast (UK), the Marine...
Groundwater from aquifers important factor in food security
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 8th, 2015
ScienceDaily: Thirsty cities, fields and livestock drink deeply from aquifers, natural sources of groundwater. But a study of three of the most-tapped aquifers in the United States shows that overdrawing from these resources could lead to difficult choices affecting not only domestic food security but also international markets. University of Illinois professors of civil and environmental engineering Ximing Cai and Megan Konar, along with graduate student Landon Marston and Lehigh University professor Tara Troy,...
Record Warmth Continues to Bake U.S. West
Posted by Climate Central: Andrea Thompson on July 8th, 2015
Climate Central: The U.S. West is still baking. The temperatures for June are in and five Western states saw their warmest June ever (helping to make the month the second warmest June for the contiguous U.S.), and four continue to see their warmest year-to-date, just as 2015 hits the halfway mark. In drought-plagued California, “we’re beating the record set just last year” and “not by a razor thin margin,” Daniel Swain, a PhD student at Stanford University, said. The huge area of considerable warmth in the Pacific...
Two maps show Greenland’s sudden melt season onset
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 8th, 2015
Climate Central: After a cool spring kept Greenland's massive ice sheet mostly solid, a (comparatively) warm late June and early July have turned half the ice sheet's surface into liquid, well outside the range of normal for this time of year.
Despite the ice sheet's remote location, its slushy fingers reach across the globe, influencing sea levels and how fast the Gulf Stream current moves. As temperatures rise, its influence could grow larger as major summer melt events become regular occurrence. Recent warming...