Archive for July 26th, 2015

Alaska’s terrifying wildfire season and what it says about climate change

Washington Post: Hundreds of wildfires are continually whipping across this state this summer, leaving in their wake millions of acres of charred trees and blackened earth. At the Fairbanks compound of the state’s Division of Forestry recently, workers were busy washing a mountain of soot-covered fire hoses, which stood in piles roughly six feet high and 100?feet long. About 3,500 smokejumpers, hotshot crews, helicopter teams and other workers have traveled to Alaska this year from across the country and Canada....

Climate catastrophes: worst-case scenarios

Discovery: Climate change is a global reality. Extreme weather events are taking a toll on the daily lives of people around the world. If climate change is already fueling powerful storms, long-lasting droughts and more frequent floods, what will the future look like? James Hansen, the former NASA scientist who helped first raise awareness of the issue of climate change in his testimonies before Congress in 1988, sounded the alarm this week in a grim and controversial report that predicts catastrophic from...