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Archive for September 13th, 2015
Canada: B.C. needs think globally on climate change, group warns
Posted by Globe and Mail: Mark Hume on September 13th, 2015
Globe and Mail: In the grips of a record drought, with our forests burning and our salmon rivers running as warm as tap water, British Columbians are acutely aware that climate change is a big problem.
It could be argued the province is doing more than most about it, having implemented a carbon tax as early as 2008, and with Premier Christy Clark last spring appointing a climate leadership team to provide advice on "how to maintain B.C.'s climate leadership."
But a new paper by the Environmental Law Centre...
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In the tropics, warmest August in the satellite temperature record
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 13th, 2015
ScienceDaily: Driven by a growing El Niño Pacific Ocean warming event, temperatures around the globe continued to rise through August, setting a new August record in the tropics for the satellite record, said Dr. John Christy, director of the Earth System Science Center at The University of Alabama in Huntsville. Temperatures in the tropics averaged 0.52 C (about 0.94° F) warmer than seasonal norms in August, surpassing the previous record of +0.46 C set in August 1998. Globally it was the third warmest August...
Making pharmaceuticals that degrade before they can contaminate drinking water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 13th, 2015
ScienceDaily: In recent years, researchers have realized that many products, including pharmaceuticals, have ended up where they're not supposed to be -- in our drinking water. But now scientists have developed a way to make drugs that break down into harmless compounds before they contaminate our taps. Their report appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology. A wide range of active ingredients originating from pesticides, shampoos, lotions, cosmetics, disinfectants and drugs get washed into sewage...
Climate Change Morphs Ecosystems In ‘Blink’ Of Geologic Time
Posted by St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Paul Ebeling on September 13th, 2015
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: As atmospheric CO2 (carbon dioxide) levels continue to rise, enormous tree-planting campaigns are often touted among ways humans can try and limit climate change. In Africa, where some regions have been seen as ideal for this type of project, Guy Midgley has a message: “Hang on.” The botany and zoology professor at Stellenbosch University in South Africa explained that trees are already moving into African grasslands. Higher levels of carbon dioxide are beginning to change those ecosystems into...
Climate research: Where is the world’s permafrost thawing?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 13th, 2015
ScienceDaily: This Saturday at a conference in Quebec, Canada an international research team will present the first online data portal on global permafrost. In the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (http://gtnp.arcticportal.org/) researchers first collect all the existing permafrost temperature and active thickness layer data from Arctic, Antarctic and mountain permafrost regions and then make it freely available for download. This new portal can serve as an early warning system for researchers and decision-makers...
How to survive the end of the world
Posted by News.com.au: None Given on September 13th, 2015
News.com.au: TSUNAMIS, cyclones, raging fires and epidemics. We keep hearing about all the ways the world could implode at any second.
But most of us haven`t even thought about preparing for the worst.
With natural disasters an inevitability, environmental experts say being ready isn`t just for the paranoid.
Melbourne authors Jane Rawson and James Whitmore have co-written The Handbook, a practical guide for surviving the apocalypse, or something close. They say we need to think seriously about these...
Sierra wildfire destroys homes, threatens 6,400 California residences
Posted by Reuters: Alex Dobuzinskis on September 13th, 2015
Reuters: Four firefighters were injured on Saturday in a fast-moving wildfire in Northern California that forced the evacuation of thousands of people, officials said. The firefighters suffered second-degree burns as they battled the so-called Valley Fire, in Lake County, north of San Francisco, said Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant. The Valley Fire broke out on Saturday afternoon and quickly spread to 10,000 acres (4,047 hectares), the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said...