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Archive for February 23rd, 2016
Antarctica could be headed for major meltdown
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 23rd, 2016
ScienceDaily: In the early Miocene Epoch, temperatures were 10 degrees warmer and ocean levels were 50 feet higher -- well above the ground level of modern-day New York, Tokyo and Berlin. It was more than 16 million years ago, so times were different. But there was one important similarity with the world we live in today: The air contained about the same amount of carbon dioxide. That parallel raises serious concerns about the stability of ice sheets in Antarctica, according to a study published in the Proceedings...
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Gas industry slow to sign up for voluntary methane cuts
Posted by Reuters: Valerie Volcovici on February 23rd, 2016
Reuters: The head of the U.S. natural gas industry group responsible for persuading companies to voluntarily report their methane emissions says he has not seen - and does not expect to see - a high number of companies participating in the program. "Right now I will say that market forces kind of militate against a ton of people jumping-up to be proactive," said Tom Michels, executive director of One Future, a coalition of companies from across the natural gas sector that aims to self-regulate methane emissions....
Devastating global coral bleaching event could hit Great Barrier Reef next
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 23rd, 2016
Guardian: The third global coral bleaching event to be recorded is snaking its way around a warming globe, devastating reefs and now threatening the world-heritage listed Great Barrier Reef.
This week it was announced the bleaching event, which began in 2014, is already the longest in history and could extend well into 2017. “We may be looking at a two- to two-and-a-half-year-long event. Some areas have already seen bleaching two years in a row,” says Mark Eakin, coordinator of the Coral Reef Watch program...
Increased flooding in US coastal cities caused by climate change, study says
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on February 23rd, 2016
Guardian: Rising sea levels are putting increasing pressure on US coastal cities, with a new analysis showing that human-driven climate change is to blame for three-quarters of the coastal flooding events over the past decade.
The Climate Central research shows that coastal flooding days have more than doubled in the US since the 1980s, the primary drivers of which have been the warming of the atmosphere and oceans. The findings are based on a separate study, released on Monday, that found the Earth’s seas...
The human fingerprints on coastal floods
Posted by Climate Central: Benjamin Strauss on February 23rd, 2016
Climate Central: There are human fingerprints on thousands of U.S. coastal floods -- and countless more the world over.
We have known for a long time that sea level is rising. The link to global warming has been both intuitive and evident. Temperatures rise, and satellites watch glaciers and ice sheets shrink; networks of robotic buoys sample ocean waters as they heat and expand.
We have also known that coastal floods are increasing. The link to sea level rise is clear. A higher starting level means that the...
Antarctica could be much more vulnerable to melting than we thought
Posted by Washington Post: Chris Mooney on February 23rd, 2016
Washington Post: In two new studies, scientists say that the vast ice continent of Antarctica seems to have given up tremendous volumes of ice -- even sprouting considerable plant life -- during an era over 10 million years ago when concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide don’t seem to have been all that much higher than they are now.
That period was known as the Miocene. And during its early and middle phases, between 23 and 14 million years ago, carbon dioxide concentrations are believed to have sometimes...
Trial begins for driller sued over fouled Pennsylvania wells
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 23rd, 2016
Associated Press: Two families who accuse one of the largest natural gas drillers in Pennsylvania of polluting their well water are trying to persuade a federal jury to hold the company accountable. Opening statements were made Tuesday in a bitter and long-running federal lawsuit that pits homeowners in the village of Dimock against Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. Dimock was the scene of the most highly publicized case of methane contamination to emerge from the early days of Pennsylvania's natural-gas drilling...
Colorado, Wyoming Plan For River Water Share
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 23rd, 2016
National Public Radio: The Colorado River is arguably the most allocated river in the world. Drought and climate change have left less water to go around, and that has every state that relies on the river scrambling.
Groundwater Crisis Worsens Food Insecurity
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 23rd, 2016
Inter Press Service: Sijabuliso Nleya has been kept busy in the past few weeks digging up sand. He is not a sand poacher like scores of people who local district councils across the country say are digging along dry river beds for sand used in the construction of houses. "The situation is terrible," said Nleya, who owns a plot in Douglasdale, a small farming community on the outskirts of Bulawayo.
Together with other men, he has been filling up dry wells and boreholes, as groundwater increasingly becomes an unforeseen...
Study: All US Forests From Coast To Coast Now Threatened Climate Change, Drought
Posted by Inquistr: Shelley Hazen on February 23rd, 2016
Inquistr: In as little as 20 years, forests in the U.S. may look very different than they do today. A new study is warning that climate change and drought will likely threaten all of the country’s trees. The effects on the American West have already proven disastrous, but a new study that compiles hundreds of smaller studies on the health of U.S. forests and rangelands has suggested that the problem will spread east, the Christian Science Monitor reported. Science is currently scrambling to understand the...