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Archive for February 27th, 2016
Climate change map shows regions to be hit hardest
Posted by Comment: Faith Castro on February 27th, 2016
Comment: By developing this method, the global team of researchers has been able to map which areas are most sensitive to climate variability across the world. In a new study, a team of scientists developed a map that reveals which regions on Earth are more sensitive to climate variability.
He further mentions that over the last 14 years these areas have shown great sensitivity to climate variability, with amplified responses over time. Called the Vegetation Sensitivity Index (SV), the metric allows a...
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The many signs of climate change in the far north
Posted by News-Miner: Ned Rozell on February 27th, 2016
News-Miner: In anticipation of an arctic science conference happening next month in Fairbanks, an editor asked me to write a column on climate change in the North.
I told her climate stability would be the bigger story, since basswood trees used to grow in Fairbanks and redwoods once dropped their cones into the Porcupine River. Climate is always changing.
But we have gotten much better at measuring those changes. We people and our scientific instruments have now occupied the top of the globe for long...
Scientists warn of the dangers of salt pollution of freshwaters if preventive measures are not taken
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 27th, 2016
ScienceDaily: An article published today in the journal Science warns of the dangers of increasing water salinity for human health and freshwater ecosystems (rivers, lakes, etc.) and the economic cost arising from a lack of public policies to tackle this problem. The study, prepared by an international team of scientists coordinated by the researcher Miguel Cañedo-Argüelles, of the BETA research group of the University of Vic -- Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) and the FEM research group of the University...
William Mulholland Gave Water to LA and Inspired ‘Chinatown’
Posted by Daily Beast: None Given on February 27th, 2016
Daily Beast: Irish immigrant William Mulholland brought LA the water it needed to grow, even when he was accused of stealing it, and even when it cost the lives of almost 500 innocent people.
Mulholland? Sure, you say. I know that name. Isn’t it a twisty street somewhere in Los Angeles, and wasn’t Mulholland Drive the title of an eerie film by David Lynch? And didn’t Roman Polanski and Robert Towne’s movie Chinatown have a character with the sound-alike name of Hollis Mulwray, the L.A. city water engineer...
TMT case returns to Land Board
Posted by Hawaii Tribune: Tom Callis on February 27th, 2016
Hawaii Tribune: A Hilo Circuit Court judge officially remanded the Thirty Meter Telescope’s land use permit this week, setting the stage for another review by the state Land Board and a new contested case hearing for the proposed project on Mauna Kea.
But first, a new hearings officer will need to be selected.
Dan Dennison, Department of Land and Natural Resources spokesman, said 11 people have applied for the job, and a screening committee selected by Chair Suzanne Case will review them for qualifications...
Time, BBC & others drive historic deal protect Canada Great Bear Rainforest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 27th, 2016
Guardian: Earlier this month, a groundbreaking agreement was reached to prohibit logging in the majority of the 6.4m-hectare Canadian rainforest known as the Great Bear Rainforest – a stretch of coastal ecosystem nearly the size of Ireland.
The winners in the deal were environmental groups and the First Nations peoples who call the land their ancestral home. But there was also a less obvious contingent: an international assortment of business interests that used their influence to push for a deal.
More...
These Native Americans Might Be the Country’s First Climate Change Refugees
Posted by Vice: Matt Smith on February 27th, 2016
Vice: Sometime in the next few years, the remaining two dozen or so families of Louisiana's Isle de Jean Charles will pack up their stuff and leave for good.
They'll leave behind homes that some of the Native American residents have lived in for generations, and they'll watch from afar as what's left of the island gets swallowed by the surrounding waters.
"All of our history, all of our ancestral line -- that's where our people are buried. That's where our family members were born," island native...
United Kingdom: How to combat climate change from your garden
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 27th, 2016
Telegraph: When the screenwriter William Goldman said "nobody knows anything", he was talking about the inability of anyone in Hollywood to predict what would turn out to be the next blockbuster. But he might equally have been talking about gardening and climate change, where no one seems to know for sure what to expect, or how to prepare for it.
So I was intrigued to see a report of a project by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh attempting to answer that question. Edinburgh and its three regional outposts...
Oil Stocks: Bakken Shale Drillers Feel Burn From $30 Crude
Posted by Motley Fool: None Given on February 27th, 2016
Motley Fool: After months of speculation about what oil price would break the back of shale drillers, we finally have that number: $30 a barrel. At least that's the price at which Bakken shale drillers Oasis Petroleum (NYSE:OAS), Whiting Petroleum (NYSE:WLL) and Continental Resources (NYSE:CLR) can no longer keep drilling in the oil play that really turned around America's oil production. That was abundantly clear after reviewing their plans for 2016, with each company basically winding down operations in the...
Porter Ranch ‘Monster’ Gas Leak Largest U.S. History
Posted by EcoWatch: Deirdre Fulton on February 27th, 2016
EcoWatch: The Aliso Canyon natural gas well blowout, which lasted for months and sickened scores of nearby residents, has been confirmed as the largest methane leak in history.
According to a peer-reviewed study published Thursday in the journal Science, the nearly four-month leak released roughly 100,000 tons of methane--effectively doubling the methane emissions rate of the entire Los Angeles Basin. Southern California Gas Co. said it stopped the leak earlier this month. State Division of Oil, Gas and...