Archive for March 3rd, 2016

Another month, another troubling Arctic sea ice record

Climate Central: This year is quickly excising 2015 from the dubious top of the climate record books. The most freakishly warm month on record, record atmospheric heat in February and now for the second month in a row, a new monthly Arctic sea ice low. February saw record low sea ice extent, with ice running a significant 448,000 square miles below average. In essence, a chunk of ice four times the size of Arizona went missing in action from the Arctic. The number would be even more pronounced if not for a small...

The Bizarre Reason Greenland Is Getting Darker Each Year

Gizmodo: Greenland is one of the brightest spots on planet Earth, but ominously enough, its gleaming surface darkens with each passing year, thanks to a strange series of physical processes, one of which cannot be seen with the naked eye. According to a fascinating new study led by Columbia's Earth Institute and published today the journal The Cryosphere, which finds that Greenland's "albedo," or reflectivity, has been decreasing since the mid 90s. By the end of the 21st century, Greenland could be ten...

Relentless Rise of Two Caribbean Lakes Baffles Scientists

National Geographic: On a recent calm day, the surface of Lake Azuéi has no waves, not even any ripples. Pillars of pastel-colored concrete break the still surface, the tops of what once were houses. They are all that's visible of the community that once thrived here. Alberto Pierre, a skinny, wide-eyed 25-year-old, said the submerged village where he grew up wasn't even near the lake. "The water used to be many kilometers from here." Lake Azuéi, the largest lake in Haiti, lies about 18 miles east of Port-au-Prince,...

Heaviest rains, hottest temperatures in two decades batter Peru

Reuters: The heaviest rains and hottest temperatures in two decades have battered Peru over the past week as weather linked to El Nino caused flooding and landslides that blocked the country's central highway and forced scores from their homes. At least five people have died in weather related accidents since Monday, including four trapped in an unregulated mining pit, said Miguel Yamasaki, an official with state civil defense institute, Indeci. Peru's weather agency, Senamhi, put the country on alert for...

Climate change is a potent element in deadly brew of disaster risk

Guardian: The Hyogo framework for action (HFA), adopted in January 2005 by UN member states, was an unprecedented move to promote saving lives and livelihoods from disasters over a decade. Has there been progress? The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters and major insurance companies agree that, in 2015, figures for deaths, numbers of people affected and economic losses from disasters were below the 10-year average. But are we getting better at managing disasters, or are we actually reducing...

Satellite data suggests forest loss is accelerating

Reuters: Satellite images suggest tropical forests from the Amazon to the Philippines are disappearing at a far more rapid pace than previously thought, a University of Maryland team of forest researchers say. The annual rate of deforestation from 1990 to 2010 was 62 percent higher than in the previous decade, and higher than previous estimates, according to a study carried out of satellite maps covering 80 percent of the world’s tropical forests. The new study questions the United Nations Food and...

Extreme tornado outbreaks have become more common, says study

ScienceDaily: Most death and destruction inflicted by tornadoes in North America occurs during outbreaks--large-scale weather events that can last one to three days and span huge regions. The largest ever recorded happened in 2011. It spawned 363 tornadoes across the United States and Canada, killing more than 350 people and causing $11 billion in damage. Now, a new study shows that the average number of tornadoes in these outbreaks has risen since 1954, and that the chance of extreme outbreaks --tornado factories...

Tanzania Farmers, Pastoralists Launch Forum to Resolve Water Conflicts

Inter Press Service: At a remote village of Itunundu in Iringa, farmers and pastoralists recently met to discuss the best way to share land resources while charting out a strategy to prevent unnecessary fights among themselves. No one in the village ever imagined that this meeting would ever take place as the two groups had for long considered themselves enemies: they often clashed for water and pastures to feed their animals thus causing deaths and loss of property. But the real story of that rare occasion was that...

Earthquakes linked to shale gas exploration cause house prices fall

PhysOrg: Fear of fracking can have negative effects on the UK housing market around shale gas sites, economic researchers have warned. The research team, from the University of Bristol, the London School of Economics and Duke University in North Carolina, carried out a study that found licensing and exploration had minimal impacts on house prices. However, two highly publicised minor earthquakes linked to exploratory fracking near Blackpool in 2011 caused a three to four per cent reduction in house prices...

Breeding birds use alligators to protect nests from raccoons, opossums

ScienceDaily: Breeding birds that nest above alligators for protection from mammalian predators may also provide a source of food for the alligators living in the Everglades, Florida, according to a study published March 2, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Lucas Nell from the University of Florida and colleagues. For many bird species, nest predation is the greatest threat to raising chicks. Long-legged wading birds, like herons, egrets, ibises, storks, and spoonbills may choose nesting sites above...