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Archive for March 12th, 2016
Conifer die-off increases threat of wildfire
Posted by Farmingont Daily Times: Laura Paskus on March 12th, 2016
Farmingont Daily Times: In the past few years, New Mexico has experienced huge, record-breaking fires in both the Jemez Mountains and the Gila National Forest. Big fires haven’t hit the Sandia district of the Cibola National Forest to the east of Albuquerque. But thousands of acres of dead conifer trees pose a hazard. That’s because after the trees die and dry out, they provide fuel for wildfires.
Silviculturists like the Sandia District’s Shawn Martin practice a specialty within forestry, managing forest health by paying...
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Thunderstorms pound U.S. South after days of rain
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 12th, 2016
Reuters: A line of severe thunderstorms hit Louisiana on Saturday, adding more rain to flooded rivers across the lower Mississippi Valley after days of downpours, meteorologists said.
Drenching rains this week have killed three people in Louisiana and one in Oklahoma. Two fishermen remain missing in Mississippi, state emergency management officials said.
Mike Steele, a spokesman for the Louisiana emergency office, said areas of the state had received more than 2 feet (60 cm) of rain during the deluge....
Coal phased out
Posted by Associated Press: Kristena Hansen on March 12th, 2016
Associated Press: With the stroke of Gov. Kate Brown’s signature Friday, Oregon became the first state to eradicate coal from its power supply through legislation and now boasts some of the most stringent demands for renewable energy among its state peers.
The new law will wipe out coal-generated energy in phases through 2030 and requires utilities to provide half of customers’ power with renewable sources by 2040, doubling the state’s previous standard.
“Oregon is known to be a leader in clean-energy programs,...
Fracking Becomes an Issue in Presidential Primaries
Posted by RINF: None Given on March 12th, 2016
RINF: Republican front-runner Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders made their positions on fracking clear last weekend. Trump is all for it. Clinton too, but only if a list of conditions met. Sanders is against it.
Trump brought up fracking on Friday at a New Orleans campaign rally. “New York has been let down, they didn’t allow them to frack,” Trump said. “If they fracked in New York, New York would lower its taxes, would have no debt, would have made...
Plant some trees to save a town from flooding? Not a bad idea
Posted by Guardian: Nick Cohen on March 12th, 2016
Guardian: Walk through Keswick, Cockermouth and many other provincial towns and you experience a dislocating feeling that they are out on parole. The apparent solidity of their homes and businesses is transient. The next storm howling in from the Atlantic will send the waters pouring through them again.
Floods are no longer freak events but expected inundations. You count yourself lucky in Cumbria if winter passes and you stay dry; as you do in the Thames and Severn valleys, and along the east coast and...
Louisiana flash floods leave at least three dead as Mississippi faces deluge
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 12th, 2016
Guardian: Residents in Louisiana and Mississippi are taking stock of damage Saturday after a massive deluge of rain submerged roads and cars, washed out bridges and forced residents to flee homes.
The rain and flooding is part of a weather system that has affected Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama. At least three people have died in Louisiana alone.
In Mississippi, officials said as many as 1,000 residents could see their homes flooded by the rising Leaf River in Hattiesburg, Petal...
Women on the Front Lines Fighting Fracking in the Bakken Oil Shale Formations
Posted by EcoWatch: Emily Arasim and Osprey Orielle Lake on March 12th, 2016
EcoWatch: There are some crystalline moments in which the challenges we face as a civilization become brutally clear. Moments in which corrupt aspects of American democracy and the fractures in our social, economic and political systems are exposed with unsurpassed clarity.
Moments in which we are reminded of how fundamentally ruptured our dominant culture’s relationship with the Earth has become and in which we see before our eyes how this split has led to almost unfathomable acts of violence against the...
American CEOs often survive environmental controversies unscathed
Posted by Guardian: Alison Moodie on March 12th, 2016
Guardian: Volkswagen announced on Wednesday that its top US boss, Michael Horn, would be leaving the company “effective immediately”, six months after the car giant’s global CEO resigned as the emissions cheating scandal became public. But a CEO losing his or her job following an environmental controversy is more the exception than the rule, according to a new study.
The report, by researchers at Australia’s University of Adelaide, found that the heads of companies embroiled in environmental lawsuits tend...
Climate Change: Extreme Weather Events Linked To Earth’s Changing Climate
Posted by Inquisitr: Louis Babcock on March 12th, 2016
Inquisitr: Linking extreme weather events to change is becoming easier for scientists. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS) has compiled a list of extreme weather events which can be linked to climate change. University of Georgia scientist J. Marshall Shepherd said this list is "the first definitive ranking of what events can be attributed to climate change." Doctor David Titley, the head of the committee that wrote the NAS list commented further on the link between climate change...
Justin Trudeau’s climate agenda praised by Americans
Posted by CBC: None Given on March 12th, 2016
CBC: U.S. President Barack Obama's energy secretary says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has put climate change back on the agenda after years of relative inaction by the previous Conservative government.
"I have to say, the current government has certainly picked up the pace in terms of collaborating, particularly in climate-related activities," Ernest Moniz said in an interview with host Chris Hall on CBC Radio's The House. "We have a lot of enthusiasm to go forward."
The cabinet-level secretary...