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Archive for March 23rd, 2016
NYC could be underwater in decades according to new climate change report
Posted by TimeOut: None Given on March 23rd, 2016
TimeOut: A paper released yesterday by the European science journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics argues that climate change may be accelerating at a much faster rate than previously thought.
The scientists argue that sea levels could increase by so much over the next hundred years that coastal cities like New York, London, Rio de Janeiro and Shanghai could be underwater by 2100.
The report points to the Eemian period, which took place 120,000 years ago, when the Earth's oceans were six to nine...
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Rockefeller family charity to withdraw all investments in fossil fuel companies
Posted by Guardian: Rupert Neate on March 23rd, 2016
Guardian: A charitable fund of the Rockefeller family – who are sitting on a multibillion-dollar oil fortune – has said it will withdraw all its investments from fossil fuel companies.
The Rockefeller Family Fund, a charity set up in 1967 by descendants of John D Rockefeller, said on Wednesday that it would divest from all fossil fuel holdings “as quickly as possible”.
The fund, which was founded by Martha, John, Laurance, Nelson and David Rockefeller, singled out ExxonMobil for particular attention...
California Snowpack Returns, But Fears Held For Future
Posted by Climate Central: John Upton on March 23rd, 2016
Climate Central: California's main water reservoir -- its mountain snowpack -- has made a triumphant return to the Sierra Nevada following severe shortfalls in recent years.
A string of winter storms boosted by El Niño has restored much of the mountain snow that melts through summer to help top up the state's reservoirs, but the prognosis for the decades ahead remains grim.
The return of California's snowpack this winter has relieved water managers and skiers alike.
Climate change is projected to corrode...
Study Finds Climate Change Could Be Leading To Better Wine
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 23rd, 2016
National Public Radio: A new study in the journal Nature Climate Change finds weather plays a role in determining the quality of wine produced.
How Global Water Shortages Threaten Jobs and Growth
Posted by Reuters: Astrid Zweynert on March 23rd, 2016
Reuters: An estimated three out of four jobs globally are dependent on water, meaning that shortages and lack of access are likely to limit economic growth in the coming decades, the United Nations said. About 1.5 billion people — half the world's workers — are employed in industries heavily dependent on water, most of them in farming, fisheries and forestry, the U.N. World Water Development Report 2016 said. "There is a direct effect on jobs worldwide if there are disruptions in water supply through natural...
Climate change might be good news for French wine — until it isn’t
Posted by Washington Post: Rachel Feltman on March 23rd, 2016
Washington Post: Global warming might just make certain wines tastier, according to a new study -- at least until we reach a temperature tipping point that wrecks it all.
In a study published Monday in Nature Climate Change, researchers from Harvard and NASA suggest that global warming is making early harvests of French wine grapes -- harvests associated with higher quality wines, where grapes have just the right balance of acid and sugar -- more frequent.
“There are two big points in this paper, the first...
Microbes Are Likely Speeding Up the Melting of the Glaciers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 23rd, 2016
Yale Environment 360: As if soaring global temperatures weren’t bad enough, scientists reported this week that microbes are also speeding up the melting of Arctic ice. The problem lies in cryoconite, the soil-like composite of dust, industrial soot and photosynthetic bacteria that darkens the surface of ice and causes it to melt, scientists from Aberystwyth University in Wales said. As it melts, ice leaves behind small water-filled holes full of bacteria. The sun-loving microbes then shape the pockmarks’ depth and size...
James Hansen: Dangerous Sea Level Rise Will Occur in Decades, Not Centuries
Posted by EcoWatch: Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams on March 23rd, 2016
EcoWatch: Dr. James Hansen, the former NASA scientist who is widely credited with being one of the first to raise concerns about human-caused global warming, is a co-author of a new report predicting that the world will undergo devastating sea level rise within mere decades—not centuries, as previously thought. The report, published Tuesday in the open-access journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, paints an even bleaker picture of the planet’s future, positing that continued high fossil fuel emissions...
Feds Defend Fracking Rule Against Judicial Hold
Posted by Hill: Timothy Cama on March 23rd, 2016
Hill: The Obama administration is fighting in federal court to defend its hydraulic fracturing (fracking) rule, saying a lower court committed a “legal error” when it put the regulation on hold. Lawyers representing the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are asking the Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver to overturn a Wyoming-based court’s decision last year to halt the rule and allow regulators to enforce it. That judicial injunction stemmed from the arguments from various...
Could fungi help pine forests withstand climate change?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 23rd, 2016
PhysOrg: Arthur Conan Doyle's famous literary detective Sherlock Holmes once noted that "the little things are infinitely the most important." It's a belief that investigators at the University of Alberta obviously share. Whether they're seeking to understand the tiniest forms of life, taking small steps toward major breakthroughs or influencing students in subtle but profound ways, U of A researchers and educators are proving that little things can make a big impact. The lodgepole pine is one of the most...