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Sunlight boosts CO2 from thawing permafrost
Posted by ClimateWire: Christa Marshall on September 5th, 2014
ClimateWire: Arctic permafrost holds about twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, making its ultimate fate a key factor in the severity and pace of climate change impacts.
Now a study reports that old assumptions of how permafrost carbon breaks down in Arctic lakes and rivers may be wrong. Instead of bacteria being responsible for the conversion of carbon into carbon dioxide, the real culprit in many cases is sunlight, according to the research supported by the National Science Foundation.
The findings...
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Coal-reliant Pennsylvania faces election showdown over EPA, natural gas and carbon trading
Posted by ClimateWire: Christa Marshall on July 12th, 2014
ClimateWire: The nation's third-largest carbon dioxide-emitting state is in the middle of a fierce election fight that could determine whether it stays on its current path of challenging U.S. EPA climate rules, or instead slows fossil fuel development and enters a regional carbon trading program.
In coal-reliant Pennsylvania, Republican Gov. Tom Corbett -- who has overseen the state's natural gas boom and called the EPA proposed carbon rule on existing power plants a "cap-and-trade tax" -- is facing a formidable...
From drought to hurricanes, Grenada tackles climate change with German help
Posted by ClimateWire: Christa Marshall on December 24th, 2013
ClimateWire: After a sudden thunderstorm this fall, Paul Valdon sat in a line of cars for 45 minutes near a bridge over a river because of gushing water.
People got out of their vehicles and shouted in frustration as the river engulfed the concrete structure, preventing them from crossing the waterway in the northeast part of the island. His friend in a nearby car tried to find an alternative way through the mountains, but got stuck again when a landslide blocked that road, as well. Valdon missed an important...
Methane release from Arctic ice thaw an ‘economic time bomb’
Posted by ClimateWire: Christa Marshall on July 26th, 2013
ClimateWire: A massive release of methane from the Arctic seafloor would have catastrophic impacts on the world's economy, possibly costing $60 trillion or more because of associated problems such as sea-level rise and drought, according to a comment published yesterday in Nature.
The $60 trillion -- roughly the size of the entire global economy last year -- considers a 50-gigaton belch of the greenhouse gas over a decadelong period from the East Siberian Sea, where scientists in recent years discovered perforations...
More heat, drought and floods in 2013
Posted by ClimateWire: Christa Marshall on July 20th, 2013
ClimateWire: Global average temperatures in June were the fifth highest on record, as above-average heat conditions continued a multidecade streak, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported yesterday. June marked the 340th consecutive month -- a span of time more than 28 years -- that global temperatures surged above the 20th century average, according to the agency. "The last below-average June temperature was June 1976 and the last below-average temperature for any month was February 1985,"...
Ohio governor prepares energy and environment plans for his newly gas-rich state
Posted by ClimateWire: Christa Marshall on September 21st, 2011
ClimateWire: The nation's fourth-largest carbon dioxide-emitting state is about to get a new energy policy that its governor says could be a model for the entire country. This week, industry representatives, state officials, academics and environmentalists are gathering in Ohio to craft a new energy plan for the state that will culminate in a major energy proposal from Gov. John Kasich (R) by next spring. The package from Kasich, a former congressman, will determine whether the state burns less coal, extracts...
Canada: Alberta’s fight to ‘clean’ its oil sands
Posted by ClimateWire: Christa Marshall on December 17th, 2010
ClimateWire: On a chilly December night in Alberta, in the heart of the country's oil boom, cab driver Milan Malusic complains about the gasoline-like odors from oil sands facilities that seep through his car windows on a daily basis. The 46-year-old says he hates the drives past the massive pit mines and accompanying smokestacks processing the gooey form of petroleum known as bitumen. Canada holds the second-largest oil reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia, and the majority of that is buried underneath...