RSS Feed
Author Archive
‘A tipping point’: record number of Americans see global warming as threat
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on March 18th, 2016
Guardian: A record number of Americans believe global warming will pose a threat to their way of life, new polling data shows, amid strengthening public acceptance that rising temperatures are being driven by human activity.
“I think a shift in public opinion and consciousness has been underway for several years now,” Michael Mann, a prominent climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, told the Guardian.
A spokesman for 350 Action, the political arm of climate activist group 350.org, said meanwhile...
Posted in 
Greenland’s ice melt accelerating as surface darkens, raising sea levels
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on March 3rd, 2016
Guardian: Greenland’s vast ice sheet is in the grip of a dramatic “feedback loop” where the surface has been getting darker and less reflective of the sun, helping accelerate the melting of ice and fuelling sea level rises, new research has found.
The snowy surface of Greenland started becoming significantly less reflective of solar radiation from around 1996, the analysis found, with the ice absorbing 2% more solar energy per decade from this point. At the same time, summer near-surface temperatures in...
Increased flooding in US coastal cities caused by climate change, study says
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on February 23rd, 2016
Guardian: Rising sea levels are putting increasing pressure on US coastal cities, with a new analysis showing that human-driven climate change is to blame for three-quarters of the coastal flooding events over the past decade.
The Climate Central research shows that coastal flooding days have more than doubled in the US since the 1980s, the primary drivers of which have been the warming of the atmosphere and oceans. The findings are based on a separate study, released on Monday, that found the Earth’s seas...
Missouri residents pack up and leave as once-rare floods become the new normal
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on January 8th, 2016
Guardian: About 100 miles downstream of Hannibal, the boyhood home of Mark Twain, the small Missouri town of West Alton has spent the past week without almost its entire population as it has been completely swamped by water.
William Richter is the mayor of a town he cannot reach. West Alton’s 525 people were evacuated due to deadly floods that caused the nearby Mississippi river to surge to 38ft high – a good 17ft above the flood level. Both roads into the town are still cut off.
“You can only really...
Southern US prepares flooding surge as waters move down Mississippi river
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on January 4th, 2016
Guardian: Southern US states are bracing themselves for major flooding as surging waters that have inundated parts of Missouri and Illinois head south down the Mississippi river.
Heavy rainfall at the end of December, the largest deluge since May 2011, has caused the Mississippi, Meramec and Missouri rivers to burst their banks. In some areas, the Mississippi is 40ft above its flood mark, causing at least 24 deaths in several states.
Most of the deaths have been caused by people attempting to drive through...
Pacific Leaders Get Blunt About Unfolding Calamity of Climate Change
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on November 2nd, 2015
Guardian: At a summit in Fiji last week, the last major gathering of Pacific island nations before crunch UN climate talks in Paris next month, islanders thrashed out their collective plea to the world to help address the health impacts of climate change, particularly upon women, infants and adolescents.
Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, Fiji’s foreign minister, said the country was dealing with the re-emergence of climate-influenced diseases such as typhoid, dengue fever, leptospirosis and diarrhoeal illnesses. Last...
Australia’s leaders ‘wilfully blind’ about climate change, says former NAB chief
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on August 3rd, 2015
Guardian: Australia’s political leaders are “wilfully blind” to the challenge of climate change, with the country at risk from an “economically reckless” reliance upon fossil fuels, the former head of the National Australia Bank has warned. Cameron Clyne, who was chief executive of NAB from 2009 until he stood down last year, said he doesn’t “think any of us have grasped quite how revolutionary” the emergence of renewable energy will be, warning that Australia cannot continue to be wedded to carbon-heavy...
Climate Change Makes Droughts in Australia Worse
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on April 5th, 2015
Guardian: Climate change is making drought conditions in southwest and southeast Australia worse, with serious ramifications for people's health and the agriculture industry, a new paper has warned. The Climate Council report says projected decreases in average rainfall are linked to reduced agricultural productivity and increased suicide risk in rural areas. The Climate Council report states that since the mid-1990s, southeast Australia has experienced a 15 percent drop in rainfall during late autumn and...
Australia ranked 13 by WWF for ecological footprint
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on September 30th, 2014
Guardian: Australians require a huge ecological “footprint” in order to sustain their lifestyles, with just 12 nations in the world using up more arable land and carbon-burning generation, according to new figures.
WWF’s Living Planet Index, which is conducted once every two years, has found that Australia requires 6.25 global hectares per person per year. A global hectare is a unit which averages out what productive land and ocean, such as cropland, forests and fishing grounds, can generate over the course...
South Australia faces water crisis by end century due climate change
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on July 13th, 2014
Guardian: A predicted 40% decline in rainfall in southern Australia could mean that the West Australian capital, Perth, will have to rely on alternative sources of water in future, a new climate change research paper warns.
The study, led by an academic at the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, examined the causes of rainfall decline in southern Australia over the past few decades and concluded that human activity was a significant contributor.
The findings, published in the journal...