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Wildfire Near LA Destroys Homes, Forces Evacuations
Posted by Nature World: Tamarra Kemsley on January 16th, 2014
Nature World: A wildfire that broke out Thursday morning in a national forest roughly 40 miles east of downtown Los Angeles has destroyed more than 1,700 homes and forced the evacuation of dozens of residents.
Three people have been arrested in connection to the fire that ignited in the Angeles National Forest, according to the Los Angeles Times.
According to the Times, arson investigators were at the scene of the blaze, which had already destroyed at least two homes by 11 a.m. - roughly five hours after...
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Rapid Thinning of Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier May be Irreversible
Posted by Nature World: Tamarra Kemsley on January 15th, 2014
Nature World: The rapid thinning of Pine Island Glacier, located on the West Antarctic ice sheet, may be irreversible, an international team of scientists warn.
Spanning more than 160,000 square kilometers, the PIG, as the ice mass is known, is the largest single contributor to sea-level rise in Antarctica, contributing 25 percent of the total ice loss from West Antarctica, according to the new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
The report states that melting has become so excessive, the...
Leaked IPCC Draft Cites Widespread Effects of Climate Change, Calls for Action
Posted by Nature World: Tamarra Kemsley on November 4th, 2013
Nature World: A leaked draft of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change "Summary for Policymakers" cites "widespread and consequential" impacts throughout the globe as a result of climate change.
Published on the site No Frakking Consensus, the draft identifies a variety of impacts on ecosystems and societies the changing global climate has, and will have, in coming years.
Already, climate change has forced land and sea species to shift "their ranges, seasonal activities, migration patterns, and abundance,...
Wildfire Smoke Affecting Millions of Americans, Report Warns
Posted by Nature World: Tamarra Kemsley on October 25th, 2013
Nature World: Wildfires are putting more and more Americans at risk, and not just those in the path of the blaze. In 2011, more than 200 million were affected by harmful wildfire smoke as it drifted across state and county lines, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) warns in a new report entitled "Where There's Fire, There's Smoke."
The study determined that the area affected by smoke is roughly 50 times greater than the area burned by fire, with about two-thirds of Americans affected in 2011, one of...
Fire-spotting Satellite Needed, Researchers Argue
Posted by Nature World: Tamarra Kemsley on October 23rd, 2013
Nature World: With another record-setting wildfire season coming to a close in the United States, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley argue it's time to invest in a fire-spotting satellite.
"If we had information on the location of fires when they were smaller, then we could take appropriate actions quicker and more easily, including preparing for evacuation," said fire expert Scott Stephens, a UC Berkeley associate professor of environmental science, policy and management. "Wildfires would...
Straw Should be Used as Alternative Energy Source, German Researchers Argue
Posted by Nature World: Tamarra Kemsley on October 21st, 2013
Nature World: Straw from agriculture could help address Germany's future energy needs, a new study published in the journal Applied Energy suggests.
Led by researchers from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, Thueringian Regional Institute for Agriculture (TLL) and German Biomass Research Center, the report found that of the 30 million tons of cereal straw produced nationally every year, between 8-13 million could be used sustainably for energy or fuel production. This could in turn provide between...
Phosphorus Reduction in Lakes May Limit Their Ability to Remove Nitrogen
Posted by Nature World: Tamarra Kemsley on October 12th, 2013
Nature World: A study of a Minnesota lake reveals that while cleanup efforts aimed at reducing phosphorus have been highly successful, they could ultimately prove problematic. The report builds off of previous research regarding nitrogen levels in Lake Superior and could have implications for pollution control efforts throughout the world, according to the study's authors. The researchers found that as phosphorus levels dropped, so did the microbial processes responsible for removing nitrogen from the water....
Federal Agencies Announce Plans to Remap Areas Damaged by Hurricane Sandy
Posted by Nature World: Tamarra Kemsley on August 24th, 2013
Nature World: Three federal agencies recently announced plans to to remap parts of the East Coast where Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc a year ago.
The effort, joined by NOAA, the US Geological Survey and the US Army Corps of Engineers, will focus on retrieving data that can then be used to update land maps and nautical charts.
"Our approach is to map once, then use the data for many purposes," NOAA Rear Admiral Gerd Glang, director of NOAA's Office of Coast Survey, said in a statement.
The undertaking...
Rise in Extreme Heat Waves Already Locked in for Next 30 Years
Posted by Nature World: Tamarra Kemsley on August 16th, 2013
Nature World: The amount of global land affected by extreme heat waves classified as three-sigma events is set to double by 2020 and quadruple by 2040 regardless of changes in the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, a study published in Environmental Research Letters reports.
Heat waves classified as three-sigma events -- a reference to a rise in temperatures of three standard deviations above the norm -- include the one that hit Australia in 2009 and more recently the one that took place...