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Welcome to ‘Double El Niño’ and more extreme weather
Posted by Public Radio International: None Given on March 22nd, 2015
Public Radio International: We’re about to experience a “double El Niño” -- a rare weather phenomenon that climatologists had warned about several months ago.
That means two consecutive years of the concentration of warm water in the Pacific Ocean that brings West Coast storms, quiet hurricane seasons in the Atlantic and busy ones in the Pacific. The danger is that this could mean more than a few months of odd weather, but instead usher in a new phase of climate change. Last year was the warmest year on record; 2015 looks...
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Some Worry Australia’s Great Artesian Basin, Outback Water Supply, Being Drawn Too Fast
Posted by Public Radio International: None Given on April 26th, 2013
Public Radio International: Australia's Outback communities rely on the water in the Great Artesian Basin, deep underground, for their water supply. But some now worry the aquifer is being drawn down too quickly. If it ever went dry, it would leave a whole host of Outback communities without a nearby water supply.
Winton, population 954, sits in the heart of Queensland.
There is not much to the town -- just a crisscross of about a dozen streets in the vast Australian bush. But, in a way, Winton should not exist at all....
Climate change enhances risks of glacial lakes flooding mountain communities
Posted by Public Radio International: None Given on February 27th, 2013
Public Radio International: Lakes high in the world's mountains are becoming increasingly dangerous to the towns that have sprouted up near them. The lakes are prone to floods, typically caused when the mountain glaciers that feed them shed a chunk of ice and rock, forcing thousands of gallons over the banks.
The hamlet of Carhuaz, in Peru's Cordillera Blanca Range, could hardly be more picturesque.
Birds chirp while venders hawk their goods at an open-air market in the town tucked into a fold at the furrowed base of...
Mapping error sparks new stance on climate change
Posted by Public Radio International: None Given on September 27th, 2011
Public Radio International: Glaciologists are up in arms about a new map of the world that they think overstates the effects of climate change.
The latest edition of the well-respected "Times Atlas of the World" has run afoul of many in the scientific community. A map of Greenland in the book shows that the country has considerably less landmass than ever before. Harper Collins, which prints the "Times Atlas," recently circulated a press release that said Greenland had lost more than 15 percent of its coastline after nearby...