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United Kingdom: Britain braced warmest December 70 years
Posted by Telegraph: Camilla Turner on December 16th, 2015
Telegraph: Britain could be set for the warmest December in almost 70 years as temperatures are forecast to rise to 17C, around 10C above the average for this time of year.
The weather has been so mild that daffodils have been begun flowering as far north as Chester and Northern Ireland.
Around London the mercury is expected to reach 16C on Wednesday - above the average for May in central England of 11.2C and far higher than the December average of 6.7C for the UK.
A band of tropical air coming off...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on United Kingdom: Britain braced warmest December 70 yearsScientist captures amazing photos Alaskan sockeye salmon run
Posted by Mother Nature: None Given on December 14th, 2015
Mother Nature: If the realms of science and art seems worlds away from each other, you'd be gravely mistaken. After all, when you're studying the science behind the world around us, how can you not feel inspired by its sublime beauty? That's why it should come as no surprise to learn that some of society's most creative and passionate artists also happen to possess brilliant scientific minds. One such scientist is Jason Ching, a Washington-based researcher who has spent years studying and photographing Bristol...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Scientist captures amazing photos Alaskan sockeye salmon runHow the world learned its lesson and got a climate deal
Posted by Reuters: Richard Valdmanis and Emmanuel Jarry on December 14th, 2015
Reuters: It was an agreement born from a fear of failure, delivered by the smoothness of French diplomacy.
Six years earlier, countries had bitterly walked away from global climate talks in Copenhagen without a deal. The decision to reassemble in Paris to try again at getting almost 200 countries to sign a pact on cutting carbon emissions was a gamble: another collapse could the end world’s ability to forge a common approach to dealing with climate change.
And no political leader wanted his reputation...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on How the world learned its lesson and got a climate dealSide benefit of climate accord: Better health in polluted communities
Posted by Public Integrity: None Given on December 14th, 2015
Public Integrity: Saturday’s 196-nation climate pact is aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, whose effects on the planet already are being seen. Another beneficiary, however, will be public health.
If, in fact, the accord marks a true shift away from dirty fossil fuels like coal and oil, people from South Texas to South Philadelphia should expect to live longer, higher-quality lives.
Start with areas of heavy oil and gas drilling, like the Eagle Ford Shale region south of San Antonio. Last year the Center...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Side benefit of climate accord: Better health in polluted communitiesCan the Paris agreement protect poor farmers from climate change?
Posted by Reuters: Megan Rowling on December 14th, 2015
Reuters: Purity Gachanga is one small-scale farmer who is beating climate change. On her several acres of land in Embu North district in central Kenya, she keeps cows and goats that produce milk, grows trees for fodder, and collects water to irrigate her food crops in a pond filled with tilapia fish.
Since she started out in the 1970s, she has overcome increasingly erratic rainfall by using new technologies and trying out different crops and trees. She even turns her animal manure into biogas, harnessing...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Can the Paris agreement protect poor farmers from climate change?How Trees Try to Cope With Climate Change
Posted by Discovery News: Patrick J. Kiger on December 14th, 2015
Discovery News: Imagine that you’re lost in a desert, or some other inhospitable environment. You’ve got two choices. One is to stay in place and conserve supplies and water, in order to make them last. The other is to push on tenaciously and hope that you find a way out of your predicament. As it turns out, trees are like that too, when it comes to coping with the hotter, drier environment created by climate change. In a new article in the journal Global Change Biology, University of Washington researchers studied...
The climate path ahead
Posted by New York Times: Andrew C. Revkin on December 13th, 2015
New York Times: At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro 23 years ago, the world’s nations adopted a treaty that pledged, but ultimately failed, to cut the emissions driving global warming. In Paris over the last two weeks, negotiators from around the world met for the 21st time since then in an effort to move from aspiration to action. At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro 23 years ago, the world’s nations adopted a treaty that pledged, but ultimately failed, to cut the emissions driving global warming. In Paris...
Global issues don’t live in separate boxes. Why no mention in Paris of refugees?
Posted by Guardian: Alexander Betts on December 13th, 2015
Guardian: While the United Nations climate change talks in Paris struggled to elicit credible commitments, notably missing from the debate was “environmental displacement” – people fleeing their homes on account of natural disaster. As temperatures and sea levels rise, and land-use patterns change, there will be significant consequences for human mobility within and across borders.
However, public and media debate scarcely discussed the issue, and the only references in the Paris summit’s negotiated outcome...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Global issues don’t live in separate boxes. Why no mention in Paris of refugees?Paris climate deal: reaction from the experts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 13th, 2015
Guardian: The agreement is extremely welcome. However, we should also be cautious. It is clear that the 1C temperature rise over pre-industrial levels that we have seen so far has triggered a whole range of effects including melting of mountain glaciers, significant sea-level rise, devastating droughts, and flooding. These effects are likely to get much worse with even modest future increases. Keeping temperatures to manageable levels also assumes that we know what the precise link is between atmospheric greenhouse...
United Kingdom: Ministers bow anger over flood defences
Posted by Telegraph: Tim Ross and Patrick Sawer on December 13th, 2015
Telegraph: Ministers have been forced to bow to anger over claims the Government was unprepared for the consequences of the heavy flooding that hit Britain last week.
Public criticism over its ability cope with extreme weather episodes – such as the one which left hundreds of people washed out of their homes across northern England – last night forced Whitehall to announce a major review of Britain’s plans for coping with “worst case” floods.
Under the review, new flood defences will be drawn up for northern...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Ministers bow anger over flood defences