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Archive for the ‘Water Conservation’ Category
Virginia Islanders US First Climate Change Refugees
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 11th, 2015
Scientific American: For Tangier Island, Va., lifelong resident Claudia Parks, climate change is a direct threat to her golf cart.
As flooding and erosion have worsened on the Chesapeake Bay island in recent decades, the tour director with a broad smile avoids certain saturated roads at least 15 times in the spring and fall during tidal events on her regular work route. That involves getting visitors past the local ice cream shops, white picket fences and marshy hills that dot this car-free fishing community.
When...
Veteran climate scientists hopeful a historic Paris deal hours away
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 11th, 2015
Guardian: There’s a cafe next door to the thronging media centre at the UN global climate talks in Paris where the constant clang of the door to the chill air outside can barely be heard above the buzz.
Veteran climate scientist and biologist Professor Lesley Hughes has taken a seat with me close by and is struggling to hear herself think.
But the chaos and noise of the global climate talks are not enough to drown out her feeling that a historic moment could be only hours away.
Minutes earlier, scientists...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Veteran climate scientists hopeful a historic Paris deal hours awayResearchers to probe links between human activities, water quality
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 11th, 2015
ScienceDaily: Understanding human interactions with the natural environment can enhance the protection of surface water quality in lakes and streams. A multidisciplinary team of researchers will examine the linkages between humans and freshwater quality using a $1.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation's Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems Program. Kelly Cobourn, assistant professor of natural resource economics in Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources and Environment, is principal...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Researchers to probe links between human activities, water qualityPolitics behind climate summit’s 1.5 degree target
Posted by Poliltico: None Given on December 11th, 2015
Poliltico: It was never any surprise that a climate deal wouldn’t cut emissions enough to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, what is surprising is that the debate is now about adopting an even more ambitious target -- 1.5 degrees.
The goal is one that is practically impossible to reach because it would require countries to stop emitting greenhouse gases almost immediately.
“To achieve 1.5 degrees would require developed countries to massively reduce their emissions and massively scale up their...
Paris climate talks: Coming down to the wire with key issues still unresolved
Posted by LA Times: Chris Megerian on December 11th, 2015
LA Times: French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius attempted to nudge negotiations closer to a final agreement on fighting global warming Thursday, proposing compromises on some key issues at the United Nations Climate Change Conference while pushing countries to cut deals on remaining disputes.
"We must do this, and we can do this," Fabius, who is leading the talks, told delegates.
The latest draft of a potential agreement represents an attempt by Fabius to synthesize the positions of nearly 200 countries....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Paris climate talks: Coming down to the wire with key issues still unresolvedExtreme UK rains more likely with warming
Posted by Climate Central: Andrea Thompson on December 11th, 2015
Climate Central: Over this past weekend, a major storm swept across the U.K. and dumped torrential amounts of rain in some spots -- the more than 13 inches that fell in one location in northwest England even set a national 24-hour rainfall record.
Just days later, a real-time analysis by scientists working with Climate Central's World Weather Attribution program has found that global warming has boosted the odds of such an extreme rainfall event in the region by about 40 percent -- a small, but clear, effect,...
The troubling science that’s pushing the world toward a much tougher climate goal
Posted by Washington Post: Chris Mooney on December 11th, 2015
Washington Post: Perhaps the most surprising story out of the Paris climate talks so far is the shift that seems to be occurring in favor of at least some acknowledgment -- if not an outright embrace -- of a 1.5 degrees Celsius global temperature target in a final agreement here.
Holding warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels -- rather than to 2 degrees, which up until now has been the most widely accepted target – would be extraordinarily difficult, if not outright impossible. Scientists have...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on The troubling science that’s pushing the world toward a much tougher climate goalTelescope Foes Want Equipment Gone
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 11th, 2015
Associated Press: Opponents of the Thirty Meter Telescope want construction equipment and vehicles removed from Mauna Kea now that the Hawaii Supreme Court has invalidated the project’s permit.
In a Dec. 2 ruling seen as a victory for opponents fighting the $1.4 billion project, the court said the state land board approved a permit that allowed construction on conservation land before a contested case hearing was held. The court sent the matter back for a new contested case hearing.
“They have no permit. It’s...
Trees either hunker down or press on in drying and warming western US climate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 11th, 2015
ScienceDaily: In the face of adverse conditions, people might feel tempted by two radically different options -- hunker down and wait for conditions to improve, or press on and hope for the best. It would seem that trees employ similar options when the climate turns dry and hot. Two University of Washington researchers have uncovered details of the radically divergent strategies that two common tree species employ to cope with drought in southwestern Colorado. As they report in a new paper in the journal Global...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Trees either hunker down or press on in drying and warming western US climateUnited Kingdom: Climate Change Increased Chances Of Heavy Rains Such As Storm Desmond, Scientists Conclude
Posted by Blue and Green: None Given on December 11th, 2015
Blue and Green: Man-made climate change has increased the chances of heavy rainfall in the area of the UK affected by Storm Desmond, scientists conclude.
Researchers from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), University of Oxford and Climate Central used three independent analytical techniques to show that climate change has increased the likelihood of such rains by about 40%, with the range of increase running from 5% to 80%.
The methods include statistical analyses of the historical temperature...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Climate Change Increased Chances Of Heavy Rains Such As Storm Desmond, Scientists Conclude