Graph of the Day: Increases in Very Heavy Precipitation for Each U.S. Region, 1958-2007

This map shows the percentage increases in very heavy precipitation (defined as the heaviest 1 percent of all event) from 1958 to 2007 for each U.S. region. There are clear trends toward more very heavy precipitation for the nation as a whole, and particularly in the Northeast and Midwest. Updated from Groisman, et al., via […]

Christian Reformed Church Synod says ‘Human-induced climate change is an ethical, social justice, and religious issue’

By Matt Vande Bunte15 June 2012 GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan – Without uniform agreement that the globe is warming or that people are causing it, the Christian Reformed Church’s governing body this week asserted that “human-induced climate change is an ethical, social justice, and religious issue.” Synod 2012 also stated that the church should “take private […]

Built on sinking ground, Norfolk tries to hold back tide amid sea-level rise

By Darryl Fears17 June 2012 NORFOLK, Virginia – At her cozy house by the river, Julie Faella spoke as though a monster lurks nearby. It rises under a tidal moon, she said, or when the winds howl, or when rains crash down. She’s seen it with her own eyes. It crept under the front door […]

Carbon released as trees replace tundra

By Ben Cubby, Environment Editor18 June 2012 In a surprise finding, researchers have shown that as trees start to grow closer to the North Pole, replacing once-barren tundra, they release more greenhouse gases than they absorb. The study has global implications for measuring the speed of global warming because it had previously been thought that […]

The Economist: The melting north

By James Astill16 June 2012 STANDING ON THE Greenland ice cap, it is obvious why restless modern man so reveres wild places. Everywhere you look, ice draws the eye, squeezed and chiselled by a unique coincidence of forces. Gormenghastian ice ridges, silver and lapis blue, ice mounds and other frozen contortions are minutely observable in […]

Video: Japan protests restart of Oi nuclear plant

[More protest videos here. h/t Ex-SKF] By ERIC JOHNSTON, Staff writer17 June 2012 OSAKA – The decision to restart two reactors at the Oi nuclear plant has sparked international concern, with antinuclear activists and politicians in many countries sending letters of protest and holding rallies outside Japanese embassies and consulates over the past week. Politicians […]

Scientists confirm ancient cycle of megadroughts in Sierra Nevada

Media Contact: Mike Wolterbeek, mwolterbeek@unr.edu Media Relations OfficerUniversity Media RelationsUniversity of Nevada, Reno/108Reno, NV 89557Media newsroom: http://newsroom.unr.edu775-784-4547 phone24 May 2012 RENO, Nevada – The erratic year-to-year swings in precipitation totals in the Reno-Tahoe area conjures up the word “drought” every couple of years, and this year is no exception. The Nevada State Climate Office at […]

Iraq ‘green belt’ front line in anti-desertification fight – ‘If we do nothing, the desert will envelop us’

Karbala, Iraq, 3 June 2012 (AFP) – Trees as far as the eye can see are the weapons one Iraqi province is using in the fight against desertification in a country where decades of conflict have exacted a terrible environmental toll. Karbala, 110 kilometres (70 miles) south of Baghdad, is best known as the site […]

As politicians debate climate change, our forests wither

By Sophie Quinton, staff reporter (politics) for National Journal15 June 2012 DILLON, Colorado – Dan Gibbs keeps dead beetles in the back of his beat-up Chevy Silverado. He has a wooden block with beetles impaled on it, each insect about the size of a grain of rice. He’s got vials of embalmed beetles and their […]

Fukushima residents call for criminal charges against nuclear officials – ‘A suffering which shall never end’

By Kyung Lah, CNN11 June 2012 The executives of the Japanese utility that owns the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and a number of the country’s government officials should go to jail, according to a complaint filed by more than 1,000 local residents on Monday. A total of 1,324 people lodged the unusual criminal complaint […]

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