By Rhett A. Butler, www.mongabay.com20 August 2012 Latin America lost nearly 260,000 square kilometers (100,000 square miles) of forest — an area larger than the state of Oregon — between 2001 and 2010, finds a new study [pdf] that is the first to assess both net forest loss and regrowth across the Caribbean, Central and […]
By Jon Bardin10 September 2012 (Los Angeles Times) – West Nile virus has caused symptoms in at least 1,993 Americans and killed 87 so far this year. And it’s unlikely that this virus, which humans contract from infected mosquitoes, will be getting any less dangerous in the near future. Though the CDC believes that this […]
By Tsuyoshi Inajima, Takashi Hirokawa, and Yuji Okada14 September 2012 Japan plans to scrap atomic power by the end of the 2030s, bowing to public pressure after the Fukushima nuclear disaster caused mass evacuations and left areas north of Tokyo uninhabitable for decades. The country’s first post-Fukushima energy policy approved today by Prime Minister Yoshihiko […]
Futurist Daniel Rirdan’s passionate appeal to save what’s left of Earth’s biosphere: (www.getreal.info) This is the formation of an action-oriented movement with an actual plan to avert an eventual collapse of the various ecosystems and also, indirectly, the manmade world. Also, check out his well-researched book: The Blueprint: Averting Global Collapse. The most important call […]
[This afternoon, Desdemona wondered why the Seattle sunlight again has that orange, hazy cast. Apparently, reports that Typhoon Bolaven extinguished the Siberia wildfires were premature.] Caption by Adam Voiland, with information from Christine Wiedinmyer, Jon Ranson, and Vyacheslav Kharuk. 13 September 2012 The summer of 2012 has proven to be the most severe wildfire season […]
By Michael D. Lemonick 11 September 2012 The official end of the Arctic Ocean melt season could come any time now, but the sea ice that covers the North Polar region has already smashed the previous record low for end-of-summer ice area set in 2007. Back then, a combination of warm temperatures and ice-dispersing winds […]
By Alister Doyle; Editing by Alison Williams11 September 2012 OSLO (Reuters) – The world needs to find the equivalent of the flow of 20 Nile rivers by 2025 to grow enough food to feed a rising population and help avoid conflicts over water scarcity, a group of former leaders said on Monday. Factors such as […]
By IAN LOVETT11 September 2012 LOS ANGELES – Across Southern California, as far afield as Ventura County to the north of here, Orange County to the south and San Bernardino to the east, residents awoke this week to an olfactory insult: a sulfurous smell, like rotten eggs, wafting across hundreds of miles, source unknown. Some […]
By Juliet Eilperin9 September 2012 BOULDER CITY, Nevada – Drought and rising temperatures are forcing water managers across the country to scramble for ways to produce the same amount of power from the hydroelectric grid with less water, including from behemoths such as the Hoover Dam. Hydropower is not the only part of the nation’s […]
By Johann Earle10 September 2012 GEORGETOWN, Guyana (Alertnet) – Guyana has not made the financial investment it needs to cope with worsening floods and rising sea levels, highlighting how poor countries are struggling to make climate change adaptation a spending priority, researchers say. Government funding for sea defences, drainage and irrigation has taken a backseat […]
