ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland’s glaciers shrank by 12 percent over the past decade, melting at their fastest rate due to rising temperatures and lighter snowfalls, a study by the Swiss university ETH showed Monday. “The last decade was the worst decade that we have had in the last 150 years. We lost a lot […]
Beijing (AFP) June 20, 2009 – A drought in Tibet has intensified into the region’s worst in three decades, leaving thousands of hectares parched and killing more than 13,000 head of cattle, China’s state media said Saturday. The report by Xinhua news agency follows a warning by China’s top weather official last month that the […]
From The Oil Drum: By David Murphy Cutler Cleveland of Boston University has reported that the EROI of oil and gas extraction in the U.S. has decreased from 100:1 in the 1930’s to 30:1 in the 1970’s to roughly 11:1 as of 2000 (Figure 1). But beyond the fact that society receives currently around 11 […]
By JANET ZIMMERMAN, The Press-Enterprise A breeze stirs the silence at Joshua Tree National Park as a red-tailed hawk takes flight from the spiky arm of one of the namesake plants in search of breakfast. It’s a scene that national parks protector Mike Cipra has witnessed many times. Still, he can’t contain his enthusiasm on […]
By SOLOMON MOORE LOS ANGELES — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made an unusual request Friday, asking President Obama to declare Fresno County a federal disaster area because of a three-year drought that is straining California’s agricultural industry and worsening unemployment in the hard-hit Central Valley. Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, announced his request on a visit to […]
While long and severe drought in the US state of Georgia is officially “over”, and water restrictions going “off” across the US Southeast, the Canadian prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as pictured) are suffering an historic drought that may have serious impacts on farmers and food production. The Globe & Mail reports that “In […]
Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer Fluctuating ocean conditions may be depleting the food supply of young sea lions that are turning up skinny and ill on California beaches, mirroring the fate of Brandt’s cormorants earlier this spring. The animal strandings are so numerous that the newly expanded Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito can’t keep up. […]
By Adam Morton The ocean is warming about 50 per cent faster than reported two years ago, according to an update of the latest climate science. A report compiling research presented at a science congress in Copenhagen in March says recent observations are near the worst-case predictions of the 2007 report by the United Nations’ […]
ANCHORAGE, Alaska— Today, responding to a court-ordered deadline, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released long-overdue reports documenting the status of polar bears and Pacific walrus in Alaska. The reports confirm that polar bears in Alaska are declining and that Pacific walrus are under threat. Both species are imperiled due to the loss of […]
(NOAA Headquarters) NOAA-supported scientists from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, Louisiana State University, and the University of Michigan are forecasting that the "dead zone" off the coast of Louisiana and Texas in the Gulf of Mexico this summer could be one of the largest on record. Scientists are predicting the area could measure between 7,450 […]
