9 March 2015 (The Economist) – February 2015 was the wettest month in the region around São Paulo since 1995, with rainfall 36% above the historical average [This isn’t evident from the graph. I think the author means “36% above the historical minimum.” –Des]. But the water emergency in South America’s biggest metropolis is not […]
By Peter Walker and Paul Farrell16 March 2015 (The Guardian) – At least 24 people died when cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu at the weekend, authorities have confirmed. The storm flattened buildings, wrecked infrastructure and has left more than 3,000 people in the South Pacific island nation displaced. As the full scale of the storm remained […]
By Chris Spears16 March 2015 DENVER (CBS4) – The calendar might still show winter, but it felt more like early summer across Colorado on Monday. For the second day in a row new record high temperatures were set across the region. Denver’s high of 81°F at Denver International Airport on Mar. 16 broke the previous […]
By Alissa Walker17 March 2015 (Gizmodo) – After confronting the truth that we have only one year of water left, California passed new water restrictions today which are WIMPY AS HELL. Here, California, I fixed them for you. Admittedly, the impact of these restrictions is lessened because many of the state’s cities already have their […]
10 February 2015 (Conservation Letters) – Red List Indices for (a) pollinating and non-pollinating bird species; (b) pollinating and non-pollinating mammal species; and (c) aggregated pollinating and non-pollinating birds and mammals. An RLI value of 1 equates to all species being Least Concern; an RLI value of 0 equates to all species being Extinct. Improvements […]
4 March 2015 (Carbon Counter) – China has put in place plans to “cap” coal consumption and production in 2020. For whatever reason, this is regularly rendered as “China has plans to peak coal consumption by 2020″. This is not exactly correct. The cap itself can, and probably will, simply increase after 2020. Another case […]
By Andrea Thompson 6 March 2015 (Climate Central) – As Yogi Berra famously said, “it’s déjà vu all over again.” While much of the eastern U.S. digs out from yet another snow and ice storm, the West has capped off a decidedly toasty winter. In fact, California, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and Washington each saw their […]
25 February 2015 (Sea Shepherd Global) – In our Poacher Profile series, we take a closer look at the criminal profiteers who are behind Illegal, Unregulated, and Unreported (IUU) fishing operations in the Southern Ocean. You may have heard the name Vidal Armadores linked to the 2 poaching vessels that were intercepted by the Sea […]
By Mike Hager13 March 2015 (The Globe and Mail) – John Pomeroy had long sensed something was amiss with the Earth’s climate, but a balmy mid-winter rain shower in the Rockies finally offered him incontrovertible proof that dramatic changes were occurring. It was 2005, and Prof. Pomeroy, one of Canada’s leading hydrologists, was re-establishing the […]
By Jay Famiglietti 12 March 2015 (Los Angeles Times) – Given the historic low temperatures and snowfalls that pummeled the eastern U.S. this winter, it might be easy to overlook how devastating California’s winter was as well. As our “wet” season draws to a close, it is clear that the paltry rain and snowfall have […]