Australia developer withdraws from coal port expansion that threatens Great Barrier Reef

By Elisabeth Behrmann  25 February 2014 (Bloomberg News) – Lend Lease Group, Australia’s biggest listed property developer, won’t take part in a planned coal terminal expansion close to the Great Barrier Reef after a mandate for the project lapsed. Lend Lease is no longer part of the AP-X expansion at the port of Abbot Point, […]

Study links global warming to a Peruvian glacier’s retreat

By JUSTIN GILLISFEB25 February 2014 (The New York Times) – Sitting on a flat volcanic plain 18,000 feet above sea level, the great Quelccaya ice cap of Peru is the largest piece of ice in the tropics. In recent decades, as scientists have watched it melt at an accelerating pace, it has also become a […]

North Carolina ash spill shows how watchdog was defanged

By TRIP GABRIEL28 February 2014 RALEIGH, N.C. (The New York Times) – Last June, state employees in charge of stopping water pollution were given updated marching orders on behalf of North Carolina’s new Republican governor and conservative lawmakers. “The General Assembly doesn’t like you,” an official in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources told […]

Storm soaks California, but far from a drought-breaker – ‘The chances of getting back to average are vanishingly small because we’re simply too deep in the hole’

By Colin Atagi and Ian James 1 March 2014 (The Desert Sun) – A storm swirling in from the Pacific Ocean unleashed heavy rains across much of California on Friday, bringing the state a needed soaking but not nearly enough to significantly ease the drought. Snow blanketed peaks in the Sierra Nevada, while in parts […]

Graph of the Day: Arctic sea ice at record low for February

By Brian Kahn19 February 2014 (Climate Central) – Arctic sea ice growth has slowed dramatically in recent weeks, thanks in large part to abnormally warm air and water temperatures. Sea ice now sits at record low levels for mid-February. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, as of February 18, sea ice covered […]

Setting the record straight on misleading claims against climate scientist Michael Mann

25 February 2014 (Climate Science Watch) – Attempts to discredit Prof. Mann and confuse the facts about his defamation lawsuits keep popping up and circulating in the blogosphere. Here we comment on issues pertaining to the conclusions of the Muir Russell investigation, Mark Steyn’s response and counterclaims, and the status of the case in Canada […]

Charles Krauthammer is clueless on climate science: A drinking game

  By Lindsay Abrams25 February 2014 (Salon) – Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer published a head slapper of a column last week, in which the conservative pundit managed to spew an enormous number of misinformed, misleading claims, all couched in this “disclaimer” of an opening graf: I repeat: I’m not a global warming believer. I’m […]

EPA urged to ban dumping of offshore fracking chemicals into California’s ocean

Contact: Miyoko Sakashita, (415) 632-5308, miyoko@biologicaldiversity.org  26 February 2014 SAN FRANCISCO (CBD) – The Center for Biological Diversity today filed a legal petition urging the Environmental Protection Agency to stop oil and gas companies from dumping toxic chemicals from fracking directly into ocean waters off California. About half the oil platforms in the Santa Barbara […]

Image of the Day: Folsom Lake at 17 percent of capacity, 16 January 2014

Folsom Lake, 20 June 2011   Folsom Lake, 16 January 2014 25 February 2014 (NBC News) – Northern California’s Folsom Lake on 16 January 2014. The reservoir, 25 miles northeast of Sacramento, has shrunk from 97 percent capacity in 2011, to just 17 percent capacity this past January, according to a news release from the […]

Brazil’s epic drought a taste of the future – ‘Many of the coffee plantations in these areas will probably have to be abandoned’

25 February 2014 (mongabay.com) – With more than 140 cities implementing water rationing, analysts warning of collapsing soy and coffee exports, and reservoirs and rivers running precipitously low, talk about the World Cup in some parts of Brazil has been sidelined by concerns about an epic drought affecting the country’s agricultural heartland. With its rise […]

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