Image of the Day: Satellite view of Kedarnath after June 2013 flood

By Raju Gusain29 June 2013 Dehradun (India Today) – New satellite images of Kedarnath clearly indicate the devastation which has taken place there. The images, taken by US based NASA’s Landsat 8 satellite on 23 June 2013, when compared with old National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) images provided by the Uttarakhand Space Application Centre, show […]

Brazil confirms Amazon deforestation increase

6 July 2013 (mongabay.com) – Data released by the Brazilian government Friday confirms an increase in Amazon forest loss. Brazil’s National Space Research Institute, INPE, updated data from its near-real-time deforestation tracking system, known as DETER. The system showed a near five-fold increase in forest loss during May 2013 relative to a year earlier, from […]

Photo gallery: Oil train explosion in Quebec town of Lac Mégantic – ‘Everything that was there is gone’

Smoke rises from railway cars that were carrying crude oil after derailing in downtown Lac Mégantic, Quebec, Saturday, 6 July 2013. Photo: Paul Chiasson / THE CANADIAN PRESS Train Derailment Sparks Explosions in Quebec Huge fire erupts in Lac-Mégantic, QC, Canada, as an oil train derails. All of downtown is burning right now. Vers 1:20am […]

2°C climate target is half of what is needed, say scientists – ‘CO2 emissions have to be cut twice as much as if we only want to meet the two degree target’

By Tim Radford for Climate News Network, part of the Guardian Environment Network    5 July 2013 (The Guardian) – Governments that agreed to try to restrict global warming to a rise of no more than 2°C may have set themselves the wrong target, according to Swiss scientists. Marco Steinacher from the University of Bern and […]

Gearing up for an ‘extreme fire year’ in U.S. West – ‘We’re going to have to accept defeat when we're defeated’

By Kaci Poor for The Times-Standard, and Alicia Chang and Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writers6 July 2013 (Eureka Times-Standard) – […] An updated U.S. drought monitor map for California — released each Thursday by the National Drought Mitigation Center — shows nearly all of California, including Humboldt County, falling under a severe drought designation. ”This […]

President Obama launches initiative to curb wildlife trafficking – ‘Poaching operations have expanded beyond small-scale, opportunistic actions to coordinated slaughter commissioned by armed and organized criminal syndicates’

By Suzanne Goldenberg US environment correspondent 1 July 2013 (The Guardian) – Barack Obama launched a new initiative against wildlife trafficking on Monday, using his executive authority to take action against an illegal trade that is fuelling rebel wars and now threatens the survival of elephants and rhinoceroses. The initiative, announced as the president visited […]

Scenes from a melting planet: On the climate-change novel

By Carolyn Kormann3 July 2013 (The New Yorker) – “We don’t have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society,” President Obama said last week as he outlined his climate-change plan. The gibe was widely tweeted and repeated, the message clear: when it comes to global warming, Obama won’t tolerate any more anti-science bunk. […]

Flood fury continues in India, nearly 100,000 people hit

GUWAHATI, 6 July 2013 (Times of India) – The rain-fed mighty Brahmaputra and its tributaries flowing above the danger level across Assam have hit nearly one lakh [100,000] people inundating human habitations and farmland in ten districts with Dhemaji being the worst-hit. Incessant rainfall in the catchment areas of the state’s upper reaches and neighbouring […]

Graph of the Day: Accumulated deforestation for non-Brazil Amazon countries, through 2012

By Rhett A. Butler26 June 2013 (mongabay.com) – Peru had the largest extent of forest loss in 2012, losing 48,000 hectares, an increase of 15,431 ha or 47 percent over 2011. Venezuela (11,606 ha), Colombia (10,069 ha), Bolivia (6,975 ha), Suriname (6,569 ha), Guyana (3,713 ha), Ecuador (1,663 ha), and French Guyana (1,338 ha) followed. […]

How climate change affects Arizona wildfires – ‘We’ve been saying this for some time’

5 July 2013 (Associated Press) – There’s a dangerous but basic equation behind the killer Yarnell Hill, Arizona wildfire and other blazes raging across the West this summer: More heat, more drought, more fuel, and more people in the way are adding up to increasingly ferocious fires. Scientists say a hotter planet will only increase […]

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