By Dan Vergano3 March 2013 (USA TODAY) – Deforestation by early farmers likely kicked off an era of man-made climate change long before our present era, suggests a climate scientist taking a hard look at agriculture’s early effects. Chopping down trees with flint axes, planting peas and shearing sheep — those all sound like the […]
By Lisa Palmer1 March 2013 (The New York Times) – Dieter Helm has long been frustrated that, despite more than two decades of international negotiations, the world has failed to tackle climate change. So he got angry, he said, and decided to write a book about it: The Carbon Crunch: How We’re Getting Climate Change […]
By Tanya Lewis, LiveScience1 March 2013 (NBC News) – Coastal regions around the United States respond differently to ocean acidification, a large-scale study finds. In the new study, scientists from 11 U.S. institutions measured levels of carbon dioxide and other forms of carbon in waters off the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. If […]
Arctic Nautical Charting Plan from climate central By Michael D. Lemonick27 February 2013 (Climate Central) – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has launched a program to update some of its nautical charts, thanks largely to climate change. The revisions affect Alaska’s coast, which has America’s only Arctic seafront. As a result of global […]
By Matt McGrath, Environment correspondent, BBC News1 March 2013 (BBC) – The most accurate assessment to date of the impact of commercial fishing on sharks suggests around 100 million are being killed each year. The researchers say that this rate of exploitation is far too high, especially for a species which reproduces later in life. […]
By Adam Vaughan 28 February 2013 (guardian.co.uk) – Public concern in environmental issues including global warming, the loss of species and air pollution has dropped to its lowest level in two decades, according to an international poll released this week. The GlobeScan poll, undertaken last summer before superstorm Sandy hit the Caribbean and New York, […]
[UPDATE: Keystone XL pipeline: US government report drew on analysis by oil consultants] By Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson1 March 2013 (Washington Post) – The State Department released a draft environmental impact assessment of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline Friday afternoon, suggesting that blocking the project would not have a significant impact on either the […]
In an escalation of the annual farce that plays out at the Weblog Awards (cf. Antiscience site wins another ‘Best Science or Technology Weblog’ award), this year we have 4 of 5 nominees in the Science category held by antiscience blogs. In 2010, Des tried to persuade the Weblog Awards staff to reconsider allowing antiscience […]
By Walter Hickey 27 February 2013 (Business Insider) – Sequestration will likely go through as scheduled, meaning that Congress has not acted on the first of three “mini-cliffs” that resulted from January’s fiscal cliff negotiation. The next mini-cliff, scheduled to hit on March 27, will absolutely require action. If events in Congress remain at a […]
By Paul Watson, observer1 March 2013 The Japanese whaling fleet has left the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary and is heading north. The ships crossing north of sixty degrees are the Nisshin Maru, Yushin Maru, Yushin Maru No. 2, Shonan Maru No. 2, the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker. The entire Japanese whaling fleet is […]