By MANNY FERNANDEZ12 January 2013 AUSTIN, Texas (The New York Times) – There is usually no shortage of controversial and politically divisive issues for lawmakers to address in the opening days of a state legislative session, from abortion to immigration to gun rights. But throughout the opening of the 83rd Texas Legislature last week, one […]
By Ilya Gridneff and Kristen Amiet15 January 2013 (Sydney Morning Herald) – The worst bushfires in NSW for more than a decade have ripped through the state’s north-west, taking 33 homes and destroying 40,000 hectares [154 square miles] of land. More than 80 Rural Fire Service volunteers supported by 18 aircraft spent most of Monday […]
By Ruth Doherty11 January 2013 (AOL) – Incredible pictures of an enormous wall of dust hitting Australia’s west coast have been captured by tugboat workers and plane passengers. The red sand and dust storm headed towards the town of Onslow in north-western Australia, after being picked up by winds in the Indian Ocean. Tugboat worker […]
By Jeff Wise 9 January 2013 The world’s seemingly relentless march toward overpopulation achieved a notable milestone in 2012: Somewhere on the planet, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the 7 billionth living person came into existence. Lucky No. 7,000,000,000 probably celebrated his or her birthday sometime in March and added to a population that’s […]
By David Batty 10 January 2013 (guardian.co.uk) – The Met Office has hit back at claims that it conceded there is no evidence for global warming and that its weather forecasts are inaccurate. The forecaster has published a blog detailing an alleged “series of factual inaccuracies about the Met Office and its science” made in […]
By SARAH LYALL10 January 2013 WORCESTER, England (The New York Times) – Britons may remember 2012 as the year the weather spun off its rails in a chaotic concoction of drought, deluge and flooding, but the unpredictability of it all turns out to have been all too predictable: Around the world, extreme has become the […]
10 January 2013 (The Kansas City Star) – The overwhelming number of scientists who believe in climate change scored another “victory” in 2012. Unfortunately, because of timid political leadership in the United States and around the world, the war against global warming is still being lost. Scientists have long warned that man-made greenhouse gases are […]
By Brian Bowen, bowen@ceres.org, 617-247-0700×14810 January 2013 Boston, Massachusetts (Ceres.org) – The rapid growth in domestic oil production has set the United States on track to become the world’s top oil producer by 2015, but investors are wary of the environmentally damaging practices associated with that growth, specifically the burning off—or flaring—of natural gas that […]
8 January 2013 (University of Central Florida) – Foreign invaders such as pythons and lionfish are not the only threats to Florida’s natural habitat. The native Carolina Willow is also starting to strangle portions of the St. Johns River. Biologists at the University of Central Florida recently completed a study that shows this slender tree […]
By Luke Harding 9 January 2013 (guardian.co.uk) – The tornadoes of fire came from two directions. They quickly engulfed the small Tasmanian fishing town of Dunally, and swept towards the home where Tim and Tammy Holmes were babysitting their five grandchildren. There was no escape. No way out. And so the family did the only […]
