By Michael D. Lemonick 11 September 2012 The official end of the Arctic Ocean melt season could come any time now, but the sea ice that covers the North Polar region has already smashed the previous record low for end-of-summer ice area set in 2007. Back then, a combination of warm temperatures and ice-dispersing winds […]
By Alister Doyle; Editing by Alison Williams11 September 2012 OSLO (Reuters) – The world needs to find the equivalent of the flow of 20 Nile rivers by 2025 to grow enough food to feed a rising population and help avoid conflicts over water scarcity, a group of former leaders said on Monday. Factors such as […]
By IAN LOVETT11 September 2012 LOS ANGELES – Across Southern California, as far afield as Ventura County to the north of here, Orange County to the south and San Bernardino to the east, residents awoke this week to an olfactory insult: a sulfurous smell, like rotten eggs, wafting across hundreds of miles, source unknown. Some […]
By Juliet Eilperin9 September 2012 BOULDER CITY, Nevada – Drought and rising temperatures are forcing water managers across the country to scramble for ways to produce the same amount of power from the hydroelectric grid with less water, including from behemoths such as the Hoover Dam. Hydropower is not the only part of the nation’s […]
By Johann Earle10 September 2012 GEORGETOWN, Guyana (Alertnet) – Guyana has not made the financial investment it needs to cope with worsening floods and rising sea levels, highlighting how poor countries are struggling to make climate change adaptation a spending priority, researchers say. Government funding for sea defences, drainage and irrigation has taken a backseat […]
By Paul Douglas10 September 2012 During the Republican National Convention in Tampa, climate change became a punch line. “President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet,” Mitt Romney said. (Pause for polite laughter) “My promise is to help you and your family.” All well and good. But […]
By Michael D. Lemonick9 September 2012 Forests cover some 30 percent of Earth’s surface, and it’s hard to overestimate how crucial they are to the functioning of the planet. Forests provide shelter for uncountable numbers of species, hold soil in place that would otherwise wash away, pull excess carbon out of the atmosphere, absorb and […]
By Natalie Obiko Pearson 10 September 2012 Inner Mongolia’s rivers are feeding China’s coal industry, turning grasslands into desert. In India, thousands of farmers have protested diverting water to coal-fired power plants, some committing suicide. The struggle to control the world’s water is intensifying around energy supply. China and India alone plan to build $720 […]
By John Blackstone 7 September 2012 SAN GABRIEL MOUNTAINS, California (CBS News) – Summer is nearly over, but the wildfire season in the West is still going strong. Forty wildfires are burning from Southern California to Montana. Nationally, 45,000 fires have left more than 8 million acres scorched. After months of putting out blazes and […]
By Miguel Llanos7 September 2012 (NBC News) – Reefs in the Caribbean and Florida Keys have lost most of the colorful corals that feed a rich ecosystem and made the region a diving and snorkeling mecca, a major conservation group reported Friday. On average, reefs have live coral on just 8 percent of their surface […]
