“Climate gentrification” the latest threat to coastal cities, as upscale development replaces affordable housing – “There’s no place to live”

By Christopher Flavelle 23 April 2018 (Bloomberg) – When Hurricane Irma reached Florida’s Big Pine Key in September 2017, it caused the floor of Terry and Sharon Baron’s cream-colored mobile home to collapse. On Marathon Key, twenty miles north, the winds lifted Diane Gaffield’s mobile home off its concrete pad and smashed it against her […]

Environmental group wants to carve Trump’s face into a glacier to prove global warming is happening

By Christopher Brito 1 May 2018 (CBS News) – An environmental group wants to carve President Trump’s face into an arctic iceberg for one special purpose: To prove climate change is happening. “Melting Ice,” a Finnish non-governmental organization, aims to raise about $500,000 to build a 115-foot monument dedicated to Mr. Trump. Nicholas Prieto, chairman […]

Flooding hot spots: Why seas are rising faster on the U.S. East Coast – “These coastal areas are more vulnerable than they realize to short-term rapid acceleration of sea level rise”

By Jim Morrison 24 April 2018 (Yale E360) – Seen from a pedestrian footbridge overlooking Myrtle Park — a sliver of land that Norfolk, Virginia is allowing to revert to wetlands — the panorama of surrounding homes illustrates the accelerating sea level rise that has beleaguered this neighborhood along the Lafayette River. A grey house, […]

“Freak” dust storms in northern India kill at least 100 people – “Dust storms are usually not this intense nor do these systems cover such a large area”

By Michael Safi 3 May 2018 DELHI (The Guardian) – Severe dust storms across northern India have killed more than 100 people, destroyed homes and left hundreds without electricity.Billowing clouds of thick dust and sand frequently blow across the region during the dry season, but the death toll from this week’s storms has been unusually […]

U.S. infections from tick, fleas, and mosquito bites have tripled since 2004 – As climate warms, “it enables these ticks to expand to new areas”

1 May 2018 (E360 Digest) – The number of people in the United States infected by mosquito, tick, and flea-transmitted diseases have tripled, increasing from 27,388 cases in 2004 to 96,075 in 2016, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control. Since 2004, nine insect-borne diseases have also been discovered or introduced […]

Climate change making California’s drought-flood cycle more volatile – “These are actually huge changes occurring – they’re just on opposite ends of the spectrum”

By David Colgan 23 April 2018 (UCLA) – California is headed for a future of precipitation extremes.Research by UCLA climate scientists, published today in Nature Climate Change, projects that the state will experience a much greater number of extremely wet and extremely dry weather seasons — especially wet — by the end of the century. […]

A Hawaiian island got about 50 inches of rain in 24 hours. Scientists warn it’s a sign of the future – “Our communities are scaled and built for a climate that no longer exists”

By Heidi Chang 28 April 2018 (Los Angeles Times) – Since the 1940s, the Hawaiian island of Kauai has endured two tsunamis and two hurricanes, but locals say they have never experienced anything like the thunderstorm that drenched the island this month. “The rain gauge in Hanalei broke at 28 inches within 24 hours,” said […]

Harvey recovery funds may prioritize wealthy, advocates say – “It’s absolutely a civil rights issue”

AUSTIN, Texas, 27 April 2018 (AP) – Advocacy groups said Friday that Texas is poised to unfairly distribute billions in federal funding provided for housing repairs following Hurricane Harvey’s devastation — prioritizing wealthy homeowners over poorer victims in ways that could constitute racial discrimination. At issue is a draft state rebuilding plan that says homeowners […]

Grassland plants show surprising appetite for carbon dioxide

By Jeff Tollefson 19 April 2018 (Nature) – Grasslands in warm and dry climates could grow faster as carbon dioxide levels rise, according to data from a long-term ecological field experiment in Minnesota. The finding, which runs counter to long-established ideas about how plants will respond to the greenhouse gas, suggests that grasslands could provide […]

Shorebirds, the world’s greatest travelers, face extinction – “A worldwide catastrophe is underway”

By John W. Fitzpatrick and Nathan R. Senner 27 April 2018 (The New York Times) – A worldwide catastrophe is underway among an extraordinary group of birds — the marathon migrants we know as shorebirds. Numbers of some species are falling so quickly that many biologists fear an imminent planet-wide wave of extinctions. These declines […]

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