Despite drought, Californians fall short in water cutbacks

SAN FRANCISCO, 25 February 2016 (AP) – Californians are starting to fall behind the state’s mandatory 25-percent water conservation target even though the state remains in drought, state officials said Thursday. As of January, water users in California’s cities and towns have managed to use 24.8 percent less water since mandatory conservation began last year, […]

Photo gallery: Aftermath of Cyclone Winston in Fiji

By Lucy Thackray25 February 2016 (Daily Mail) – Fiji is in a state of natural disaster and its people are in urgent need after Cyclone Winston ripped through the Island nation and left a trail of destruction and heartbreak with 44 dead, more than 35,000 homeless and everyone – babies, families and the elderly – […]

Seas are now rising faster than they have in 2,800 years, scientists say

By Chris Mooney 22 February 2016 (Washington Post) – A group of scientists says it has now reconstructed the history of the planet’s sea levels arcing back over some 3,000 years — leading it to conclude that the rate of increase experienced in the 20th century was “extremely likely” to have been faster than during […]

University of Chicago professors urge fossil fuel divestment over climate change – ‘Profiting from these industries conflicts with the paramount social value of avoiding significant and permanent degradation of our planet’

By Suzanne Goldenberg22 February 2016 (Guardian) – More than 250 professors at the University of Chicago have called on the school to fight climate change by ridding itself of fossil fuel holdings – a gesture that would have exceptional resonance from the former home of Barack Obama and alma mater of current presidential contender Bernie […]

Forest fires threaten wipeout for Siberia conifers as deciduous trees take over – In 2015, 2.6 million hectares of forest burned in Russia

24 February 2016 (Siberian Times) – Global warming spells doom for boreal forests with potentially dramatic implications for carbon release in dark taiga. Climate change is behind a rise in forest fires which are having a direct impact on the tree balance in Siberia, according to a new international study. This shows that conifers are […]

Scientists link massive starfish die-off to warming ocean

By Lynda V. Mapes21 February 2016 (Seattle Times) – It was the starfish arms walking off on their own that alerted biologist Steven Fradkin that something was terribly wrong at Starfish Point at Olympic National Park. Next he noticed white lesions pitting the skin of the usually colorful orange, purple and brick-red starfish that are […]

Summer drought rules likely to continue in California despite El Niño rains – ‘It would have to rain almost every day — storm after storm after storm’

By Paul Rogers22 February 2016 (Santa Cruz Sentinel) – Even in the midst of a strong El Niño, California’s sunny weather this February is not surprising, experts say: The longest dry spell this month — 14 days — is actually less than the average for a strong El Niño winter. But state water officials said […]

Cyclone Winston: Fiji death toll reaches 42 with entire villages wiped out on remote islands – ‘Maybe by next week there will be no more food’

By Liam Fox and Michael Walsh24 February 2016 (ABC) – The death toll from super-cyclone Winston that hit Fiji on the weekend has reached 42, with reports emerging entire villages have been wiped out on some remote islands. The Fijian Government confirmed the death toll, saying it feared the number would rise further as relief […]

Scientists urge American Geophysical Union to cut ties with Exxon over climate denial

By Zahra Hirji, 22 February 2016 (InsideClimate News) – More than 100 geoscientists are calling on the American Geophysical Union to drop ExxonMobil as a sponsor of its annual earth science conference in response to the company’s years of spreading climate denial views. The call appeared in an open letter posted Monday morning on a […]

Bees can help boost food security of two billion small farmers at no cost, but wild bees are threatened by a multitude of factors

19 February 2016 (UN) – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today highlighted the publication of a new study that quantifies, for the first time, how much crop yields depend on the work of bees that unknowingly fertilize plants as they move from flower to flower. In doing so, the agency says bees […]

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