Miami, the great world city, is drowning while the powers that be look away – ‘Climate change is no longer viewed as a future threat round here. It is something that we are having to deal with today.’

By Robin McKie, science editor11 July 2014  MIAMI (The Observer) – A drive through the sticky Florida heat into Alton Road in Miami Beach can be an unexpectedly awkward business. Most of the boulevard, which runs north through the heart of the resort’s most opulent palm-fringed real estate, has been reduced to a single lane […]

Graph of the Day: Palmer Drought Index for California Division 6, January 1900 – May 2014

12 June 2014 (NOAA) – Parts of the West, especially the southern portions, have been in drought for the last several years, with the PHDI reaching record or near-record low values at times. Time series of precipitation departure show the variation over time (New Mexico, California), while maps of the SPEI show the spatial extent […]

America’s largest reservoir drains to record low as Western drought deepens

By Brett Walton7 July 2014 (EcoWatch) – Lake Mead—America’s largest reservoir, Las Vegas’ main water source and an important indicator for water supplies in the Southwest—will fall this week to its lowest level since 1937 when the manmade lake was first being filled, according to forecasts from the federal Bureau of Reclamation. The record-setting low […]

Failure of spring rains forces Kenya national parks to feed wildlife

By Antony Gitonga 8 July 2014 NAIVASHA, KENYA (The Standard) – The government has announced plans to supply fodder and water to  wildlife in various national parks following adverse weather conditions that has hit parts of the country. The exercise that will be carried out by KWS is meant to save hundreds of wild animals […]

The last drop: America’s breadbasket faces dire water crisis – ‘We’re headed for a brick wall at 100 miles per hour’

By Brian Brown6 July 2014 VEGA, Texas (NBC News) – While a high-pitched wind rattles the windows, and assaults a flapping, fraying American flag in the front yard, Lucas Spinhirne knows he’s staring into an abyss that many in Texas—and across the world—may be forced to contemplate. The once bounteous quantities of water that flowed […]

NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 launches with mission to map carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere

By Steven Siceloff2 July 2014 Kennedy Space Center, Florida (NASA) – A Delta II rocket blazed off the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California early Wednesday morning to begin a landmark mission to survey carbon dioxide gas in Earth’s atmosphere. NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, or OCO-2, is expected to provide insight into […]

What you need to know about the coming jellyfish apocalypse

By James West30 June 2014 More than 50 million Americans swim in the oceans every year (there are actual government surveys of such things). So if your summer plans involves stripping down and bathing in the sun and salt water of your dreams, read on, intrepid beach-goer. There’s something gooey and stingy that’s loving warm […]

On North Carolina’s Outer Banks, dire climate-change predictions prompt a change of forecast – ‘We don’t have any tools in our toolbox other than retreat’

By Lori Montgomery 24 June 2014 NAGS HEAD, N.C. – The dangers of climate change were revealed to Willo Kelly in a government conference room in the summer of 2011. By the end of the century, state officials said, the ocean would be 39 inches higher and her home on the Outer Banks would be […]

May global temperature reaches record high, driven largely by record warm oceans – 39th consecutive May and 351st consecutive month with global temperature above the 20th century average

  May global temperature reaches record high, driven largely by record warm oceans Note: official monthly data for China were not received in time for inclusion in this analysis. For the purposes of this report, NCDC calculated data for China using daily reports from its GHCN-Daily dataset. When official monthly data are received from China, […]

Scientists zero in on cause of starfish die-offs – ‘It’s the largest mortality event for marine diseases we’ve seen. It’s been causing catastrophic mortality.’

By Ashley Ahearn and Katie Campbell, Earthfix   17 June 2014 ORCAS ISLAND, Washington (PBS) – Drew Harvell peers into the nooks and crannies along the rocky shoreline of Eastsound on Orcas Island. Purple and orange starfish clutch the rocks, as if hanging on for dear life. In fact, they are. “It’s a lot worse than […]

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