By Peter Hannam, Carbon economy editor8 January 2013 (Sydney Morning Herald) – Australia’s exposure to natural risks is on the increase and governments at all levels should step up joint efforts to limit the losses and prevent insurance costs from spiralling higher, one of the country’s biggest insurers says. Modest investments in flood or fire […]
By Susan Osborne and Jake Crouch8 January 2013 (ClimateWatch Magazine) – According to the latest statistics from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, the average temperature for the contiguous United States for 2012 was 55.3° Fahrenheit, which was 3.2° Fahrenheit above the twentieth-century average and 1.0° Fahrenheit above the previous record from 1998. The year consisted […]
9 January 2013 (Desdemona Despair) – In February 2009, Desdemona was new to blogging. The world was still reeling from the global financial collapse caused by the deregulated, automated, shadow banking system – currently valued at $67 trillion and growing! Global warming was fading into the background of the public consciousness. Except in Australia, where […]
By Peter Hannam, Carbon economy editor9 January 2013 (Sydney Morning Herald) – Australia’s “dome of heat” has become so intense that the temperatures are rising off the charts – literally. The Bureau of Meteorology’s interactive weather forecasting chart has added new colours – deep purple and pink – to extend its previous temperature range that […]
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer8 January 2013 WASHINGTON (AP) – America set an off-the-charts heat record in 2012. A brutal combination of a widespread drought and a mostly absent winter pushed the average annual U.S. temperature last year up to 55.32 degrees Fahrenheit, the government announced Tuesday. That’s a full degree warmer than the […]
By Jeremy Hance2 January 2013 (mongabay.com) – In the western U.S., few trees generally grow in higher altitudes than the whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis). Providing shelter and food for bears, squirrels and birds, the whitebark pine ecosystems also help regulate water flow from snowmelt. But, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the […]
By Peter Hannam, Carbon economy editor8 January 2013 Australia’s “exceptional” heatwave has produced record-breaking temperatures, with at least six of the first seven days of 2013 among the top 20 hottest days in the past century. The extreme January heat has prompted the Bureau of Meteorology to issue a special climate statement, with further updates […]
Contact: Media Relations Munich, Michael Able, Tel.: +49 (89) 3891-2934Media contact in Asia, Nikola Kemper, Tel.: +852 2536 6936 Media Relations USA, Beate Monastiridis-Dörr, Tel.: +1 (609) 243-4622 3 January 2013 Munich (Munich Re) – The USA accounted for a higher proportion of global natural catastrophe losses than usual in 2012, due to a series […]
By Caroline Stauffer, with additional reporting by Jeb Blount; Editing by Brian Winter and Vicki Allen4 January 2013 SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s Northeast is suffering its worst drought in decades, threatening hydro-power supplies in an area prone to blackouts and potentially slowing economic growth in one of the country’s emerging agricultural frontiers. Lack of […]
By Kevin Murphy, with additional reporting by Greg McCune and Christine Stebbins; Editing by Claudia Parsons31 December 2012 LIBERAL, Kansas (Reuters) – Real estate agent Mark Faulkner recalls a day in early November when he was putting up a sign near Ulysses, Kansas, in 60-miles-per-hour winds that blew up blinding dust clouds. “There were places […]
