Amateur naturalists help track shifting seasons as climate changes

By David Richardson9 Apr 2012 Susan Peters, who moved from the East Coast to Tucson, Ariz., a couple of years ago, calls her adopted town an “oasis” — never mind that it only gets 12.6 inches of rain each year on average. “I have a very green, beautiful yard with desert-adapted plants, not the East […]

Environmental, population, and climate factors in the Arab awakening

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN7 April 2012 ISN’T it interesting that the Arab awakening began in Tunisia with a fruit vendor who was harassed by police for not having a permit to sell food — just at the moment when world food prices hit record highs? And that it began in Syria with farmers in the […]

Drought, cholera kill 10,000 birds at vital refuge

By JEFF BARNARD8 April 2012 TULELAKE, California – Dave Mauser walked the edge of a mudflat, peering underneath the dried brown rushes where one coot after another had gone to hide and then die. “Now the coots are getting the worst of it,” said Mauser, head biologist on the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, the […]

Anchorage breaks seasonal snowfall record

8 April 2012 (CNN) – While winter is a distant memory for most Americans, it continues unabated in Anchorage, Alaska — where a new bout of precipitation this weekend helped the city break its record for seasonal snowfall, at more than 133 inches (3.38 meters). Some 3.4 inches of snow — and counting — had fallen […]

Which plants will survive droughts, climate change?

By Stuart Wolpert5 April 2012 New research by UCLA life scientists could lead to predictions of which plant species will escape extinction from climate change. Droughts are worsening around the world, posing a great challenge to plants in all ecosystems, said Lawren Sack, a UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and senior author of […]

Ready or not: How water-ready is your state?

4 April 2012 (NRDC) – As climate change affects communities across the U.S., some states are leading the way in preparing for the impacts on water resources. These states are reducing carbon pollution and planning for climate change impacts. Yet many states are not acting and remain woefully unprepared. Green: The state has developed an […]

Global warming is a moral issue on par with slavery: NASA scientist

By Severin Carrell, www.guardian.co.uk 6 April 2012 Averting the worst consequences of human-induced climate change is a “great moral issue” on a par with slavery, according to the leading Nasa climate scientist Prof Jim Hansen. He argues that storing up expensive and destructive consequences for society in future is an “injustice of one generation to […]

Tornadoes fuel $1.2 billion March storm cost in U.S.: insurance broker Aon

By Andrew Frye 5 April 2012 Severe weather in the U.S., led by tornadoes in the Midwest and Tennessee Valley, caused more than $1.2 billion of insured losses in March, according to Aon Corp. (AON), the world’s biggest insurance broker. Insurers reported more than 170,000 claims tied to storms from March 2 and 3, London-based […]

Ice age study delivers blow to global-warming skeptics

By Pete Spotts, Staff writer 5 April 2012 Rising levels of carbon dioxide drove much of the global warming that thawed Earth at the end of the last ice age. That’s the conclusion a team of scientists has drawn in a new study examining the factors that closed the door on the last ice age, […]

Antarctic ice shelf dwindles as satellite continues to look on

By Wynne Parry, LiveScience5 April 2012 As a European satellite enters its second decade in orbit, it continues to observe the retreat of an Antarctic ice sheet, which has been dwindling due to warming. The satellite, Envisat, was launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) on March 1, 2002. One of its first observations was […]

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