By JANET ZIMMERMAN, The Press-Enterprise A breeze stirs the silence at Joshua Tree National Park as a red-tailed hawk takes flight from the spiky arm of one of the namesake plants in search of breakfast. It’s a scene that national parks protector Mike Cipra has witnessed many times. Still, he can’t contain his enthusiasm on […]
While long and severe drought in the US state of Georgia is officially “over”, and water restrictions going “off” across the US Southeast, the Canadian prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as pictured) are suffering an historic drought that may have serious impacts on farmers and food production. The Globe & Mail reports that “In […]
By Adam Morton The ocean is warming about 50 per cent faster than reported two years ago, according to an update of the latest climate science. A report compiling research presented at a science congress in Copenhagen in March says recent observations are near the worst-case predictions of the 2007 report by the United Nations’ […]
By Ben Simon BUNDIBUGYO, Uganda (AFP) — In 1906, Mount Speke, one the highest peaks of Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains was covered with 217 hectares (536 acres) of ice, according to the Climate Change Unit at Uganda?s ministry of water and environment. In 2006, only 18.5 hectares remained. Satellite images taken in 1987 and again in […]
By John Ross A LACK of food due to climate change has been blamed for a 19 per cent drop in Scotland’s seabird population over the past eight years. Experts say the decline, which is much greater than the 9 per cent drop for the UK as a whole, highlights a deeply worrying trend. The […]
Reindeer and caribou numbers are plummeting around the world. By Matt Walker The first global review of their status has found that reindeer and caribou numbers are plummeting around the world. It is increasingly difficult for the deer to survive in a world warmed by climate change and altered by industrial development, say scientists. The […]
By Andy Coghlan In just 40 years, the Caribbean’s spectacular branched corals have been flattened. Research reveals that the corals have been replaced by shorter rival species – and points to climate change as at least partly to blame. Most of the reefs have lost all the intricate, tree-like corals that until the 1970s provided […]
As the frozen soil in the Arctic thaws, bacteria will break down organic matter, releasing long-stored carbon into the warming atmosphere. At the same time, plants will proliferate, nurtured by balmier temperatures, more nutrients from decomposing soil and the increasing abundance of the greenhouse gas they depend on for growth. These connected but contrasting changes […]
The fish changed colour. New bird species were spotted. Two bridges were wiped out by a once-in-a-lifetime flood that forced villagers to dump sewage into their pristine waters. The locals have a message for city-dwellers: This is what climate change looks like. “Climate change is real,” says Ron Mongeau, the town manager of Pangnirtung, a […]
Some 160 villages in northern Syria were deserted of their residents in 2007 and 2008 because of a drought associated with climate change, with serious implications for peace in the region, according to a study released on Tuesday. The report drawn up by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) warns of potential armed conflict […]
