More rain, flooding for already drenched East Coast – Rain records set throughout the mid-Atlantic

By Barbara Goldberg; Additional reporting by Dave Warner; Editing by Jerry Norton 15 August 2011 NEW YORK (Reuters) – An unstoppable conveyor belt of rain drenched the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic on Monday, adding to record-breaking precipitation that triggered flood watches and a local state of emergency at the start of the workweek. Severe weather in […]

Video: Climate Refugees Trailer

By DOROTHY SPEARS12 August 2011 During the shooting of his 2010 documentary Climate Refugees, the Irish-American filmmaker Michael Nash visited nearly 50 countries in about 18 months, interviewing politicians, scientists, health workers and victims of floods, cyclones, hurricanes and droughts. His conclusion was that short- and longer-term changes in climate are causing vast numbers of […]

Lloyd’s: Drought-caused subsidence costliest natural hazard in parts of Europe – ‘Worse is likely to come’

August 9 (Insurance Journal) – An article on the Lloyd’s web site notes that “news reports on climate change have focused on dire predictions of more hurricanes and increasing flooding due to rising sea levels. But subsidence caused by drought, which has already become a major problem across Europe, will also become much worse due […]

Russia forests burn for second successive year, breaking last year’s record 1 million hectares

By Alexandre Billette, Guardian Weekly 9 August 2011 Only a year ago Russia was overwhelmed by an exceptional heat wave, triggering hundreds of fires that destroyed thousands of hectares of woodland. Burning peat bogs around Moscow stifled the city in a thick cloud of bitter smoke. Now, Russia is burning again. Since the beginning of […]

Video: Texas town runs out of water

KEMP, TEXAS, August 8 (ABC) – Water conservation has been turned up a notch in one North Texas community: The water has been cut off. Kemp Mayor Donald Kile says water was turned off to residents Sunday for 48 hours. KDFW-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth reports that two weeks ago, excessive heat caused the soil to […]

Is climate change to blame for famine in the Horn of Africa?

By Duncan Green8 August 2011 So is famine in the Horn of Africa linked to climate change or not? The question arises whenever “extreme weather events” – hurricanes, floods, droughts – hit our TV screens. It’s impossible to answer with a simple yes or no – but here’s what we think we know so far. […]

Fast facts about the East Africa drought, August 2011

NAIROBI, 5 August 2011 (IRIN) – The Horn of Africa is facing what has been called the worst drought in 60 years, with an estimated 12.4 million people urgently needing food. Here are some points about the ongoing food crisis: When to use the “F” word – Although some media reports have described the food […]

Oklahoma and Texas droughts worsened significantly after governors asked citizens to pray for rain

By Joe Romm 4 August 2011 In light of the sustained drought, Governor Mary Fallin today asked all Oklahomans to set aside time this Sunday, July 17, to pray for rain. That was two weeks ago.  The result is that Oklahoma went from the drought condition on the right to the one on the left […]

Historic drought worsens in Midwest; parched Plains in bad shape

By Michael Hirtzer with additional reporting by Julie Ingwersen; Editing by John Picinich4 Aug 2011 CHICAGO (Reuters) – Drought worsened in the Midwest during the last week as record-high temperatures stressed the developing corn and soybean crops, while cotton and pastures eroded amid a historic drought in the southern Plains. Nearly 38 percent of the […]

Heat wave pushes Texas power grid into red zone – Record power usage tops 68,000 megawatts

By Eileen O’Grady, with additional reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York, editing by Chris Baltimore; Editing by David Gregorio4 Aug 2011 HOUSTON (Reuters) – The Texas power grid operator has scrambled this week to meet soaring electricity demand in the face of a brutal heat wave, and residents of the second most populous U.S. […]

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