Climate scientists predict more blazing heat, drought, fires, and millions of dead trees in the U.S. West – ‘The climate is changing, and these fires are a very strong indicator of that’

By Darryl Fears23 June 2016 (Washington Post) – The burning sensation in the southwestern United States was diagnosed by climate scientists more than a year ago. As California broiled in high temperatures and drought last year, academic institutions across the country released study after study that suggested rising temperatures and less moisture were part of […]

Video: Forest Service survey finds record 66 million dead trees in southern Sierra Nevada – ‘Tree dies-offs of this magnitude are unprecedented and increase the risk of catastrophic wildfires’

VALLEJO, California, 22 June 2016 (USFS) – The U.S. Forest Service today announced that it has identified an additional 26 million trees dead in California since October 2015. These trees are located in six counties across 760,000 acres in the southern Sierra Nevada region of the state, and are in addition to the 40 million […]

Sierra Nevada snowpack not likely to recover from drought until 2019

By Matthew Chin21 June 2016 (UCLA) – Even with this winter’s strong El Niño, the Sierra Nevada snowpack will likely take until 2019 to return to pre-drought levels, according to a new analysis led by UCLA hydrology researchers. Additionally, they suggest their new method, which provided unprecedented detail and precision, could be useful in characterizing […]

Venezuelans ransack stores as hunger stalks crumbling nation – ‘We’re not at war and we’re living worse than in a war situation’

21 June 2016 (CBC) – The outlook for Venezuela appears to be dimming every day, and it’s not just because of the country’s daily four-hour mandatory blackouts. The oil-exporting South American country is caught in a perfect storm of droughts, food and power shortages, and devastating inflation and recession caused by plummeting crude prices. “We’re […]

The heat goes on: Record global temperature for 13th consecutive month

16 June 2016 (NOAA) – The State of the Climate is a collection of monthly summaries recapping climate-related occurrences on both a global and national scale. Global highlights: May 2016 The May temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.57°F above the 20th century average of 58.6°F. This was the highest for May in […]

Ongoing conflicts and droughts exacerbate global food needs – Food insecurity spreads as El Niño casts its shadow over Pacific and Caribbean states

ROME, 2 June 2016 – Drought linked to El Niño and civil conflict have pushed the number of countries currently in need of external food assistance up to 37 from 34 in March, according to a new FAO report. The new edition of the Crop Prospects and Food Situation report, released today, adds Papua New […]

Greenpeace: More than 3.5 million hectares of forest burning in eastern Russia

By Khalimat Tekeeva3 June 2016 (Greenpeace) – According to analysis of recent satellite data, forest fires in eastern Russia currently cover more than 3.5 million hectares of forested land. An area larger than Belgium! And the fire season in Russia isn’t over yet. This year’s forest fires are close to becoming one of the most […]

Meteorologists are seeing the effects of global warming – ‘Whatever happened to normal weather?’

By Paul Douglas27 May 2016 (Guardian) – Whatever happened to normal weather? Earth has always experienced epic storms, debilitating drought, and biblical floods. But lately it seems the treadmill of disruptive weather has been set to fast-forward. God’s grand Symphony of the Seasons, the natural ebb and flow of the atmosphere, is playing out of […]

UN-backed report: Climate change a factor in displacing millions

12 May 2016 (UN) – Disasters associated with slow processes of environmental change – drought, sea level rise, and desertification – demonstrate again the growing importance of climate change as a driver of disaster risk, as senior United Nations official said today on the heels of the release of a global report which revealed that […]

A quarter of all Russian forests could be left to burn – Some regions in Siberia underreporting extent of forest fires for ‘political reasons’

By Olga Gertcyk29 May 2016 (Siberian Times) – A quarter of all Russian forests, 89% of stocks in Sakha Republic, could be left to burn, even though they are essential to fight global warming. These vast tracts of forest have been labelled ‘distant and hard-to-reach territories’, and as such it is officially permitted not to […]

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