Photo gallery: Aerial view of drought and fire impacts on California landscape

By Amy Graff29 March 2016 (Seattle PI) – About three and a half years ago, Thomas Heinser was on a plane landing at San Francisco International Airport, when he was admiring the beautiful color palettes of the salt ponds on the edge of the bay. The S.F.-based photographer had spent many years taking aerial images […]

Sierra snowpack better than 2015, but not enough to declare California drought over – ‘A big improvement compared to last year, but not what we had hoped for’

By Matt Stevens30 March 2016 (Los Angeles Times) – In a symbolic moment in California’s slow but steady drought recovery, a state surveyor on Wednesday found several feet of snow in the same Sierra Nevada meadow that was bare and brown just a year ago. The depth of the snowpack was declared to be just […]

Vietnam’s southern Mekong Delta faces worst drought in history – ‘Those who have rice in hands will make fat profits’

HANOI, Vietnam, 17 March 2016 (AP) – Vietnam’s southern Mekong Delta, the country’s main rice growing region, is experiencing the worst drought and saline intrusion in recent history that has affected more than half a million people, officials said Thursday. The drought could result in the loss of up to 1 million tons of rice, […]

Is India facing its worst-ever water crisis? ‘The unthinkable is happening’

By Soutik Biswas 27 March 2016 (BBC News) – On 11 March 2016, panic struck engineers at a giant power station on the banks of the Ganges river in West Bengal state. Readings showed that the water level in the canal connecting the river to the plant was going down rapidly. Water is used to […]

Most major California reservoirs below average levels at end of rainy season

28 March 2016 (Rabett Run) – Last week I was asked by my Rotary Club to give opening comments before a guest speaker from Lockheed Martin talked about new technology developments, so I decided to talk about water and technology. To set the stage, we’re having an unusually average water year in California. The story […]

Drought alters recovery of Rocky Mountain forests after fire – ‘It’s a double whammy because even if seeds can get to a burned patch, they still need to survive once they get there. That may be much harder to do in a warmer, drier climate.’

By Kelly April Tyrrell21 March 2016 (University of Wisconsin-Madison) – A changing climate is altering the ability of Rocky Mountain forests to recover from wildfire, according to a new study published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography. When warm, dry conditions lead to drought in the years following fires, it impedes the growth and […]

‘The future is happening now,’ warns UN, calling for urgent measures to cut carbon emissions – ‘We haven’t changed our behaviors’

21 March 2016 (UN) – The Earth is already one degree Celsius hotter than at the start of the 20th century, halfway to the critical two-degree threshold, and national climate change plans adopted so far may not be enough to avoid a three-degree temperature rise, the UN weather agency warned today upon the release of […]

Climate change could lead to changes in ecosystems, lifestyles – ‘That’s a fairly ominous change, especially when you think about fire’

By Melissa Jameson14 March 2016 (BC Local News) – Simply put, says Kootenay scientist Greg Utzig, climate change is about air. “What we’re talking about in terms of climate change is air,” said Utzig at a talk on climate change in Revelstoke last week. “That is what this issue is all about. You wouldn’t think […]

In the Iditarod, global warming makes it a year for the record books – ‘I’m not sure winter ever came to south-central Alaska’

By William Yardley and Kyle Hopkins15 March 2016 NOME, Alaska (Los Angeles Times) – The winters keep getting warmer. The racers keep getting faster. When Dallas Seavey and his team of sled dogs arrived in this remote old gold rush town on the Bering Sea shortly after 2 a.m. on Tuesday, Seavey celebrated his fourth […]

Puget Sound coho salmon return forecasts ‘critical’ – Tribes propose canceling fishing season – ‘The loss of coho fishing on the heels of losing chinook fishing last year would be absolutely devastating’

By Alison Morrow11 March 2016 (KING 5 News) – The Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission is asking wildlife officials to consider canceling the coho fishery across Puget Sound this year. Warmer water in the oceans has made it tough for all salmon returning to Puget Sound. Wild coho return forecasts are at historic lows. In some […]

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