Delmarva Peninsula residents must come to terms with sea level rise

29 March 2013 (DelmarvaNow) – Last October’s Hurricane Sandy was a costly affair for Somerset County, hitting Crisfield residents especially hard, with flood waters up to 5 feet deep that destroyed property and in the aftermath, shook the town’s economic and physical foundations. There was little time to escape rapidly rising waters as the storm […]

Prof Sir John Beddington warns of floods, droughts, and storms – ‘The evidence that climate change is happening is completely unequivocal’

By Pallab Ghosh, Science correspondent, BBC News 25 March 2013 (BBC) – The UK government’s chief scientist has said that there is already enough CO2 in the atmosphere for there to be more floods and droughts over the next 25 years. Prof Sir John Beddington said there was a “need for urgency” in tackling climate […]

Can we predict when people will abandon the Jersey Shore? ‘The way we’re doing things at the coast right now is dumb’

By Dave Levitan20 March 2013 (Discover Magazine) – Diamond City, North Carolina, is not actually a city, in that no one actually lives there. People did live there, though, back in 1899. That was when a major hurricane hit the community, on a small barrier island near Cape Hatteras. Homes were destroyed, animals were killed, […]

Climate-driven disasters cost Victorians $4 billion over the last decade

By Tom Arup, Environment editor, The Age20 March 2013 (The Age) – Climate-driven disasters such as bushfires and floods have cost Victorian taxpayers more than $4 billion over the last decade, it has emerged, as the Napthine Government released its plan for Victoria to prepare for the future impacts of climate change [pdf]. The plan […]

Hurricane Sandy victims agonize over fate of Jersey Shore homes – ‘Who’s going to want to buy a house where the flood insurance is going to be so much more?’

HACKENSACK, New Jersey, 10 March 2013 (Associated Press) – Thousands of Jersey Shore owners whose homes were flooded by Superstorm Sandy are now facing the most crucial decision yet: raise, sell, or raze. Is it cheaper to elevate or demolish? How long a wait will there be for insurance and grant money? Can the emotional […]

Rising sea levels threaten historic Jamestown, marine geologist says island’s future is grim – ‘You can only fight nature for so long, because she will win’

JAMESTOWN, Virginia, 10 March 2013 (Associated Press) – Rising sea levels are threatening Jamestown, the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America. Jamestown Island, where most of Jamestown is located, lies 3 feet or less above the tidal James River. Scientists project that it will be underwater by 2100, but flooding will […]

Investors embrace climate change, chase hotter profits – ‘The climate is changing. Sea level is rising. That’s quite obvious. Cities close to the waterline continue to grow and need more protection. It’s almost a natural growth market.’

By Matthew Campbell and Chris V. Nicholson 7 March 2013 (Bloomberg) – Investing in climate change used to mean financing the fight against global warming. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and other firms took stakes in wind farms and tidal-energy projects, and set up carbon-trading desks. Then, as efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions faltered, […]

Arctic ice loss amplified Superstorm Sandy violence

By Blaine Friedlander4 March 2013 (Cornell Chronicle) – If you believe that last October’s Superstorm Sandy was a freak of nature — the confluence of unusual meteorological, atmospheric and celestial events — think again. Cornell and Rutgers researchers report in the March issue of Oceanography that the severe loss of summertime Arctic sea ice — […]

How a drought in China may have helped spark the Arab Spring – ‘We will have more droughts, more floods, and they will be more severe’

By Raveena Aulakh Environment Reporter5 March 2013 (Toronto Star) – Drought in eastern China. A shortage of wheat. An uprising in Egypt. On the face of it, the three don’t seem related. But two years after revolutions swept through the Arab world, a new study argues that climate change played a significant role in the […]

Infographic: How climate change is destroying Earth

14 February 2013 (LearnStuff) – Thanks to extensive research and noticeable changes in weather and storm prevalence, it’s getting harder to turn a blind eye to the reality of climate change. Since the Industrial Age spurred the increasing usage of fossil fuels for energy production, the weather has been warming. In fact, since 1880, the […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial