By Emily Atkin 14 September 2017 (New Republic) – In the days and hours before Hurricane Irma slammed into Florida, its residents were treated to copious media speculation about nightmare scenarios. This monster storm, journalists said, could bring a 15-foot storm surge, blow roofs off of buildings, and cause tens of billions of dollars in […]
By Alister Doyle 27 September 2017 OSLO (Reuters) – Weather extremes and air pollution from burning fossil fuels cost the United States $240 billion a year in the past decade, according to a report [pdf] on Wednesday that urged President Donald Trump to do more to combat climate change. This year is likely to be […]
By Mike Gaworecki 20 September 2017 (Mongabay) – A team of researchers based in Australia and the United States have used historical nautical maps to determine that coral reef loss in the Florida Keys is much more extensive than previously understood.The British empire began mapping its overseas territories in the 18th century, and coral reefs […]
By Seth Cline 22 September 2017 (US News) – To some, climate change is a vague idea, a hazy future. In parts of the South, it’s become a devastating reality. “When you drive down the street there’s piles and piles of furniture, clothing, shoes, sound systems, just about anything you find inside a home,” Hilton […]
By Emre Kelly 21 September 2017 (Florida Today) – A tiny tree seed that began its voyage in an Apollo command module and later sprouted to life at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex was lost to the winds of Hurricane Irma earlier this month. Known as a “Moon Tree,” the perennial plant once located […]
By Kerry Emanuel 19 September 2017 (The Washington Post) – As the United States struggles to recover from two back-to-back hurricanes, it would be wise to reflect on why we keep having such calamities and whether they are likely to get worse. We must first recognize the phrase “natural disaster” for what it is: a […]
By Chris Mooney 19 September 2017 (The Washington Post) – “Maria is developing the dreaded pinhole eye,” wrote National Hurricane Center forecaster Jack Beven on Monday evening, as the storm reached Category 4 intensity.That inward contraction of a hurricane’s eye can be one telltale indicator of what hurricane gurus technically call “rapid intensification,” although a […]
By Kathryn Hansen 10 September 2017 (NASA) – Hurricane Irma churned across the Atlantic Ocean in September 2017, battering several Caribbean islands before moving on to the Florida Keys and the U.S. mainland. As the clouds cleared over places like the Virgin Islands, the destruction became obvious even from space.These natural-color images, captured by the […]
Dr. Jeff Masters 18 September 2017 (Weather Underground) – Category 5 Hurricane Maria made a direct hit on the small Lesser Antilles island of Dominica (population 72,000) near 9 pm EDT Monday, becoming Dominica’s first Category 5 landfall on record. At the time of landfall, an Air Force hurricane hunter aircraft measured surface winds of […]
By Wayne Drash 15 September 2017 (CNN) – The right time to talk climate change is now. It might seem premature when people in the Caribbean, Florida, and Texas are still mucking out their flooded homes. And no, changes in our planet’s atmosphere did not cause Hurricanes Harvey or Irma. But the consensus among scientists […]
