Black Forest wildfire most destructive in Colorado history – 24.5 square miles burned, 39,000 people ordered to evacuate, 2 killed

By Jenny Deam13 June 2013 COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (Los Angeles Times) – The Black Forest wildfire, still raging out of control, became deadly with the grim discovery Thursday of two people killed while apparently trying to flee their home. El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said the victims were found about 2 p.m. in their […]

Colorado state climatologist says the High Park Fire gave him the courage to talk about climate change – ‘I have feared persecution at times in the past. I don’t fear it now.’

By Bobby Magill 23 May 2013 (The Coloradoan) – Nolan Doesken used to have a hard time talking about climate change. The topic has become so politically combustible that some scientists and researchers find it difficult to speak of or write about. But, after the High Park Fire swept the foothills in 2012, Doesken decided […]

‘Dramatic decline’ warning for plants and animals – ‘Climate change will greatly reduce the diversity of even very common species found in most parts of the world’

By Matt McGrath, Environment correspondent12 May 2013 (BBC News) – More than half of common plant species and a third of animals could see a serious decline in their habitat range because of climate change. New research suggests that biodiversity around the globe will be significantly impacted if temperatures rise more than 2C. But the […]

‘Long, hot, incendiary summer’: Early wildfires bode ill for California – ‘An event like this … it hasn’t happened in my career’

By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News4 May 2013 (NBC News) – Record-setting temperatures, erratic winds and a parched landscape spell a dangerous fire season for California, experts said on Friday as firefighters fought to control several large blazes of a kind that usually would not raise thick plumes of smoke over the horizon until […]

Burned rainforest vulnerable to grass invasion

24 April 2013 (mongabay.com) – Rainforests that have been affected by even low-intensity fires are far more vulnerable to invasion by grasses, finds a new study published in special issue of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. The findings are significant because they suggest that burned forests may be more susceptible to […]

Global warming increases costs for American taxpayers – ‘Climate change is fundamentally changing the United States, and American taxpayers are paying a huge price for it’

BOSTON, 15 Apr 2013 (Ceres) – A growing chunk of American tax dollars is footing the bill for increasing floods, fires, droughts and other climate related changes taking place in the country, according to new figures compiled by Ceres, a nonprofit organization mobilizing business leadership on climate change. “Climate change is fundamentally changing the United […]

Southern California marching toward fourth-driest year since 1877, firefighters deploying early – ‘People are going crazy now. When you’re a farmer in Central California, you watch the water as much as you watch your kids.’

By Hector Becerra19 April 2013 (Los Angeles Times) – Southern California is marching toward its fourth-driest year since 1877, and that has firefighters increasingly girded for battle. In the hills of Los Angeles County, tests show the brush is drying out at a significantly quicker rate this year because of the lack of rain. In […]

U.S. scientists warn climate change will double wildfire risk in Western forests – ‘It’s just unprecedented things happening. We’re getting into extreme events that seem to be having more and more effects across broader landscapes.’

By Bruce Finley3 April 2013 (Denver Post) – The hotter, drier climate will transform Rocky Mountain forests, unleashing wider wildfires and insect attacks, federal scientists warn in a report for Congress and the White House. The U.S. Forest Service scientists project that, by 2050, the area burned each year by increasingly severe wildfires will at […]

Australia’s summer is hottest on record – Average temperature breaks previous summer temperature record, set in summer 1997/1998

By Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer1 March 2013 (LiveScience) – Australia’s summer of 2013 is the hottest on record so far, the country’s Bureau of Meteorology announced today (March 1). The country’s average temperature this summer has been 83.5 degrees Fahrenheit (28.6 degrees Celsius), 2 degrees F (1 degree C) above normal. That breaks the […]

The Angry Summer: Government report blames climate change for weather extremes in Australia

By MATT SIEGEL4 March 2013 SYDNEY, Australia (The New York Times) – Climate change was a major driving force behind a string of extreme weather events that alternately scorched and soaked large sections of Australia in recent months, according to a report [pdf] issued Monday by the government’s Climate Commission. A four-month heat wave during […]

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