Global warming already accelerating sea level rise, study finds – ‘Accelerated sea level rise is real, and it’s ongoing’

By Laura Snider10 August 2016 BOULDER, Colorado (NCAR) – Greenhouse gases are already having an accelerating effect on sea level rise, but the impact has so far been masked by the cataclysmic 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, according to a new study led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Satellite […]

Global warming and housing: Two percent of all U.S. homes at risk of inundation by 2100

By Krishna Rao2 August 2016 (Zillow) – If sea levels rise as much as climate scientists predict by the year 2100, almost 300 U.S. cities would lose at least half their homes, and 36 U.S. cities would be completely lost. One in eight Florida homes would be underwater, accounting for nearly half of the lost […]

Will replacing thirsty lawns with drought-tolerant plants make L.A. hotter?

By Deborah Netburn2 August 2016 (Los Angeles Times) – Last summer, a revolution occurred in Los Angeles landscaping: Across the city, tens of thousands of homeowners tore up their water-thirsty lawns and replaced them with gravel, turf, decomposed granite and a wide range of drought-tolerant plants at a rate never seen before. The water-saving benefits […]

Video: An eye-opening flight over California’s dying forests

  By Kurtis Alexander6 August 2016 McCLELLAN PARK, Sacramento County (San Francisco Chronicle) – Even before the plane left the runway, it was clear the crew of researchers examining the fallout from California’s historic drought would not return with good news. A column of gray smoke from a smoldering brush fire was visible from McClellan […]

15 fire-linked firms escape prosecution in Indonesia’s Riau – ‘The clearing of land for oil palm plantations is still ongoing to this day’

By Philip Jacobson28 July 2016 (mongabay.com) – On July 23 the local police headquarters in the Sumatran province of Riau released SP3 notices related to 15 companies that the Ministry of Environment and Forestry had listed in connection with last year’s fires. A SP3 is an official police document that confirms a case has been […]

Food crisis in Southern Africa after two consecutive seasons of droughts, including worst in 35 years – Race against time to ensure 23 million people receive farm aid

28 July 2016, Rome (FAO) – With only a few weeks before land preparation begins for the next main cropping season, some 23 million people in Southern Africa urgently need support to produce enough food to feed themselves and thus avoid being dependent on humanitarian assistance until mid 2018, FAO said today. A FAO-prepared response […]

Australia government about-face on climate science is the least it could do – ‘It doesn’t do anything to improve Australia’s climate science so much as not ruin it as much’

[cf. Australia climate science to be gutted as CSIRO swings jobs axe – ‘It’s a catastrophic reduction in our capacity to assess present and future climate change’, CSIRO cuts to climate science are against the public good, and An open letter to the Australian Government from more than 2800 climate scientists.] By Andrew P Street […]

Monbiot: The climate crisis is already here – but no one’s telling us

By George Monbiot3 August 2016 (The Guardian) – What is salient is not important. What is important is not salient. The media turns us away from the issues that will determine the course of our lives, and towards topics of brain-melting irrelevance. This, on current trends, will be the hottest year ever measured. The previous […]

Crisis on high: In the Himalayas, a climate disaster is unfolding that will impact the lives of more than 1 billion people

By Matthew Carney; photography by Wayne McAllister25 July 2016 (ABC News) – Deep in the Himalayas sits a remote research station that is tracking an alarming trend in climate change, with implications that could disrupt the lives of more than one billion people and pitch the most populated region of the world into chaos. The […]

NOAA scientists report mass die-off of invertebrates at East Flower Garden Bank in Gulf of Mexico

1 August 2016 (Science Blog) – On Monday, sport divers on the M/V Fling, diving in the Gulf of Mexico 100 miles offshore of Texas and Louisiana, were stunned to find green, hazy water, huge patches of ugly white mats coating corals and sponges, and dead animals littering the bottom on the East Flower Garden […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial