By Kelly Ryan24 September 2015 FOLSOM LAKE (CBS13) – A Northern California reservoir ran dry overnight, killing thousands of fish and leaving residents looking for answers. While a $3.5 million drought safety net at Folsom Lake finishes, a lake in another part of the state is left high and dry. Thousands of fish lay dead […]
[Some good news to start the week. A dry hole really is the best outcome. – Des] By Charisse Jones28 September 2015 (USA TODAY) – Royal Dutch Shell will end exploration in off shore Alaska “for the forseeable future,” after an exploratory well in the Chukchi Sea failed to yield the oil and gas that […]
By Sarah Kaplan 25 September 2015 (The Guardian) – Vast swathes of forest are so brittle and bone-dry that they burn up in an instant. A vicious wildfire, whipped up by hot, arid winds and moving faster than anything in recent memory, consumed tens of thousands of hectares in a matter of hours. Hundreds of […]
By Chris Mooney25 September 2015 (Washington Post) – It is, for our home planet, an extremely warm year. Indeed, last week we learned from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that the first eight months of 2015 were the hottest such stretch yet recorded for the globe’s surface land and oceans, based on temperature records […]
By Emily Chung21 September 2015 (CBC News) – The river that provides water to the oilsands industry is much more prone to multi-year droughts than modern records show, suggesting that the industry’s current level of water use may not be sustainable, a new study suggests. The oilsands industry needs 3.1 barrels of fresh water to […]
By Nicholas St. Fleur14 September 2015 (The New York Times) – The snow that blanketed the Sierra Nevada in California last winter, and that was supposed to serve as an essential source of fresh water for the drought-stricken state, was at its lowest levels in the last 500 years, according to a new study. The […]
2 September 2015 (CU-Boulder) – The longest and largest controlled burn experiment ever conducted in the Amazon rainforest has yielded new insight into the ways that tropical forests succumb to—and bounce back from—large-scale wildfires, according to new research co-authored by a University of Colorado Boulder professor. The findings, which were published today in the journal […]
By Veronica Rocha, Paige St. John, Frank Shyong, and Hailey Branson-Potts22 September 2015 SACRAMENTO, California (Los Angeles Times) – As firefighters continued to advance on the deadly wildfires in Northern California, President Barack Obama declared a major disaster for the Valley fire. The move frees up federal assistance for home repairs, replacements and other aid. […]
By Adam Voiland13 September 2015 (NASA) – Russians normally flock to the shores of Lake Baikal during the summer to camp and enjoy spectacular views of the world’s deepest freshwater lake. In summer 2015, such views were frequently obscured by smoke. For months, fires have raged around the lake, inspiring observers to use words like […]
By Harry Davies17 September 2015 (The Guardian) – Environmentalists have criticised a decision to appoint a former consultant to major oil and gas companies as David Cameron’s key adviser on energy and environment policy. Stephen Heidari-Robinson, a little-known consultant from oilfield services company Schlumberger, arrives in Downing Street just months before the prime minister is […]
