Drought sends beef prices soaring, with no relief in sight – U.S. cattle herd the smallest since 1951

By Joe Taschler3 March 2014 (Journal Sentinel) – Next time you bite into a big, juicy hamburger, don’t be surprised if it bites back — at your bank account. Unrelenting drought across large swaths of the Great Plains, Texas, and California has led to the smallest U.S. cattle herd since 1951, shrinking the supply of […]

Warm winter turns Iditarod trail into ‘minefield’ with ‘no snow’

By Ryan Koronowski    4 March 2014 (Climate Progress) – The Iditarod, the annual sled-dog race across 975 miles of Alaska, started in earnest on Sunday. While much of the local buzz is on whether the usual strong slate of Alaskan mushers can hold off the Norwegians, much of the attention has turned to how the […]

Global warming: No pause in the increase of hot temperature extremes

By Sonia I. Seneviratne, Markus G. Donat, Brigitte Mueller, and Lisa V. Alexander    26 February 2014 (Nature Climate Change) – Observational data show a continued increase of hot extremes over land during the so-called global warming hiatus. This tendency is greater for the most extreme events and thus more relevant for impacts than changes in […]

Europe flood losses to soar by 2050 – ‘Due to climate change and GDP growth, by 2050 a one-in-50-years-flood might be one in 30 years, so the frequency of such losses increases dramatically – almost doubling’

By Nina Chestney; Editing by Tom Heneghan2 March 2014 LONDON (Reuters) – Extreme floods like those swamping parts of Britain in recent months could become more frequent in Europe by 2050, more than quadrupling financial losses, if climate change worsens and more people live in vulnerable areas, research showed on Sunday. The study said instances […]

Study links global warming to a Peruvian glacier’s retreat

By JUSTIN GILLISFEB25 February 2014 (The New York Times) – Sitting on a flat volcanic plain 18,000 feet above sea level, the great Quelccaya ice cap of Peru is the largest piece of ice in the tropics. In recent decades, as scientists have watched it melt at an accelerating pace, it has also become a […]

Storm soaks California, but far from a drought-breaker – ‘The chances of getting back to average are vanishingly small because we’re simply too deep in the hole’

By Colin Atagi and Ian James 1 March 2014 (The Desert Sun) – A storm swirling in from the Pacific Ocean unleashed heavy rains across much of California on Friday, bringing the state a needed soaking but not nearly enough to significantly ease the drought. Snow blanketed peaks in the Sierra Nevada, while in parts […]

Graph of the Day: Arctic sea ice at record low for February

By Brian Kahn19 February 2014 (Climate Central) – Arctic sea ice growth has slowed dramatically in recent weeks, thanks in large part to abnormally warm air and water temperatures. Sea ice now sits at record low levels for mid-February. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, as of February 18, sea ice covered […]

Setting the record straight on misleading claims against climate scientist Michael Mann

25 February 2014 (Climate Science Watch) – Attempts to discredit Prof. Mann and confuse the facts about his defamation lawsuits keep popping up and circulating in the blogosphere. Here we comment on issues pertaining to the conclusions of the Muir Russell investigation, Mark Steyn’s response and counterclaims, and the status of the case in Canada […]

Charles Krauthammer is clueless on climate science: A drinking game

  By Lindsay Abrams25 February 2014 (Salon) – Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer published a head slapper of a column last week, in which the conservative pundit managed to spew an enormous number of misinformed, misleading claims, all couched in this “disclaimer” of an opening graf: I repeat: I’m not a global warming believer. I’m […]

Image of the Day: Folsom Lake at 17 percent of capacity, 16 January 2014

Folsom Lake, 20 June 2011   Folsom Lake, 16 January 2014 25 February 2014 (NBC News) – Northern California’s Folsom Lake on 16 January 2014. The reservoir, 25 miles northeast of Sacramento, has shrunk from 97 percent capacity in 2011, to just 17 percent capacity this past January, according to a news release from the […]

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