As climate changes, Louisiana seeks to lift a highway

By Juliet Eilperin18 March 2012 GOLDEN MEADOW, Louisiana – Here on the side of Louisiana’s Highway 1, next to Raymond’s Bait Shop, a spindly pole with Global Positioning System equipment and a cellphone stuck on top charts the water’s gradual encroachment on dry land. In 1991 this stretch of road through the marshlands of southern […]

Melting Arctic ice could poison ecosystem, experts say

[cf. Polar bears ill from accumulated environmental toxins] By John Size, CTV News 18 March 2012 Arctic sea ice that’s been melting at a dramatic rate in the last few decades is releasing a chemical soup that could poison the food chain with mercury and other dangerous chemicals, a new study suggests. The NASA-led research […]

Urban air pollution to become top cause of environment-related deaths by 2050: OECD

By Tom Arup 17 March 2012 URBAN air pollution will become the top cause of environment-related deaths globally by mid-century unless action is taken, one of the world’s peak economic groups says. In a study of the global environmental outlook to 2050, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warns there may be 3.6 […]

Tropics continue to assault Australia with storms

By Evan Duffey, Meteorologist17 March 2012 Tropical Cyclone Lua (17S) made landfall today near Port Hedland in Western Australia, bringing torrential rain and damaging winds. And while Lua is now dissipating, another tropical system is developing, and already bringing impacts to land. Lua brought hurricane-force winds and torrential rains to the coast. Luckily the cyclone […]

U.S. suffers extreme weather – March sees over 1700 daily high temperature records broken

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer17 March 2012 WASHINGTON — America’s weather is stuck on extreme. Nearly 11 feet of snow has fallen on Anchorage, Alaska, this winter. That’s almost a record, and it’s forcing the city to haul away at least 250,000 tons of snow. Yet not much snow has dropped on the Lower […]

Fertilisers behind increase in atmospheric nitrous oxide

By Darren Osborne, ABC16 March 2012 The increasing amount of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere over the last 65 years is due to nitrogen-based fertilisers, according to a new study. An international team of scientists, led by University of California-Berkeley researcher Dr Sunyoung Park, made the finding after studying air collected at the Cape Grim […]

Australia climate is warming at an alarming rate

SYDNEY, 14 March 2012 (AFP) – Australia’s climate is warming at an alarming rate and is set to become drier despite recent record floods, scientists said Wednesday in a report that warns of increased drought and fiercer storms. The country has seen annual average daily temperatures rise by 0.9 degrees Celsius since 1911, with each […]

World entering a ‘third era’ of climate change in which impacts are unavoidable

By Samuel Nota, alertnet 14 March 2012 After 20 years dominated by inaction on climate change, the world is entering a “third era” when the impacts of climate change are unavoidable, says a London climate expert. Even if countries instantly reduced carbon emissions to zero, the impacts of emissions already in the atmosphere are “inevitable […]

3.7 million Americans threatened by rising sea levels – ‘Like an invisible tsunami’

By JUSTIN GILLIS 13 March 2012 About 3.7 million Americans live within a few feet of high tide and risk being hit by more frequent coastal flooding in coming decades because of the sea level rise caused by global warming, according to new research. If the pace of the rise accelerates as much as expected, […]

Spiderwebs blanket countryside after Australia floods

7 March 2012 (National Geographic) – In an arachnophobe’s worst nightmare, swarms of spiders spin webs in a bush in flood-ravaged Wagga Wagga (map), Australia, Tuesday. After a week of record rain, floodwaters across eastern Australia have forced the ground-dwelling spiders—and at least 13,000 people—to flee their homes, according to Reuters. The rampant webs blanketing […]

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