By DAVID LESTER, The Yakima Herald-Republic8 January 2012 YAKIMA, Washington (AP) – Spectacular on a clear, sunny day, Mount Adams rises a scant 53 miles from Yakima. But the mountain holds what until now has been pretty much a secret. In the first comprehensive study of its kind, a Portland State University study has found […]
By By Richard Black, Environment correspondent, BBC News9 January 2012 Human emissions of carbon dioxide will defer the next Ice Age, say scientists. The last Ice Age ended about 11,500 years ago, and when the next one should begin has not been entirely clear. Researchers used data on the Earth’s orbit and other things to […]
By Mark Tran, www.guardian.co.uk 9 January 2012 Governments in the Sahel and international relief agencies have been quick off the mark in acknowledging a looming food crisis. Last October, the government in drought-hit Niger – where almost 1 million people are in urgent need of food after a poor harvest – drafted a response plan, […]
Projected annual changes in dryness assessed from changes in soil moisture (soil moisture anomalies, SMA). Increased dryness is indicated with yellow to red colors; decreased dryness with green to blue. Projected changes are expressed in units of standard deviation of the interannual variability in the three 20-year periods 1980-1999, 2046-2065 and 2081-2100. The figure shows […]
HOUSTON, January 7 (AP) – The National Weather Service says 2011 was Texas’ driest year on record as well as its second hottest. The agency said Friday the average rainfall for the drought-stricken state last year was 14.88 inches. The previous driest average total was in 1917 with 14.99 inches. The weather service says 2011’s […]
By David Archer7 January 2012 Let’s suppose that the Arctic started to degas methane 100 times faster than it is today. I just made that number up trying to come up with a blow-the-doors-off surprise, something like the ozone hole. We ran the numbers to get an idea of how the climate impact of an […]
Presenter: Campbell CooneySpeaker: Tatuau Pese, secretary general, Tuvalu Red Cross 28 December 2011 Tuvalu and Kiribati will be amongst the island nations bracing for king tides. In January and February, the low lying atoll nations are hit by massive tides, which damage foreshore areas, destroy crops, and affect water supplies. Tuvalu is just recovering from […]
Tamino poses the question: What’s the chance that if we continue with business-as-usual, man-made global warming will lead to disastrous climate change? It isn’t zero. It isn’t one. What is epsilon? Although one could quibble with the assumption that it isn’t 1 – why wouldn’t it be? – here’s what Des wrote in comments: Assumptions […]
By Jens Erik Gould / Los Angeles 3 January 2011 To quench the thirst of Southern California’s some 20 million people, water must be imported from hundreds of miles away, across a daunting array of deserts, valleys and mountains. For decades, Angelenos have muttered a doomsday refrain: our water supply isn’t sustainable, and we are […]
By Robert Lalasz3 Jan 2012 Let’s say the rise in sea level that climate change will bring us — from melting ice caps and expanding seas — won’t be “all that bad” by, oh, the year 2080. Maybe … just half a meter (a little under 20 inches). We can deal with half a meter, […]
