Permafrost thaw: ‘A chronic source of emissions that will last hundreds of years’

By JUSTIN GILLIS16 December 2011 FAIRBANKS, Alaska – A bubble rose through a hole in the surface of a frozen lake. It popped, followed by another, and another, as if a pot were somehow boiling in the icy depths. Every bursting bubble sent up a puff of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas generated beneath the […]

Video: Staving off disease in post-flood Pakistan – Funding shortfall threatens future humanitarian assistance

Tens of thousands of flood-affected children in Pakistan are being kept free of disease through the emergency provision of safe water, sanitation facilities, and hygiene lessons. But a lack of funding is putting in doubt future humanitarian assistance. Staving off disease in post-flood Pakistan Technorati Tags: Pakistan,Asia,monsoon,flood,epidemic,United Nations,global warming,climate refugees,climate change

Slow recovery for flood-hit Thai plants – ‘We’re in the wrong place’

AYUTTHAYA, December 18 (AFP) – Piles of rubbish, rusting furniture and discarded machinery litter one of Thailand’s top high-tech parks, a former symbol of economic prowess laid to waste by weeks of flooding. Many of the companies located in the country’s industrial heartland say it will be several months at least before their operations return […]

Rapid rise in wildfires expected in large parts of Canada – Ecologists find threshold values for natural wildfires

By Tilo Arnhold, tilo.arnhold@ufz.de Phone +49 341 235 163516 December 2011 Chicago/Leipzig (UFZ) – Large forest regions in Canada are apparently about to experience rapid change. Based on models, scientists can now show that there are threshold values for wildfires just like there are for epidemics. Large areas of Canada are apparently approaching this threshold […]

Video: Philippines searches for hundreds after typhoon kills 650

By Erik De Castro, with additional reporting by Rosemarie Francisco and Manny Mogato in MANILA; Editing by Robert Birsel18 December 2011 CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines (Reuters) – Rescuers searched for more than 800 people missing in the southern Philippines on Sunday after flash floods and landslides swept houses into rivers and out to sea, killing […]

Typhoon kills more than 436 in southern Philippines – ‘I have not seen anything like this before’

By Erik De Castro and by Manny Mogato17 December 2011 CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines (Reuters) – More than 400 people were killed and an unknown number were missing after a typhoon struck the southern Philippines, causing flash floods and landslides and driving tens of thousands from their homes. In a text message to Reuters, Gwendolyn […]

Forests dying of thirst globally

By JUSTIN GILLIS12 December 2011 Scientists trying to understand the future of forests on a warming planet have a strange problem: They do not know how to kill trees. I don’t mean the trees in their backyards. I would bet that the average climate scientist, especially one who studies forests, is better with a chain […]

Photo gallery: Oil drilling and the Inupiat people of Point Hope

Preparing for the winter storms, a bulldozer piles up a protective bank on the north shore. The coastline has become increasingly vulnerable to erosion as the sea ice retreats. More open water allows waves to build up in the fierce Arctic winds. Point Hope lies south of lease site 193 where oil giant Shell plan […]

Climate change blamed for dead trees in Africa – ‘Whole groups of species are dying out’

By Sarah Yang, Media Relations 12 December 2011 BERKELEY – Trees are dying in  the Sahel, a region in Africa south of the Sahara Desert, and human-caused climate change is to blame, according to a new study led by a scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. “Rainfall in the Sahel has dropped 20-30 percent […]

Graph of the Day: Global Phytoplankton Decline Over the Past Century

Global phytoplankton decline over the past century. Observed phytoplankton declines have occurred in eight out of ten ocean regions. The global rate of decline is estimated to be ~1% of the global median per year. ABSTRACT: In the oceans, ubiquitous microscopic phototrophs (phytoplankton) account for approximately half the production of organic matter on Earth. Analyses […]

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