By Jeff Masters10 October 2011 A slow-moving low pressure system brought the heaviest rains of the year to large portions of rain-starved Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas over the weekend. Radar-estimated rainfall amounts reached eight inches over portions of Texas between Dallas and Abilene. Houston got 20% of their rain for the entire year–3.02″–on Sunday, breaking […]
By Seth Koenig, BDN Staff7 October 2011 SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — They’re called dead muds. Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere combined with unregulated nitrogen pollution are having a deadly effect on Maine’s shellfish, some researchers say. Scientists are starting to measure the impact of increasingly acidic waters on coastal organisms, and what […]
By Khettiya Jittapong, Kochakorn Boonlai, and Wilawan Pongpitak; Editing by Alan Raybould and Ed Lane (Reuters) – Nearly 200 factories, including one run by Japanese car maker Honda Motor Co Ltd, closed in the central Thai province of Ayutthaya because of flooding, which could threaten Bangkok this week, officials said on Sunday. About 261 people […]
By Mike Lee; Editors: Susan Warren, Joe Winski6 October 2011 Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) – An intensifying drought in Texas is prompting limits on water consumption that for the first time target oil and natural gas producers. Local water districts, which have authority to allocate water from subterranean aquifers, are adding a water-intensive production method called […]
By Zoe Daniel8 October 2011 EMILY BOURKE: Record flooding in Thailand is set to worsen as massive volumes of water move from the north to the sea. More than 2.5 million people have now been affected and almost 250 killed by the flooding which is said to be the worst in the country’s modern history. […]
By Wang Xiaocong30 September 2011 (Beijing) – Acute power shortages will continue in parts of China in the upcoming winter and spring seasons, particularly in the southern and central regions where most of the country’s hydropower power stations are located, an energy official told a press conference on September 29. According to the State Electricity […]
Why did ice extent fall to a near record low without the sort of extreme weather conditions seen in 2007? One explanation is that the ice cover is thinner than it used to be; the melt season starts with more first-year ice (ice that formed the previous autumn and winter) and less of the generally […]
By Randy Boswell, Postmedia News 5 October 2011 The Arctic’s oldest, thickest sea ice — much of which used to survive the year’s warmest months — had all but disappeared by the end of this summer’s near-record meltdown, according to new U.S. analyses that vividly show how the circumpolar region is being transformed by warmer […]
SYDNEY, October 6 (The Economist) – ONE canary in the climate-change coalmine may have just quietly fallen from her perch. The tiny Pacific island nation of Tuvalu has declared a state of emergency after a fresh water shortage forced it to shutter its schools and hospitals and begin water rationing across the country. Observers blame […]
By Julia Pyper and ClimateWire 5 October 2011 When it comes to climate change denial, not all human beings are created equal. As a recent study shows, conservative white males are less likely to believe in climate change. “It’s not surprising,” said Aaron McCright, sociology professor at Michigan State University, who is a white male […]