By Ben BerkowitzWed Feb 9, 2011 9:53am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) – In Chester County, South Carolina, off a dirt road in the middle of a field, insurance companies are literally unleashing a storm. To simulate hurricane-like conditions, an industry group has built a wind tunnel big enough to accommodate nine large residential homes. Some […]
By Dr John Church, CSIRO Fellow at the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research08 February 2011 Today there are more than 140 million people and a trillion dollars in infrastructure in the first one metre above high tide level around the world. Coastal areas (people, infrastructure and the environment) are already affected by extreme […]
By Evan Abramson, Yale Environment 360February 8, 2011 For thousands of years, nomadic herdsmen have roamed the harsh, semi-arid lowlands that stretch across 80 percent of Kenya and 60 percent of Ethiopia. Descendants of the oldest tribal societies in the world, they survive thanks to the animals they raise and the crops they grow, their […]
By JEFF RUBIN, Globe and Mail BlogPosted on Wednesday, February 9, 2011 6:21AM EST It’s more than coincidence the Arab world is convulsing with social unrest just as the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization’s widely watched price index recently soared past the previous food price peak set in the summer of 2008. After all, […]
Sydney (AFP) Feb 6, 2011 – Hammered by a monster cyclone just weeks after flooding spewed toxic waste into its pristine waters, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef could face a slow recovery due to climate change, experts warn. Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi, a top-category storm, ripped through Australia’s northeast tourist coast Thursday, levelling houses and decimating […]
Canberra, 08 February 2011 (FOCUS News Agency) – A drop in coal and agricultural exports forced by Australia’s flood and cyclone disasters could “thump” its economy in the first quarter, forcing growth into reverse, Treasurer Wayne Swan has warned, AFP reports. The calamitous weather that has battered resource-rich Queensland state since December could cause the […]
By John Cook30 December 2010 I’ve added another pic to the high-rez Climate Graphics. This one is a graphic summary of just some of the evidence for global warming. When someone tells you global warming isn’t happening, this serves as a visual reminder that you need to consider all the evidence to understand what’s happening […]
A warmer Antarctica makes a hospitable home for these crabs, endangering an entire ecosystem that has no defenses against them. By Eric NiilerTue Feb 8, 2011 07:00 AM ET McMURDO STATION, Antarctica — Warming waters along the Antarctic peninsula have opened the door to shell-crushing king crabs that threaten a unique ecosystem on the seafloor, […]
COLOMBO, 06 Feb 2011 (AFP) — Sri Lanka’s monsoon rains have spread to more villages and towns, leaving at least 14 people dead and more than one million with flooded homes, according to officials. The number of people in state-run shelters rose to 236,000 by Saturday evening, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) in Colombo said, […]
AS EASTERN AUSTRALIA RECOVERS from last month’s heavy flooding and last week’s category-5 cyclone, Perth in the west is tackling serious wildfires which have destroyed dozens of homes. The Lord Mayor of Perth has opened an appeal to assist the victims of the fires as officials have been reading lists of homes which have been […]
