By Jethro Mullen1 August 2013 Hong Kong (CNN) – Record-breaking temperatures have been searing large swaths of China, resulting in dozens of heat-related deaths and prompting authorities to issue a national alert. People are packing into swimming pools or taking refuge in caves in their attempts to escape the fierce temperatures. Local governments are resorting […]
Predicted Ae. albopictus range expansion in the northeastern USA under two climate change scenarios. (A) Moderate increase in CO2 emissions (B2 scenario). (B) Higher increases in CO2 emissions (A2 scenario). Predicted present range based on 1950–2000 climate data. Three future time periods: 2020s (years 2010–2039), 2050s (years 2040–2069), and 2080s (years 2070–2099). Urban areas are […]
22 July 2013 (EEA) – Figure 3.2 shows some examples of European butterfly trends: The Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus), a widespread and in many countries common and abundant butterfly, occurring on all kinds of grasslands; the Orangetip (Anthocharis cardamines), a typical spring butterfly; the Lulworth Skipper (Thymelicus acteon), a specialist species of dry calcareous grasslands. […]
By Geoffrey Mohan8 August 2013 (Los Angeles Times) – Forests in Earth’s northern latitudes have been thickened by migrating plant species and younger growth, driving a stronger gyration in the amount of carbon that cycles between land and the atmosphere each year, a new study suggests. The net rise in seasonal exchange of carbon between […]
27 June 2013 (RealClearEnergy) – President Obama may be cracking down on coal at home but he’s spurred a big surge of exports abroad. The figure was only 60 million short tons when he took office in 2009 but has more than doubled to 120 million last year. Much of this growth has come in […]
June 2013 (PERI) – PERI’s Greenhouse 100 index identifies the top companies responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. The Greenhouse 100 relies on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, which reports information from facilities in electric power and other industries that directly emit large quantities of greenhouse gases. In addition to the total […]
9 August 2013 (NASA) – This animation shows the projected increase in potential evaporation through the year 2100, relative to 1980, based on the combined results of multiple climate models. The maximum increase across North America is about 1 mm/day by 2100. This concept, potential evaporation, is a measure of drying potential or “fire weather.” […]
1 June 2013 (World Bank) – Climate change in the 21st century poses a large risk of change to the Earth’s ecosystems: Shifting climatic boundaries trigger changes to the biogeochemical functions and structures of ecosystems. Such changing conditions would render it difficult for local plant and animal species to survive in their current habitat. The […]
By Rhett A. Butler 26 June 2013 (Mongabay) – Peru had the largest extent of forest loss in 2012, losing 48,000 hectares, an increase of 15,431 ha or 47 percent over 2011. Venezuela (11,606 ha), Colombia (10,069 ha), Bolivia (6,975 ha), Suriname (6,569 ha), Guyana (3,713 ha), Ecuador (1,663 ha), and French Guyana (1,338 ha) […]
By Kerry Sheridan6 August 2013 WASHINGTON (AFP) – The world lost record amounts of Arctic sea ice in 2012 and spewed out all-time high levels of greenhouse gases by burning fossil fuels, international climate scientists said Tuesday. Last year was among the top 10 on record for global land and surface temperature since modern data […]
