By Andrew Freedman 26 June 2012 Three new sea level rise studies published during the past week offer sobering lessons for coastal residents and policy makers, spelling trouble for portions of the East and West Coasts of the U.S. The first lesson is that sea levels won’t rise at the same rate everywhere — in […]
25 June 2012 (Insurance Journal) – Lloyd’s has published a roundup of the environmental issues inherent in as the world grows warmer. The recently concluded Rio +20 Conference was an attempt – 20 years after the first conference – “to try to reach agreement on sustainable growth, controlling world emissions and managing the growing impact […]
By Damian Carrington, www.guardian.co.uk24 June 2012 Sea level rise is accelerating three to four times faster along the densely populated east coast of the US than other US coasts, scientists have discovered. The zone, dubbed a “hotspot” by the researchers, means the ocean from Boston to New York to North Carolina is set to experience […]
By Tim Mullaney, USA TODAY12 June 2012 The median U.S. household lost nearly 39% of its wealth from 2007 to 2010, the Federal Reserve said Monday, emphasizing anew the impact of the financial crisis and the recession on ordinary Americans. [“Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2007 to 2010: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer […]
Climate change is already affecting extreme weather. The National Academy of Sciences reports that rain has become concentrated in heavier downpours and the hottest days are now hotter. And the fingerprint of global warming behind these changes has been firmly identified. In the strictest sense, all weather events are now affected by climate change because […]
By Rohit Kachroo, NBC News in Niger, West Africa19 June 2012 One-and-a-half-million children are in imminent danger of starvation in West Africa, according to The United Nations Children’s Fund, despite recent pledges of international aid. As world leaders gathered for the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, aid workers warned there were only four weeks left […]
This map shows the percentage increases in very heavy precipitation (defined as the heaviest 1 percent of all event) from 1958 to 2007 for each U.S. region. There are clear trends toward more very heavy precipitation for the nation as a whole, and particularly in the Northeast and Midwest. Updated from Groisman, et al., via […]
By Ben Cubby, Environment Editor18 June 2012 In a surprise finding, researchers have shown that as trees start to grow closer to the North Pole, replacing once-barren tundra, they release more greenhouse gases than they absorb. The study has global implications for measuring the speed of global warming because it had previously been thought that […]
By James Astill16 June 2012 STANDING ON THE Greenland ice cap, it is obvious why restless modern man so reveres wild places. Everywhere you look, ice draws the eye, squeezed and chiselled by a unique coincidence of forces. Gormenghastian ice ridges, silver and lapis blue, ice mounds and other frozen contortions are minutely observable in […]
By Sophie Quinton, staff reporter (politics) for National Journal15 June 2012 DILLON, Colorado – Dan Gibbs keeps dead beetles in the back of his beat-up Chevy Silverado. He has a wooden block with beetles impaled on it, each insect about the size of a grain of rice. He’s got vials of embalmed beetles and their […]
