NASA finds 2011 ninth-warmest year on record

Text issued as NASA Headquarters release No. 12-020Steve Cole, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C., 202-358-0918stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov Leslie McCarthy, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, N.Y., 212-678-5507leslie.m.mccarthy@nasa.gov 19 January 2012 The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880, according to NASA scientists. The finding continues a trend in which nine of […]

Graph of the Day: Global Distribution of Physical Water Scarcity by Major River Basin

Water scarcity is growing and salinization and pollution of groundwater and degradation of water bodies and water-related ecosystems are rising, the State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture (SOLAW) reports. Large inland water bodies are under pressure from a combination of reduced inflows and higher nutrient loading — the excessive […]

Native forest birds in Hawaii in unprecedented trouble

Contact: University of Hawaiʻi at MānoaLeonard Freed, (808) 956-8655      Rebecca Cann, (808) 956-552119 January 2012 Native birds at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge are in unprecedented trouble, according to a paper recently published in the journal PLoS ONE. The paper, titled “Changes in timing, duration, and symmetry of molt of Hawaiian forest birds,” was authored […]

Graph of the Day: Area Covered by Temperature Anomalies, 1900-2010

By J. Hansen, M. Sato, and R. Ruedy10 November 2011 Abstract: The “climate dice” describing the chance of an unusually warm or cool season, relative to the climatology of 1951-1980, have progressively become more “loaded” during the past 30 years, coincident with increased global warming. The most dramatic and important change of the climate dice […]

Sea level rise from global warming poses big threat to Washington, D.C.

By Andrew Freedman17 January 2012 Global warming-related sea level rise constitutes a major threat to the nation’s capital, with the potential to inundate national monuments, museums, military bases, and parts of the Metro Rail system during the next several decades and beyond, according to a recent study published in the journal Risk Analysis. The study […]

Canada government didn’t disclose radioactive iodine in rainwater

By ALEX ROSLIN, The Montreal Gazette14 January 2012 After the Fukushima nuclear accident, Canadian health officials assured a nervous public that virtually no radioactive fallout had drifted to Canada. But last March, a Health Canada monitoring station in Calgary detected an average of 8.18 becquerels per litre of radioactive iodine (an isotope released by the […]

U.N. report: World economy is on the brink of another major downturn

[Executive Summary pdf] The world economy is on the brink of another major downturn. Global economic growth started to decelerate on a broad front in mid-2011 and is estimated to have averaged 2.8 per cent over the last year. This economic slowdown is expected to continue into 2012 and 2013. The United Nations baseline forecast […]

Aerosol particle increase linked to more rainfall: study

By Nina Chestney, editing by Rosalind Russell15 January 2012 LONDON (Reuters) – A rise in the atmosphere of aerosols – miniscule particles which include soot, dust and sulphates – has led to more rainfall in certain parts of the world and could provide vital clues for future climate predictions, a scientific study shows. A deeper […]

Graph of the Day: Agricultural Systems at Risk – Human Pressure on Land and Water

ROME, 28 November 2011 (FAO) – Widespread degradation and deepening scarcity of land and water resources have placed a number of key food production systems around the globe at risk, posing a profound challenge to the task of feeding a world population expected to reach 9 billion people by 2050, according to a new FAO […]

Graph of the Day: Sumatra Deforestation, 1995-2009

Eyes of the Forest analyzed government concession data and EoF’s own remote sensing analysis and field investigations of almost 1.2 million hectares of SMG/APP associated concessions in its mostly Riau study area covering close to 940,000 hectares of HTI (industrial timber plantation) concessions and around 45,000 hectares of a HPH selective logging concession that allows […]

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