Soil contamination levels of cesium-134 and cesium-137 near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, 26 May 2011. Department of Energy / Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology / The New York Times Doubting Assurances, Japanese Find Radioactivity on Their Own Technorati Tags: Fukushima,Japan,Asia,pollution,infrastructure failure,agriculture
By Joe Romm 4 August 2011 In light of the sustained drought, Governor Mary Fallin today asked all Oklahomans to set aside time this Sunday, July 17, to pray for rain. That was two weeks ago. The result is that Oklahoma went from the drought condition on the right to the one on the left […]
By Joe Weisenthal5 August 2011 We used to say that the chart showing the pace of this jobs “recovery” vs. all other jobs recoveries was the scariest jobs chart ever (see here for example). But we’ve since changed our mind. It’s the average duration of unemployment — which surges without any sign of slowing down […]
Contact NSIDC User Services or call +1 303.492.61993 August 2011 Arctic sea ice extent averaged for July 2011 reached the lowest level for the month in the 1979 to 2011 satellite record, even though the pace of ice loss slowed substantially during the last two weeks of July. Shipping routes in the Arctic have less […]
The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) and adjacent Scotia Sea support abundant wildlife populations, many of which were nearly extirpated by humans. This region is also among the fastest-warming areas on the planet, with 5–6 °C increases in mean winter air temperatures and associated decreases in winter sea-ice cover. These biological and physical perturbations have affected […]
US contact: Terese Rosenthal, Tel.: +1 609 243 4339 12 July 2011 An exceptional accumulation of very severe natural catastrophes makes 2011 the highest-ever loss year on record, even after the first half-year. Already, the approx. US$ 265bn in economic losses up to the end of June easily exceeds the total figure for 2005, previously […]
By James Fallows25 July 2011 The Chart That Should Accompany All Discussions of the Debt Ceiling It’s this one, from yesterday’s New York Times. Click for a more detailed view, though it’s pretty clear as is. It’s based on data from the Congressional Budget Office and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Its significance […]
By arevamirpal::laprimavera27 July 2011 Afraid of a “chaos” in the harvest season, perhaps? After more than 4 months since the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident started, the Japanese government must be feeling it safe to admit to a far wider contamination by radioactive fallout. The Ministry of Education and Science announced that it will […]
By Michon Scott, based on The New Climate Normals by Jennifer FreemanJuly 6, 2011 In July 2011, NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center updated the U.S. Climate Normals: three-decade averages of weather observations, including temperature. The new annual normal temperatures for the United States reflect a warming world. Following procedures set by the World Meteorological Organization, […]
By Joe Romm 27 Jul 2011 One way to tell if a nationwide heat wave is truly record-breaking is, well, to look at the total number of records that it breaks. Even better is to compare the high records with the low records, since we have very good historical data and analysis on that — […]
