12 April 2013 (NOAA) – For scientists studying summer sea ice in the Arctic, it’s not a question of “if” there will be nearly ice-free summers, but “when.” And two scientists say that “when” is sooner than many thought — before 2050 and possibly within the next decade or two. James Overland of NOAA’s Pacific […]
PATILLAS, Puerto Rico, 10 April 2013 (Associated Press) – A curtain of sound envelops the two researchers as they make their way along the side of a mountain in darkness, occasionally hacking their way with a machete to reach the mouth of a small cave. Peeps, tweets and staccato whistles fill the air, a pulsing […]
By Jeremy Hance9 April 2013 (mongabay.com) – In the remote Russian far east, amid pine forests and long winters, a great cat may be beginning to make a recovery. A new survey estimates that the Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) population has risen to as many as 50 individuals. While this may not sound like […]
By Jeremy Hance8 April 2013 (mongabay.com) – Less than 100 Sumatran rhinos survive in the world today, according to a bleak new population estimate by experts. The last survey in 2008 estimated that around 250 Sumatran rhinos survived, but that estimate now appears optimistic and has been slashed by 60 percent. However conservationists are responding […]
By Ray Pierrehumbert 2 April 2013 (RealClimate) – This year, the Geological Society of America is rolling out their Switch Energy Awareness campaign. The centerpiece of the campaign is a documentary film, Switch, which purports to be about the need for a transformation in the world’s energy systems. Recently, I attended the Chicago premier of […]
By Becky Oskin, LiveScience5 April 2013 (NBC News) – From lakes and grasslands with hippos and giraffes to a vast desert, North Africa’s sudden geographical transformation 5,000 years ago was one of the planet’s most dramatic climate shifts. The transformation took place nearly simultaneously across the continent’s northern half, a new study finds. The results […]
5 April 2013 (Reuters) – Rising foreign demand for beef and soybeans will tempt Brazil to clear more of the Amazon rainforest, in a reversal of recent success in slowing forest losses, a study said on Thursday. About 30 per cent of deforestation in Brazil in the decade to 2010 was due to farmers and […]
By Jonathan Watts3 April 2013 Rio de Janeiro (guardian.co.uk) – An Amazonian community has threatened to “go to war” with the Brazilian government after what they say is a military incursion into their land by dam builders. The Munduruku indigenous group in Para state say they have been betrayed by the authorities, who are pushing […]
[Hopefully, the market will decide against further expansion of this disaster.] By Jen Alic, OilPrice.com31 March 2013 France’s Total SA (NYSE: TOT) will sell its 49% stake in its Canadian oil sands project to Suncor Energy Inc. for $500 million, netting the French oil giant a $1.65 billion loss on the beleaguered project. Total would […]
[So much for the “recovery” of Arctic sea ice that the antiscience blogs keep predicting. –Des] By Adam Voiland29 March 2013 (NASA) – The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured this view of extensive sea-ice fracturing off the northern coast of Alaska. The event began in late-January and spread […]
