Rising seas, floods, and wildfires threatening most cherished historic sites in U.S.

20 May 2014 (UCS) – The growing consequences of climate change are putting many of the country’s most iconic and historic sites at risk. From Ellis Island to the Everglades, Cape Canaveral to California’s César Chávez National Monument, these sites symbolize values that unite all Americans — patriotism, freedom, democracy, and more — and together […]

Photo gallery: Ash is the new ‘May Gray’ in Southern California

By Rong-Gong Lin II, Rosanna Xia, and Joseph Serna15 May 2014 (Los Angeles Times) – “May Gray” and “June Gloom” usually offer a cool respite for firefighters as they prepare for the summer and fall’s hot weather and heavy winds.. But for much of this month, May Gray has failed to materialize. Instead of the […]

Wildfires strike early, hard in Southern California – ‘This is May. This is unbelievable.’

By Greg Botelho, Michael Martinez, and Paul Vercammen15 May 2014 Carlsbad, California (CNN) – Thousands of homes, a university campus, a nuclear plant, a Legoland and parts of one of the military’s biggest and busiest bases: All have been evacuated due to a rare confluence of fast-moving wildfires scorching Southern California. Cal Fire Division Chief […]

What are the odds that El Niño will occur in 2014? And if it does, how strong will it be?

By Michelle L’Heureux, NOAA Climate Prediction Center8 May 2014 (RealClimate) – Much media attention has been directed at the possibility of an El Niño brewing this year. Many outlets have drawn comparison with the 1997-98 super El Niño. So, what are the odds that El Niño will occur? And if it does, how strong will […]

Image of the Day: Satellite view of dust storm in China, 23 April 2014

By Holli Riebeek25 April 2014 (NASA) – A wall of dust was barreling across northern China on 23 April 2014, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) acquired these images from NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites. The top image was taken at 12:35 p.m. local time, and the lower image is from 2:20 p.m. Turn […]

Forest fires arrive early as Siberia sees record high temperatures – ‘Due to a shortage of precipitation the forest fire season has begun almost one and a half months ahead of the norm’

6 April 2014 (The Siberian Times) – The past week saw record warm weather in western Siberian cities including Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Kemerovo, Barnaul, and Gorno-Altaisk. Natural Resources Minister Sergei Donskoi warned a conference chaired by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev: ‘The forest fire situation is tense in Russia this year. Due to a shortage of precipitation […]

Climate change: The hottest thing in science fiction – ‘Bad decisions made badly by bad people. What happens next?’

By Dave Burdick8 Apr 2014 (Grist) – The world as we knew it is gone. Even if nobody is talking explicitly about it, it’s clear that something terrible has happened and in its wake, humanity must once again reset its priorities. Can we, in this resource-scarce new world, fashion some kind of idyllic agrarian commune […]

Death toll in Valparaiso wildfire rises to 16 – 10,000 residents evacuated, 500 homes consumed – ‘It’s been one of the worst fires in history’

By Nelson Quinones and Matt Smith; with additional reporting by Michael Roa and Ben Brumfield13 April 2014 (CNN) – Chile poured firefighters and police into the battle against a wildfire that swept through hundreds of homes in the Pacific coastal city of Valparaiso, leaving at least 16 dead, according to Chile’s National Emergency Office’s website. […]

Climate change could make humans extinct, warns health expert – ‘We can’t possibly evolve to match this rate of warming’

31 March 2014 By Deborah Snow and Peter Hannam (Sydney Morning Herald) – The Earth is warming so rapidly that unless humans can arrest the trend, we risk becoming ”extinct” as a species, a leading Australian health academic has warned. Helen Berry, associate dean in the faculty of health at the University of Canberra, said […]

New IPCC report: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability – Summary for policymakers and FAQ

30 March 2014 (IPCC) – The Final Draft Report, dated 28 October 2013, of the Working Group II contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability was accepted but not approved in detail by the 10th Session of Working Group II and the 38th Session of the IPCC on […]

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