CANBERRA, Australia, 5 July 2012 (AP) – Increasingly common experiences with extreme climate-related events such as the Colorado wildfires, a record warm spring and preseason hurricanes have convinced many Americans climate change is a reality, the head of a U.S. scientific agency said Friday. Many Americans had previously seen climate change as a “nebulous concept” […]
By Bruce Alpert, Times-Picayune28 June 2012 Washington – New federal flood insurance legislation could force some homeowners and commercial property owners to pay higher premiums, up to 20 percent a year for the next five years. Currently rate increases are limited to 10 percent annually. The legislation, added to a transportation funding bill expected to […]
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 […]
27 June 2012 (CNN) – Thousands remain evacuated from their flooded homes in sodden Florida as a weakened Tropical Depression Debby was set to move off the state’s Atlantic coast and back over water. In Florida’s Pasco County alone, 7,000 homes and commercial properties remained under evacuation order, county spokesman Eric Keaton said Wednesday. Seventy-three […]
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 […]
22 June 2012 (AFP) – Global sea levels could rise two to three times higher over the next century than previous UN estimates, according to a study released Friday by the US National Research Council. A committee of experts evaluated the latest UN data and updated those projections with new data on polar ice-cap melting […]
By NEAL PEIRCE, Times-Dispatch 17 June 2012 HONOLULU – An Asian century, an urban century — the rise of the East and the role of such expansive urban giants as Shanghai are emblematic of popular assessments of where the world’s economy is heading. But talk with Roland Fuchs of the East-West Center in Honolulu and […]
By Darryl Fears17 June 2012 NORFOLK, Virginia – At her cozy house by the river, Julie Faella spoke as though a monster lurks nearby. It rises under a tidal moon, she said, or when the winds howl, or when rains crash down. She’s seen it with her own eyes. It crept under the front door […]
By JOANNA M. FOSTER17 May 2012 In just over a month, policy makers from around the world will meet in Rio de Janeiro for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. The meeting has been called Rio+20, reflecting the two decades that have passed since a landmark conference on the environment and development was held […]
By John Vidal in Gazipara, www.guardian.co.uk 9 May 2012 Rebecca Sultan’s life has been shattered twice in a few years. First, the 140mph winds of Cyclone Sidr ripped through her village, Gazipara, flattening houses, killing 6,000 people and devastating the lives of millions as it slammed into southern Bangladesh in 2007. Then, 18 months later, […]
