Scientists fear toxic algae bloom spreading on Pacific coast – Stretching from southern California to Alaska, this year’s blooms thought to be the largest ever recorded

By Ryan Schuessler1 August 2015 ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Al Jazeera) – The toxic algae blooms in the Pacific Ocean stretching from southern California to Alaska — already the largest ever recorded — appear to have reached as far as the Aleutian Islands, scientists say. “The anecdotal evidence suggests we’re having a major event,” said Bruce Wright, […]

Republican presidential hopefuls reap rewards of climate denial in primary, but face risks in general election – ‘The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing noncompetitive’

By Matt Viser1 August 2015 WASHINGTON (Boston Globe) – Rick Santorum calls climate change “a beautifully concocted scheme.” Senator Ted Cruz contends that no climate change has been recorded in the last 15 years, bluntly declaring, “It hasn’t happened.” Ben Carson, a renowned neurosurgeon, has said, “We may be warming. We may be cooling.” Former […]

Massive California fire jumped 20,000 acres overnight

By Jessica Marmor Shaw2 August 2015 (MarketWatch) – A wildfire that has been raging in northern California since last Wednesday jumped 20,000 acres overnight, and has now charred 47,000 acres and is threatening 6,300 homes. Fire officials say the massive blaze, called the Rocky Fire, in the Lower Lake area north of San Francisco is […]

Cecil the lion lights up New York’s Empire State building

2 August 2015 (AFP) – A giant photo of the beloved Zimbabwean lion killed by an American trophy hunter was among images projected Saturday onto the Empire State Building in New York in a dazzling display. The “Projecting Change on the Empire State Building” initiative was designed to raise awareness about the plight of endangered […]

Dry days in U.S. West bring a ferocious start to the fire season – ‘By heavens, if this isn’t a sign of climate change, then what is climate change going to bring?’

By Fernanda Santos1 August 2015 WALLA WALLA, Washington (The New York Times) – Another summer of record-breaking drought and heat has seized the West, setting off costly and destructive wildfires from Southern California, where a single blaze burned more than 30,000 acres of national forest east of Los Angeles, to Montana, where a fast-moving fire […]

Heat, drought cook fish alive in Pacific Northwest – ‘We’ve lost about 1.5 million juvenile fish this year due to drought conditions at our hatcheries’

By Doyle Rice1 August 2015 (USA Today) – Freakishly hot, dry weather in the Pacific Northwest is killing millions of fish in the overheated waters of the region’s rivers and streams. “We’ve lost about 1.5 million juvenile fish this year due to drought conditions at our hatcheries,” Ron Warren of Washington State’s Department of Fish […]

Image of the Day: Satellite view of burn scars around Tanana, Alaska

By Adam Voiland1 August 2015 (NASA) – In mid-July, Alaska seemed to be headed toward its worst wildfire year on record. But then a period of cool, wet weather arrived later in the month and calmed several large fires. Government officials also trimmed tens of thousands of acres from earlier estimates of burned area after […]

California governor declares state of emergency as blazes burn – Firefighter killed, hundreds flee in Northern California – ‘The conditions and fire behavior we’re seeing are typically what we’d see in late August and September’

By Jeff Chiu and Haven Daley1 August 2015 LOWER LAKE, California (Associated Press) – Blazes raging in forests and woodlands across California have taken the life of a firefighter and forced hundreds of people to flee their homes as an army of firefighters continue to battle them from the air and the ground. Twenty-three large […]

More logging won’t stop wildfires – ‘Logging after a fire destroys a forest’s ability to rejuvenate’

By Chad T. Hanson and Dominick A. Dellasala23 July 2015 (The New York Times) – In the fall of 2013, shortly after fire swept across 257,000 acres of forest and shrub lands near Yosemite National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada, Republicans in the House of Representatives approved a bill that would have suspended environmental laws […]

Alaska’s wildfire season of 2015 may be the state’s worst ever – ‘What happens in the summer of 2015 has the potential to change the whole trajectory for the next 100 years or more’

By Chris Mooney 26 July 2015 FAIRBANKS, Alaska (Washington Post) – Hundreds of wildfires are continually whipping across this state this summer, leaving in their wake millions of acres of charred trees and blackened earth. At the Fairbanks compound of the state’s Division of Forestry recently, workers were busy washing a mountain of soot-covered fire […]

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