By Keith Ridler27 July 2015 BOISE, Idaho (Associated Press) – More than a quarter million sockeye salmon returning from the ocean to spawn are either dead or dying in the Columbia River and its tributaries due to warming water temperatures. Federal and state fisheries biologists say the warm water is lethal for the cold-water species […]
21 July 2015 (KidsCount.org) – The KIDS COUNT Data Book [pdf] is an annual publication that assesses child well-being nationally and across the 50 states, as well as in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Using an index of 16 indicators, the report ranks states on overall child well-being and in economic well-being, education, […]
By John H. Richardson7 July 2015 (Esquire) – The incident was small, but Jason Box doesn’t want to talk about it. He’s been skittish about the media since it happened. This was last summer, as he was reading the cheery blog posts transmitted by the chief scientist on the Swedish icebreaker Oden, which was exploring […]
By Lindsay Abrams22 July 2015 (Salon) – Wildfire season isn’t what it used to be. In Washington state, a combination of ongoing drought and rapid development made 2014 particularly nightmarish, and this year’s unusually hot conditions are fueling another season of dangerous blazes — more than 300 so far, including one, 3,000-plus acre wildfire that […]
By Keven Drews22 July 2015 WEST KELOWNA, B.C. (The Canadian Press) – Relentless forest fires burning across British Columbia may be the new normal, Premier Christy Clark warned as she stood not far from a raging fire that threatened homes in her own riding. Clark spoke near the Westside Road fire outside West Kelowna on […]
22 July 2015 (Desdemona Despair) – The Kids Count project keeps track of lots of data relating to the health and well-being of children in the United States. Des whipped up this graph in no time using the graphing tool at the Kids Count Data Center. The percentage of children in extreme poverty was level […]
By Simon Evans21 July 2015 (Carbon Brief) – It is a truth almost universally acknowledged that the shale gas revolution has led to a fall in US emissions. But what if that wasn’t true? New research published in Nature Communications suggests it was the global financial crisis, not fracking, that has done most to reduce […]
By Lindsey Bever 20 July 2015 (Washington Post) – Amid California’s historic drought, an even rarer weekend downpour that calmed wildfires also washed away a 30-foot bridge that carries commuters to Arizona. An elevated area on Interstate 10 collapsed early Sunday evening near Southeastern California’s Desert Center, leaving a pickup truck trapped underneath. Firefighters launched […]
By David Erickson19 July 2015 MISSOULA (Independent Record) – The length of wildfire seasons across the globe and the burnable areas of Earth’s surface have drastically increased in the past three decades due to climate change, according to a groundbreaking new study supported by years of research from the U.S. Forest Service’s Missoula Fire Sciences […]
BRENTWOOD, 18 July 2015 (CBS SF) – Ed Pereira never thought that trying to save water at his Brentwood home would be so trying. Last month, he decided to take out his front lawn and put in drought-tolerant landscaping. But Ed says his homeowners association isn’t making it easy. The HOA [homeowners’ association] rejected his […]
