12 June 2014 (NOAA) – Parts of the West, especially the southern portions, have been in drought for the last several years, with the PHDI reaching record or near-record low values at times. Time series of precipitation departure show the variation over time (New Mexico, California), while maps of the SPEI show the spatial extent […]
By Alemayehu Bishaw27 June 2014 (census.gov) – The Changes in Areas With Concentrated Poverty: 2000 to 2010 report [pdf] largely compares Census 2000 poverty estimates with those based on the 2008–2012 5-year American Community Survey (ACS). As 2010 represents the midpoint of this period, for convenience the remainder of this report refers to these 2008–2012 […]
By Dan Haefner, First Mate, RV Odyssey6 July 2014 (Sea Shepherd) – On the 20th of June, Pensacola was the recipient of yet another “present” from the oil-filled Gulf of Mexico – a 1000-pound tar mat washed up in Ft. Pickens Park. Tar balls wash up almost every day along the coast between Pensacola Beach […]
By Brian Brown6 July 2014 VEGA, Texas (NBC News) – While a high-pitched wind rattles the windows, and assaults a flapping, fraying American flag in the front yard, Lucas Spinhirne knows he’s staring into an abyss that many in Texas—and across the world—may be forced to contemplate. The once bounteous quantities of water that flowed […]
By Lori Montgomery 24 June 2014 NAGS HEAD, N.C. – The dangers of climate change were revealed to Willo Kelly in a government conference room in the summer of 2011. By the end of the century, state officials said, the ocean would be 39 inches higher and her home on the Outer Banks would be […]
By Ashley Ahearn and Katie Campbell, Earthfix 17 June 2014 ORCAS ISLAND, Washington (PBS) – Drew Harvell peers into the nooks and crannies along the rocky shoreline of Eastsound on Orcas Island. Purple and orange starfish clutch the rocks, as if hanging on for dear life. In fact, they are. “It’s a lot worse than […]
By EMILY SCHMALL 19 June 2014 DENTON, Texas (AP) – Natural gas money has been good to this Texas city: It has new parks, a new golf course and miles of grassy soccer fields. The business district is getting a makeover, and the airport is bustling, too. For more than a decade, Denton has […]
By Julie Cart15 June 2014 Snake River Plain, Idaho (Los Angeles Times) – There’s not much anyone can tell Barry Sorensen about Idaho’s Big Desert that he doesn’t know. Sorensen, 72, and his brother have been running cattle in this sere landscape all their lives, and they’ve weathered every calamity man and nature have thrown […]
By Phil Plait 12 June 2014 (Slate) – Well, if there’s one thing you can always count on when it comes to organized global warming denial, it’s how Orwellian it is. After all, that’s the only reasonable explanation for the group that calls itself “Friends of Science”. Because friends certainly don’t act the way they […]
By Haya El Nasser5 June 2014 LOS ANGELES (Al Jazeera) – A bear wandered into a public park in San Luis Obispo County and sent Little Leaguers scampering for shelter. Who’s to blame? The drought, of course. Mountain lions are jumping fences in northern California and killing goats. Whose fault? The drought again. In California, […]
