U.S. West braces for flooding as huge mountain snowpack melts and reservoirs fill

GRAND COULEE DAM, Washington, June 2 (Associated Press) — The giant concrete dams of the Pacific Northwest are overflowing with water. Wyoming has deployed National Guard troops to pile up sandbags. A federal official compares the impending situation to a bucking bull ready to storm out of his chute. States across the West are bracing […]

If Monterrey falls, Mexico falls

By Robin Emmott, with additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Phoenix; Editing by Kieran Murray and Claudia Parsons1 Jun 2011 MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) – Mario Ramos thought it was a bad joke when he received an anonymous email at the start of this year demanding $15,000 a month to keep his industrial tubing business operating […]

Maplecroft: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, and USA rated ‘high risk’ for short-term energy security

June 2 (Maplecroft) – New research that evaluates worldwide energy security, has identified the G7 economies of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and USA as being at ‘high risk’ in the short-term, whilst China and countries from the oil producing MENA region are highlighted as facing increasing challenges in the future. Risk analysis and mapping […]

Exceptional, extreme drought ongoing for most of Texas – Falcon Lake dropping ‘at a staggering pace’

By Robert Burns, Texas A&M3 June 2011 COLLEGE STATION — A few areas received rain, but except for parts of north-central and extreme northeast Texas, the state continued to suffer from moderate to exceptional drought, according the U.S. Drought monitor. Even where the drought had lifted, Texas AgriLife Extension Service personnel reported shortages of hay […]

Graph of the Day: Loss of Headwater Streams to Mountaintop Mines and Valley Fills in Central Appalachian Coalfields, 2011

Map showing loss of headwater streams to mountaintop mines and valley fills (MTM-VF). This diagram depicts the loss of stream miles and channel complexity that can result from extensive mountaintop mining and valley filling. Solid blue lines inside valley fill areas represent buried streams. Note that some headwaters above filled areas are disconnected from the […]

Endangered northern abalone could be doomed by increasing ocean acidity

Increasing levels of ocean acidity could spell doom for British Columbia’s already beleaguered northern abalone, according to the first study to provide direct experimental evidence that changing sea water chemistry is negatively affecting an endangered species. The northern abalone–prized as a gourmet delicacy–has a range that extents along the North American west coast from Baja […]

Scientists argue against conclusion that bacteria consumed Deepwater Horizon methane

ScienceDaily (May 26, 2011) — A technical comment published in the May 27 edition of the journal Science casts doubt on a widely publicized study that concluded that a bacterial bloom in the Gulf of Mexico consumed the methane discharged from the Deepwater Horizon well. The debate has implications for the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem […]

2011 drought worst in Texas since 1895

By Adriana Acosta26 May 2011 BAY CITY – With much of the nation focused on historic floods and deadly tornadoes, Texas has been suffering through a drought being compared to the severe record drought of 1895. “With history as a guide, we have some very serious times coming our way without any significant rain in […]

Video: Satellite view of April’s deadly tornadoes

NOAA’s Eye-Opening Time-Lapse Video of April’s Deadly Tornadoes   Major Tornado Outbreak Impacts Southeast U.S. – April 26, 2011 Technorati Tags: North America,global warming,climate change,infrastructure failure

Sea level will rise a foot higher on New Jersey coast by 2050

May 26 (NJ Press Media) – Sea level likely will be a foot higher along New Jersey by 2050, and at the end of the century “Atlantic City’s going to see three feet,” said geology professor Ken Miller of Rutgers University. To see what the beaches would do on their own in response to rising […]

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