Shale powers U.S. oil output to heights of 1970

By Ed Crooks 31 January 2018 NEW YORK (Financial Times) – US oil production has returned to its record high point, 47 years after the previous peak during the final days of the last Texas oil boom, as the shale revolution that was temporarily set back by low crude prices has reignited.The government’s Energy Information […]

Declining trust in government is driving declines in democracy globally – U.S. is now a “flawed democracy”

25 January 2017 (The Economist) – America, which has long defined itself as a standard-bearer of democracy for the world, has become a “flawed democracy” according to the taxonomy used in the annual Democracy Index from the Economist Intelligence Unit, our sister company. Although its score did not fall by much—from 8.05 in 2015 to […]

The temperature in Siberia rose 100 degrees, and the northern U.S. may pay a frigid price – Temperature anomalies are “off the charts”

By Jason Samenow 31 January 2018 (The Washington Post) – As an antidote to the report of minus-88 degree weather in the Siberian outpost of Oymyakon earlier this month, we give you this: The temperature in a settlement just to its east was an astonishing 126 degrees warmer two weeks later.The mercury in Omolon, Russia, […]

Photo gallery: Billion-dollar U.S. weather disasters in 2017

By Judson Jones 8 January 2018 (CNN) –  These images represent the 16 different weather disasters which topped the $1 billion mark in 2017. [more] Billion-dollar disasters in 2017

Rare, venomous sea snake found slithering on Southern California shores. Are more coming?

By Louis Sahagun 11 January 2018 (Los Angeles Times) – A rare venomous sea snake found slithering on the sand in Newport Beach earlier this week was one of a growing number of the serpents apparently drawn far north of their usual habitat by the spread of warm ocean temperatures, a biologist said Thursday. The […]

Trump E.P.A. blocks Obama-era clean water rule

By Coral Davenport 31 January 2018WASHINGTON (The New York Times) – The Trump administration has formally suspended a major Obama-era clean water regulation ahead of plans to issue its own version of the rule later this year. President Trump has taken aim at the bitterly contested rule, known as Waters of the United States, since […]

After the hurricane: In Barbuda, islanders fear their cherished lifestyle may be lost forever

By Anthony Faiola; Photos by Salwan Georges 16 January 2018 (The Washington Post) – Months after Hurricane Irma blazed its destructive path through the Caribbean, the once vibrant community on the tiny island of Barbuda is still struggling to rebuild paradise lost. Before the September storm, Barbuda was a forgotten Eden about the physical size […]

America’s top weather scientists offer to set Trump straight on climate change – “There is a wealth of comprehensive and accurate information on climate change available to you and your staff within government agencies”

By Josh Gabbatiss 1 February 2018 (The Independent) – Donald Trump has been sent a letter by the US’s top scientific organisation for weather and climate researchers, correcting him on points made in a recent interview.Talking to Piers Morgan, Mr Trump questioned much of the science of climate change, and appeared to suggest global temperatures […]

New Pentagon survey: Climate change-related risks to 50 percent of U.S. military infrastructure

By Caitlin Werrell and Francesco Femia 29 January 2018 (The Center for Climate and Security) – On Friday, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics released a comprehensive new survey of climate change-related risks to military infrastructure worldwide. The study, prosaically titled “Climate-Related Risk to […]

Phosphorus pollution reaching dangerous levels worldwide, new study finds

WASHINGTON D.C., 25 January 2018 (AGU) – Man-made phosphorus pollution is reaching dangerously high levels in freshwater basins around the world, according to new research. A new study published in Water Resources Research, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, estimated the global amount of phosphorus from human activities that entered Earth’s freshwater bodies from […]

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