Why California’s Drought Isn’t Going Anywhere
Week after week, the drabs of good news have been as rare as the rain. And that won’t change anytime soon. California is in the midst of a crushing severe multi-year drought brought on by cumulative winters with a dearth of replenishing rains and snows and an ever-growing population. Climate patterns may be in the early stages of aligning to quench… Read More
World Bank: Climate Change Will ‘Lead to Battles for Food’
Battles over water and food will erupt within the next five to 10 years as a result of climate change, the president of the World Bank said as he urged those campaigning against global warming to learn the lessons of how protesters and scientists joined forces in the battle against HIV. Jim Yong Kim said it was possible to cap the rise in global t… Read More
Coral Reefs in Australia Face Highest Risk in 215 Years
High ocean temperatures off the West Australian coast are “unprecedented since at least 1795” and pose a significant threat to the state’s coral reefs, scientists say. Core samples taken from coral colonies around the Houtman-Abrolhos Islands, west of Geraldton, have provided scientists with records of ocean temperature and sea levels going back 2… Read More
New NASA Satellite Shows Future of Precip Imagery
NASA’s latest satellite has opened its eyes for the first time and the images it has beamed back to scientists on Earth provide a new view of the globe’s rainfall. They also offer a sneak peek into how the satellite could help provide more detailed imagery and analysis of hurricanes, nor’easters and other strong storms as they form around the plane… Read More
Warming May Increase Freshwater Methane Emissions
British scientists have identified yet another twist to the threat of global warming. Any further rises in temperature are likely to accelerate the release of methane from rivers, lakes, deltas, bogs, swamps, marshlands and rice paddy fields. Methane or natural gas is a greenhouse gas. Weight for weight, it is more than 20 times more potent than c… Read More
Spring Thaw May Trigger Floods; Calif. Drought Locked In
Spring is finally -- finally -- here. That word is music to the ears of those in the eastern United States who are ready to thaw out from the frigid winter. But that thaw could bring flooding to parts of the Midwest and the northern Plains, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its official spring outlook, released Thursday.… Read More
Oceans Stand to Deliver Abundant Carbon-free Energy
Devices now under development in the United Kingdom, the United States and elsewhere generate electricity by tapping the movement of ocean waves and tides or the differences in temperature of water between an ocean’s surface and its depths. The sector is ripe with promise, but to reach its potential, the engineers, entrepreneurs and policy-makers w… Read More
Let it Rain: NASA Satellites Show Slice of Global Precip
Lacy ribbons of precipitation stretch across the planet in a new animation from NASA showing how widespread and yet ephemeral rain can be. A series of satellites known as the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) measure heavy to moderate rain over tropical and subtropical regions every day. From those satellite measurements taken every 3 hour… Read More
