GAO: Climate Change Threatens Energy Infrastructure
The U.S. Government Accountability Office published a report in March showing that U.S. power lines, electric power plants, renewable energy generators and other energy infrastructure are threatened in a changing climate, especially to rising seas, extreme weather and drought. … Read More
Frequency of Flooding Across Europe May Double by 2050
The catastrophic floods that soaked Europe last summer and the United Kingdom this winter are part of the pattern of things to come. According to a new study of flood risk in Nature Climate Change annual average losses from extreme floods in Europe could increase fivefold by 2050. And the frequency of destructive floods could almost double in that … Read More
Great Barrier Reef Faces ‘Irreversible’ Damage
The Great Barrier Reef will suffer “irreversible” damage by 2030 unless radical action is taken to lower carbon emissions, a stark new report has warned. Unless temperatures are kept below the internationally agreed limit of 2°C warming on pre-industrial levels, the reef will cease to be a coral-dominated ecosystem, the report warns. Coral bleachi… Read More
Rains Ease Calif. Drought, Make Wildfire Outlook Grimmer
The massive Pacific storm that streamed onto the California shoreline dropped a lot of rain, but it did little to ease long-term drought conditions and may end up making an expected catastrophic wildfire season even worse.… Read More
Drought Fuels Rising Tide of Texas Water Conservation
Texans learned three years ago what exceptional drought possibly aggravated by climate change looks like: 4 million charred acres of land, thousands of burned homes and water supply reservoirs dry or draining fast. As the drought wears on, a culture of water conservation has risen with it, especially in San Antonio and Austin, but for different rea… Read More
Switch to Gas From Coal May Threaten Water Supply
With drought and water shortages affecting areas where much of America’s natural gas is produced, power plants making the switch to gas from coal could have other costs that may be made worse by manmade climate change in the future, especially if global warming, as studies show, means more intense drought.… Read More
Are We on the Path to Peak Water?
Many scientists and experts fear that humanity is reaching the point of peak water — the point at which freshwater is being consumed faster than it is being replenished or available. In the infographic above we take a look at the amount of water use around the world. Can we cut back before we reach the point of no return?… Read More
Marine Heatwaves Severely Damage Australia Coral
Marine heatwaves have wreaked “almost unprecedented” damage to ancient coral off Western Australia’s Pilbara coast, scientists say. Preliminary results from a five-year year study of the coastline revealed that a remote section of reef south of Barrow Island has suffered severe “bleaching and decimation,” according to the CSIRO, which is running t… Read More
