Bay Area Ecosystems Climate Change Consortium (BAECCC)

Climate Ark Climate Change & Global Warming RSS News Feed

05/21/2013 06:56 PM
Whole neighborhoods razed by Oklahoma tornado that killed 24
Reuters: Rescuers went building to building in search of victims and survivors picked through the rubble of their shattered homes on Tuesday, a day after a massive tornado tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, wiping out blocks of houses and killing at least 24 people. After a long day of searching - emergency crews lifted broken doors, moved sections of shattered walls and tossed aside bricks looking for survivors as cadaver dogs sniffed through the rubble - Moore Mayor Glenn Lewis said he believed...

05/21/2013 01:41 PM
New question in gov race: Did climate change cause Sandy?
Philadelphia Inquirer: For the third time, Gov. Christie has refused to link climate change and Sandy. "I don't think there's been any proof thus far that Sandy was caused by climate change,' Christie said yesterday in response to a question from a reporter from WNYC, an NPR affiliate. Today at a union meeting for teachers, Christie's expected Democratic challenger, State Sen. Barbara Buono, brought up his remark. "Wake up!" Buono said. "How much proof do you need? This kind of putting his head in the sand, being...

05/21/2013 03:46 PM
Stressed Ecosystems Leaving Humanity High and Dry
Inter Press Service: Everyone knows water is life. Far too few understand the role of trees, plants and other living things in ensuring we have clean, fresh water. This dangerous ignorance results in destruction of wetlands that once cleaned water and prevented destructive and costly flooding, scientists and activists warn."We have accelerated major processes like erosion, applied massive quantities of nitrogen that leaks from soil to ground and surface waters and, sometimes, literally siphoned all water from rivers."...

05/21/2013 07:17 AM
Missing oil revenue stirs discontent among Chad's poor
Guardian: Félicité sees nothing unreasonable about her demands. Seated in one of the few shady spots in her yard, she details what she would like to obtain for her family: a decent wage, enough to eat, a health service and cheap building materials so everyone can have a home. "And school really free of charge for all children," adds this resident of Dembé, a poor neighbourhood of N'Djamena, the capital of Chad. Félicité and her husband arrived here 20 years ago. They are fortunate in having their own home:...

05/21/2013 02:03 PM
Fossil fuel divestment campaign's victory in Australia will be a moral one
Guardian: Journalist and climate activist Bill McKibben is in Australia in June on his epic Do The Math tour, which aims to highlight the danger of fossil fuel company oil and coal reserves and encourage divestment. The tour was kick started by McKibben's Rolling Stone article, Global Warming's Terrifying New Math, which argued that in order to stay below the 2C warming limit, the global economy has a budget of less than 565 gigatons of carbon dioxide. Unfortunately, fossil fuel companies have reserves...

05/21/2013 08:00 AM
Asia-Pacific leaders warn of water conflict threat
Agence France-Presse: Fierce competition for water could trigger conflict unless nations cooperate to share the diminishing resource, leaders from Asia-Pacific nations warned on Monday. From Central to Southeast Asia, regional efforts to secure water have sparked tensions between neighbours reliant on rivers to sustain booming populations. Breakneck urbanisation, climate change and surging demand from agriculture have heaped pressure on scarce water supplies, while the majority of people in Asia-Pacific still lack...

05/21/2013 10:50 AM
South Africa: Climate change boosted human development: study
Agence France-Presse: Early humans living in South Africa made cultural and industrial leaps in periods of wetter weather, said a study Tuesday that compared the archaeological record of Man's evolution with that of climate change. Anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens, first made their appearance in Africa during the Middle Stone Age which lasted from about 280,000 to 30,000 years ago. Some of the earliest examples of human culture and technology are found in South Africa -- with fossil evidence of innovative spurts...

05/21/2013 04:31 PM
Climate Extreme Prediction
Environmental News Network: It seems that there is always another opinion on how the climate is or will be changing. A new study led by Oxford University concludes that the latest observations of the climate system's response to rising greenhouse gas levels are consistent with conventional estimates of the long-term climate sensitivity, despite a warming pause over the past decade. However, the most extreme rates of warming simulated by the current generation of climate models over 50- to 100-year timescales are looking less...

05/21/2013 06:32 AM
Drought and Desertification - Global Response
Environmental News Network: Land degradation — more specifically drought and desertification — have become increasingly pressing problems for a growing number of countries around the world, threatening efforts to alleviate poverty, improve basic health and sanitation and address socioeconomic inequality, as well as spur agricultural and sustainable economic development. The only multilateral, international agreement linking development and environment to sustainable land management (SLM), high-level representatives from...

05/21/2013 04:03 AM
Climate change threatens Gulf monarchies' survival
Deutsche Welle: Qatar-based author Mari Luomi says the Persian Gulf monarchies will have to change to be sustainable in the era of climate change. But reaping the benefits of the fossil fuel economy has blinded most of them to that. DW: Why do you conclude that the Gulf monarchies have reached their limits of "natural sustainability." Mari Luomi: The growing imbalance between current natural resource consumption and preserving the environment for the future has reached a tipping point. The states are starting...

05/21/2013 09:24 AM
Illinois House panel approves fracking regulations
Associated Press: A groundbreaking deal to regulate high-volume oil and gas drilling in Illinois cleared a top House committee Tuesday, setting up a floor vote on a measure that supporters say would bring tens of thousands of jobs to struggling areas in the southern part of the state. The House Executive Committee unanimously voted to send the full House a legislative proposal meant to regulate hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." A vote is expected this week, although it's not yet clear when the Senate would take...

05/21/2013 04:01 PM
Making Sense of the Moore Tornado in a Climate Context
Climate Central: The devastating tornado that ripped apart Moore, Okla., on Monday now joins the ranks of America's strongest twisters on record, coming almost exactly two years after a similarly extreme and deadly tornado struck Joplin, Mo. In trying to make sense of the tragedy that unfolded in Moore, here are some of the things we know and don't know about tornadoes, and whether or how climate change may be influencing them now and into the future. Tornadoes are no stranger to the U.S., which sees the majority...

05/21/2013 05:05 PM
UK shale gas projections "wildly optimistic", campaigners say
BusinessGreen: Campaigners have decried as "wildly optimistic" a report claiming shale gas is poised to make a big contribution to the growth of the UK economy. A new paper by the Institute of Directors, sponsored by shale gas firm Cuadrilla Resources, says pressing ahead with exploiting shale gas could create a £3.7bn industry supporting 74,000 jobs and generating significant revenues for the Treasury. The IOD also claims domestic shale could reduce the country's emissions if it is used to replace coal power,...

05/21/2013 08:00 AM
Oyster shells are an antacid to the oceans
New York Times: Like ocean waters around the world, the Chesapeake has become more and more acidic as a result of rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Now, by studying oyster populations in relation to acidity levels, a team of researchers has concluded that oysters — particularly their shells — can play a significant role in reducing that acidity. “Oyster shells are made out of calcium carbonate, so they’re sort of like an antacid pill,” said George Waldbusser, an assistant professor of earth, ocean...

05/21/2013 08:44 AM
Aviation officials see global emissions deal possible by 2020
Reuters: Senior officials from business and commercial aviation voiced cautious optimism that a long-sought worldwide framework to reduce aviation's carbon emissions could be in place by 2020. And a key negotiator for the European Union's Executive Commission, focus of anger from many other countries over its emissions trading scheme (ETS), said she hoped a road map towards a pact would be agreed by this autumn. The comments came on Tuesday at a discussion on prospects for a global deal eliminating...

05/21/2013 05:08 PM
Forest certification body revokes Swiss logging company's certificate over alleged Congo abuses
Mongabay: The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a body that certifies forest management practices, has revoked all certificates granted to the Danzer Group, a multinational logging company, over alleged human rights abuses by one of its former subsidiaries in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), reports Bloomberg. According to a complaint filed by Greenpeace, the subsidiary, Siforco, provided financial and logistical support to Congolese police and military forces in a May 2011 attack against a community...

05/20/2013 10:16 PM
Frenetic search for survivors as 91 feared dead in tornado-hit Oklahoma
Reuters: Pre-dawn emergency workers searched feverishly for survivors in the rubble of homes, primary schools and an hospital in an Oklahoma City suburb ravaged by a massive Monday afternoon tornado feared to have killed up to 91 people and injured well over 200 residents. The 2-mile(3-km) wide tornado tore through town of Moore outside Oklahoma City, trapping victims beneath the rubble as one elementary school took a direct hit and another was destroyed. Reporters were cleared back from Plaza Towers...

05/21/2013 05:06 AM
With U.S. Awash in Oil, Nat'l Interest Argument for Keystone Weakens
InsideClimate: U.S. oil production is suddenly growing so fast that some analysts are questioning how much the country really needs the Canadian tar sands oil that would move through the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. This month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said it expects domestic crude oil production to surge 20 percent by the end of 2014 from its level at the start of this year. That means an additional 1.4 million barrels of U.S.-produced oil will be available each day—about twice as much...

05/21/2013 05:09 AM
200 mph winds, 12 miles of devastation: What makes a tornado?
Independent: A tornado, often known as a twister in the US, is a spinning column of air that joins a cloud (normally the moisture-rich cumulonimbus) and the ground. Yesterday's tornado in Moore, Oklahoma was said to be at least two miles wide - the biggest are about three miles wide. The accumulated debris at its heart, including cars, simply adds to the devastating force with which it smashes through everything in its path. Their speed across the ground and the duration of the 'touchdown' are other factors...

05/20/2013 11:10 PM
Shell feared disaster days before Alaska rig grounding: official
Reuters: Days before a Shell drillship went aground in the storm-tossed Gulf of Alaska, it was clear that towing failures could spell disaster for the vessel, the crew and the marine environment, a company official told a U.S. Coast Guard panel on Monday. The Kulluk, having completed preliminary drilling on an exploration well in the Beaufort Sea, broke away from its tow lines, and support vessels attempting to regain control of the drillship developed their own engine and mechanical problems, Norman Custard,...