With the ice-free drilling season nearing an end, Shell Oil started its first exploration well in the Chukchi Sea off the northwest coast of Alaska on Sunday. [Washington Post]
A new paper, released Sunday in Nature Climate Change, has attempted to lay out just how climate stress affects forests, and how serious the consequences of could be. [Climate Central]
New Zealand’s High Court has dismissed a challenge launched by climate-change sceptics against a government research agency’s finding that the temperature had risen in the past century. [The Australian]
European greenhouse gas emissions fell by 2.5 percent in 2011 over 2010, as a mild winter and increase in renewable energy use offset a rise in coal consumption and economic activity, estimates released on Friday said. [AFP]
Drought and rising temperatures are forcing water managers across the country to scramble for ways to produce the same amount of power from the hydroelectric grid with less water, including from behemoths such as the Hoover Dam. [Washington Post]
A massive Idaho wildfire forced hundreds of people from their homes on Sunday as high winds pushed the blaze to within miles of two communities. [Reuters]
Caribbean coral reefs – which make up one of the world’s most colourful, vivid and productive ecosystems – are on the verge of collapse, with less than 10% of the reef area showing live coral cover. [Guardian]
China will order its dominant electricity distributors to source up to 15 percent of their power from renewable energy including wind, but slow compliance means it may be years before the country’s struggling wind power developers benefit, industry executives say. [Reuters]
An over-reliance on gas-fired power stations risks making it impossible for Britain to meet targets on cutting carbon emissions, the new head of the independent climate change watchdog has warned. [The Independent]
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Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
Additional energy and climate news headlines are posted at http://www.marcaccicomms.com/news/energy-and-environment-news-roundup-8-10-12-2/
Brian R. Smith,
Mike Roddy and I want to talk with you about your challenge to create a “serious messaging strategy.”
Please contact me at johnmcc793@aol.com
Thank you.
AN acclaimed Arctic photographer yesterday warned it is too late to stop global warming after witnessing this year’s record-breaking ice melt first hand.
Doug Allan, who helped make the BBC’s stunning Frozen Planet, spoke out days after Norwegian scientists released research revealing the polar ice cap is disappearing even faster than originally feared.
And Dunfermline-born Doug, 61, said he was frightened to the core by his most recent trip to the far north.
He said: “What I saw made me fear we’ve gone beyond what humans can do to turn back the clock.”
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/science-technology/arctic-veterans-disaster-fear-1314126
It’s plain, if one has the stomach to acknowledge and contemplate it, that we have passed the point of no return, incredibly swiftly, with Arctic summer sea ice loss and the albedo flip. I’d love to hear of any conceivable mechanism whereby the resulting amplification of northern temperatures and consequent release of CO2 and CH4 from melting permafrost and submarine clathrates will not cause a disaster unparalleled in human history, and within decades. I fear that there is a denialism amongst climate truth-tellers with regard to the horror and rapidity of onset of our predicament.
Must see -
Global warming: Famed Austrian peak nearly ice-free
FRISCO — In yet another sign of how quickly global warming is eating away at glaciers in the European Alps, the Austrian Alpine Club is reporting that the summit cross high on the 3,660-meter Grossvenediger in Austria came close to toppling off its podium this summer.
The permanent snow and ice that helped hold the monument in place for decades melted away in the summer heat, with several feet of ice vanishing just in the past few months. A mountain guide arriving at the summit last week discovered that the cross was close to falling over, with potential risks to summit visitors.
http://summitcountyvoice.com/2012/09/10/global-warming-famed-austrian-peak-nearly-ice-free/
Infections with mosquito-borne West Nile virus have risen by 25 percent since Aug. 30 to 1,993 cases, including 87 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The high toll may be related to the record heat this summer.
High temperatures “raise the levels of virus in the mosquitoes,” said Lyle R. Petersen, M.D., director of the CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, at a press conference. “So the hotter it is, the mosquitoes tend to become more infectious.”
Of the 1,993 West Nile Virus cases, 1,069 (54 percent) were classified as severe enough to affect the nervous system, in some cases causing encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) or meningitis (inflammation of the membrane around the brain and the spinal cord), according to the CDC.
http://news.consumerreports.org/health/2012/09/west-nile-virus-toll-tied-to-record-high-temperatures.html
Radio Ecoshock is a platform for three ice experts this week – as scientists speak out about the melting Arctic.
Hear Jennifer Francis of Rutgers explain how the Jet Stream, and our winter weather has been changed by summer sea ice melt. Surprisingly, she said summer weather is also changing, but probably more due to the less reported record early snow melt on Arctic land.
Dr. Mark Serreze of the National Snow and Ice Data Center joins us, and confirms the Arctic snow melt is a record, and has been missed by most reporting.
We wrap up with Dr. Cecilia Bitz from the University of Washington – a long-time polar and climate expert who connects the dots.
One hour radio program here:
http://www.ecoshock.net/eshock12/ES_120912_Show_LoFi.mp3