Home/Articles in: Climate Change
Articles in: Climate Change
Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, May 13th, 2012,
Gold rushes in developing countries mean riches for a few and crumbs, death and ecocide for the poor and the environment. But never mind all that, there’s money to be made. Gold in Peru is booming. According to Australia’s 9MSN, Gold is now Peru’s number one export, with countries like Switzerland, Canada and the US as major buyers. The article also briefly mentions the conflicts and environmental damage caused by Peru’s goldmines without going into any detail. Here are some details: Gold mining is destroying the Peruvian Amazon rainforest through deforestation, digging, and mercury, oil and hydrocarbon contamination, which is…
Tags: amazon, gold, gold rush, mercury, mining, Peru
Climate Change, Politics, Science & Technology, May 10th, 2012,
By Michael D. Lemonick It’s just two weeks since a paper in Nature flagged an ominous thinning of ice shelves along parts of the Antarctic coast lying due south of the Pacific Ocean. The ice appears to be melting from below, as changing ocean currents are bringing relatively warm water to bathe the shelves’ undersides — and as the ice shelves lose mass, they also lose their ability to slow land-based ice in its slide toward the sea. Now there’s something new to worry about. A pair of brand-new studies published today, one in Nature and one in its sister…
Tags: Antarctica, Climate change, climate science, climatecentral.org, global warming, ice melting
Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, May 8th, 2012,
The chairman of the UK’s environment agency, Lord Smith, has voiced public support for the controversial natural gas and petroleum technique known as hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’ with the argument that it will provide a secure and domestic source of energy. Fracking was linked to minor earthquakes when shale gas extraction was tried in the area around Blackpool, England. There are also concerns about groundwater contamination, methane leaks and the industrialization of the countryside, as has been experienced in large parts of the US, including government protected, publicly owned lands. From The Ecologist: Lord Smith’s backing follows pressure on the…
Tags: fracking, hydraulic fracturing, lord smith, nuclear
Pollution, May 7th, 2012,
On Sunday 12 people were killed and 129 injured in a fire at a chemical plant in eastern Thailand, reports Pakistan’s Daily Times. Just over two years ago I posted about Thailand’s Map Ta Phut industrial port in Rayong province and the environmental pollution the Thai petrochemical hub has wrought on the local population. This latest deadly incident at Map Ta Phut caused hundreds of residents to evacuate the area, though loud rains prevented many people from hearing the calls to leave. This prompted Thailand’s industrial minister to call for an upgrade of Map Ta Phut’s warning systems. From the…
Tags: chemical, explosion, fire, Map Ta Phut, plant, Thailand
Climate Change, Green living, Videos & Documentaries, May 6th, 2012,
A lot of money and resources go into making our homes warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. How can we minimize the amount of power we use for climate control? For example, 1/3 of all energy consumed in Germany is used to heat or cool homes. This can be quite an expense and is a significant source of climate change driving greenhouse gases. People have been insulating their homes for thousands of years with grass, mud and other natural materials. Now we use fiberglass, foam insulation, special glass in more developed areas, while houses in poorer, hotter…
Tags: climate, energy, home, house, insulation
Politics, Pollution, May 4th, 2012,
Up to one thousand locations in England and Wales may be contaminated with radioactive waste from military bases and factories. According to a new UK government report, a quarter of these places have been already confirmed to be contaminated. These figures surprised the British people, all the more, because only in December 2011, the Ministry of Defence cleared about 15 landfills of nuclear waste in the entire country. It leads the experts to one of two conclusions: either the authorities hid the real number of contaminated areas, or they did not realise the scale of the problem themselves. “In…
Tags: contamination, nuclear waste, radioactive
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Weird Stuff, May 3rd, 2012,
By Michael D. Lemonick I’ve never told anyone this before, but when I was a kid, I always wanted a rubber chicken. Many of the comedic heroes of my childhood got to play with them — the Three Stooges, for example, and Soupy Sales (I’m dating myself and revealing my lowbrow side all at once here). It’s not like they were all that hard to find, even before the Internet. I also had a slightly more elevated set of interests, including an endless fascination with the space program. I was too young to be aware of Sputnik, but I watched…
Tags: NASA, NASA rubber chicken, NASA rubber chicken Camilla, space, space exploration
Natural disasters, Pollution, May 2nd, 2012,
95% of debris from the 2011 tsunami that devastated parts of Japan will end up in that swirling vortex of plastic and other rubbish – the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, but some will hit the shores of North America. Lighter debris has already reached places like Alaska, where a Japanese teenager’s football washed up on Middleton Island. The man who found the ball is married to Japanese woman, who was able to read the teenager’s name plus the name of his school. Amazingly, a moving crate containing a Harley Davidson motorcycle and a set of golf clubs was found on…
Tags: Alaska, America, British Columbia, debris, japan, tsunami
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Apr 30th, 2012,
I read the news today, oh boy. Wind farms are causing global warming? No, but maybe a bit of local warming. A new study of wind turbines in Texas shows that rotating blades force warm air downwards at night, causing ground temperatures to rise by up to 0.72C (1.3F). And so the headlines read that wind farms warm the night, or as Reuters states ‘Wind Farms Might Have Warming Effect’. But they also cool ground temperatures during the day according to previous research. Isn’t this piece of information equally significant? The Guardian doesn’t include it in their article, while Discovery…
Tags: temperatures, Texas, warming, wind farm, wind turbines
Politics, Pollution, Apr 25th, 2012,
Research commissioned by the human rights group Amnesty International found that an oil spill in the Niger Delta was at least 60 times worse than claims made by the oil giant Shell. Royal Dutch Shell is currently being sued over the spill in a London Court by a group of 11,000 Nigerians, including many fishermen of the Bodo region, who claim their livelihoods were destroyed. Though 60 times Shell’s figure, the Amnesty International estimate is still half of what Martyn Day, lawyer for the Bodo communities puts the damage at. From Reuters: The Amnesty accusation is based on footage of…
Tags: amnesty international, bodo, Niger Delta, Nigeria, oil spill, Shell
Climate Change, Health, Wildlife & Flora, ,
It’s coming some time and maybe… The Asian tiger mosquito originates in hot and muggy South East Asia. But international trade, tourism and (increasingly) climate change will enable the tropical disease-carrying insect to establish itself in northern Europe, including the UK. Reports last September from the US told of how the smaller, but more aggressive Asian tiger mosquito was causing problems in the states of California, Texas, Florida and Hawaii; and cities including Memphis, New Orleans and Washington DC. In Europe, the Asian tiger has already encroached upon parts of Italy, Spain, southern France, the Balkans and even The Netherlands….
Tags: Asian Tiger, dengue, Europe, mosquito
Climate Change, Natural disasters, Nature, Wildlife & Flora, Apr 19th, 2012,
By Michael D. Lemonick For years, we who communicate about climate change have been wringing our hands over how to make people understand the problem at a gut level. Endangered polar bears? Too far removed. Island nations like the Maldives sinking beneath the waves? Too far away. Hot temperatures by 2100? Too far in the future. But like the first, outlying squalls from an oncoming hurricane, the first effects of climate change are already here, in the form of heat waves, droughts, intense rainstorms and more, and people are evidently noticing. Not just the extremes themselves: you couldn’t have missed…
Tags: Climate change, climatecentral.org, extreme weather, global warming, natural disasters
Climate Change, Conservation, Politics, ,
Brazil’s controversial Belo Monte Dam project is set to be the 3rd largest dam in the world and is expected to displace roughly 20,000 people and submerge some 4,000 sq km (1,550 sq mi). Located in the Amazon rainforest in the state of Pará, the dam is being built on the Xingu River, which many people depend on for their livelihoods. But it’s not just locals, indigenous groups or environmentalists who should be concerned. The Amazon is the “lungs of the Earth”, meaning that we all benefit from and/or depend on the oxygen the dense rainforest provides, not to mention…
Tags: amazon, Belo Monte, Brazil, dam
Climate Change, Natural disasters, Wildlife & Flora, Apr 16th, 2012,
Dry weather in much of England is threatening to devastate farming and wildlife, and could extend past next Christmas. Parts of England have entered official drought status, with water rationing measures in place. Soils are so dried out that recent rains did little to help conditions. This may sound like strange weather in a country known for rain rather than droughts, especially in April, but the dangers are all too real. Helen Vale, national drought coordinator at the Environment Agency is quoted in the Guardian: The amount of water that we use at home and in our businesses has a…
Tags: drought, England, water, wildlife
Climate Change, Natural disasters, Videos & Documentaries, Apr 13th, 2012,
It must be hail season, though I’ve never before heard that a hail season exists. On Tuesday I was caught in a sudden, though fairly light, hailstorm in central Scotland. Yesterday I read a post here on Greenfudge that mentioned a recent hailstorm in Texas that caused disruptions at Dallas Fort Worth Airport. And it’s not just the Scotland and Texas that have experienced hail this week. A poor doggy was left tied out during a hailstorm in Cheltenham, England. Furthermore, California crops suffered major damage due to a hailstorm in that state. From freshplaza.com: 150 acres of his 4,000…
Tags: China, hail, hailstorm, Scotland, Texas
Climate Change, Natural disasters, Nature, Science & Technology, Apr 12th, 2012,
By Andrew Freedman Severe thunderstorm season is upon us, with the array of threats it brings, from tornadoes to flash flooding. On Tuesday, tornadoes grabbed most of the headlines, as several strong tornadoes struck the Dallas-Ft. Worth metro area, tossing tracker trailer trucks into the air, and damaging dozens of homes. But the large hail the same supercell thunderstorms dropped caused major impacts as well, largely because they fell on top of one of the world’s busiest airports. A passenger aboard a flight preparing to depart DFW International Airport when the storm hit described the sounds of the hail hitting…
Tags: big hail, changes due to climate change, Climate change, climatecentral.org, global warming, hail, hailstone climate change, supercell thunderstorms, tornadoes
Pollution, Wildlife & Flora, Apr 10th, 2012,
About a month after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, radioactive particles were detected in giant kelp samples off the California coast. The level 7 nuclear incident resulted from the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the region around Fukushima, Japan in March of 2011. In a recent study California State University marine biologists tested giant kelp up and down the coastline of the state, from Laguna Beach to Santa Cruz, and found radioactive iodine, suggesting that radiation that leaked from the damaged Fukushima reactors had reached California. Levels 250 times higher than previous measurements were found in…
Tags: California, Fukushima, iodine, japan, kelp, radiation, radioactive
Climate Change, Apr 9th, 2012,
Will the youth of China and Brazil lead the way in the new environmental ‘Great Leap Forward’ while British and American young people languish in egomaniacal tweets and preposterous dreams of stardom, not giving two cares about the future of the planet? A recent survey by the Carbon Trust attempts to measure concern about CO2 and climate change in young populations around the world – and the results may surprise you. The scope of the survey focuses on the awareness and consumer values of young adults in 6 different countries on 5 continents – The US, UK, China, South Korea,…
Tags: Brazil, Carbon Trust, China, Climate change, Korea, survey, UK, USA, young, youth
Climate Change, Green living, Nature, Wildlife & Flora, Apr 7th, 2012,
Species: Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi) Status: Critically Endangered (CR) Interesting Fact: The Philippine eagle is the world’s largest species of eagle. With a wingspan of up to two metres and sharp talons, the Philippine eagle is a formidable predator. Swooping from branch to branch in the canopy of its forest habitat, it uses its excellent eyesight to spot its prey of flying lemurs, palm civets and monkeys. This habit of hunting monkeys has earned the Philippine eagle the alternative common name of ‘monkey-eating eagle’. Philippine eagles are also known to hunt in pairs with one individual acting as a decoy…
Tags: ARKive.org, endangered birds, endangered species of the week, Philippine eagle, Pithecophaga jefferyi, wildlife
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Videos & Documentaries, Apr 6th, 2012,
In some coastal areas climate change means a rise in sea levels, leading to an increase in water salinity, which in turn means a high salt content in soil. Increasing salinity in fresh water and soil poses problems for agriculture and fish farming. This is a particularly tricky aspect of climate change adaptation, but coastal communities as well as scientists are finding ways to cope. Hardy varieties of rice, wheat and vegetables are one way, as is shifting from freshwater fish farming to raising saltwater species such as crabs. In Sri Lanka, rice farmers, together with the United Nations Development…
Tags: australia, Bangladesh, farming, fish, India, rice, salinity, salty soil, water, wheat
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