:( The NJ wildfires are right near my childhood summer camp. Noooooooo.
Drought and a weak winter has caused wildfires of 100 acres or larger in 9 states.
Via Weather
A Message From a Republican Meteorologist on Climate Change
This piece is worth reading in full:
””My climate epiphany wasn’t overnight, and it had nothing to do with Al Gore.”
I’m going to tell you something that my Republican friends are loath to admit out loud: climate change is real. I’m a moderate Republican, fiscally conservative; a fan of small government, accountability, self-empowerment and sound science. I am not a climate scientist. I’m a Penn State meteorologist, and the weather maps I’m staring at are making me very uncomfortable. No, you’re not imagining it: we’ve clicked into a new and almost foreign weather pattern. To complicate matters I’m in a small, frustrated and endangered minority: a Republican deeply concerned about the environmental sacrifices some are asking us to make to keep our economy powered-up. It’s ironic. The root of the word conservative is “conserve”. A staunch Republican, Teddy Roosevelt, set aside vast swaths of America for our National Parks System, the envy of the world. Another Republican, Richard Nixon, launched the EPA. Now some in my party believe the EPA and all those silly “global warming alarmists” are going to get in the way of drilling and mining our way to prosperity. Well, we have good reason to be alarmed.”
Terence Corcoran: Closing the door on Kyoto
On the eve of the Dustbin in Durban, an apt nickname for the doomed UN Framework climate talks that opened Monday in South Africa, it looks like the Kyoto Protocol will not go gently into the night, at least not for Canada.
(Source: nationalpost)
Massachusetts Releases Climate Change Adaptation Report
“This report, prepared by EEA and the Massachusetts Climate Change Adaptation Advisory Committee, is the first broad overview of climate change as it affects Massachusetts, the impacts of this change, vulnerabilities of multiple sectors ranging from natural resources, infrastructure, public health, and the economy. It also provides an analysis of potential strategies that could better prepare us for this changing world.
The report is organized into two parts. Part I includes an overview of the observed and predicted changes to Massachusetts’ climate and their anticipated impacts, key findings, a set of guiding principles to follow, and key adaptation strategies that cut across multiple sectors. Part II is organized into five broad areas, describing for each area the vulnerabilities to climate change and outlining adaptation strategies that could help increase resilience and preparedness.”
Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change and Health
A new report out by Environmental Working Group. Most surprising tidbit? Cheese generates the third highest emissions, right behind lamb and beef. Check it out!
World’s biggest cement producer fights climate change by cutting emissions and developing energy efficient buildings
This is a pretty big deal. Cement production is a huge area of possible greenhouse gas reductions.
(Source: climateadaptation)
Curious…
Nature magazine reports that the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica is starting to close, in light of the CFC ban implemented decades ago.
The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica is starting to heal, say researchers in Australia. The team is the first to detect a recovery in baseline average springtime ozone levels in the region, 22 years after the Montreal Protocol to ban chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and related ozone-destroying chemicals came into force.
Journal reference: Salby, Titova, & Deschamps. “Rebound of Antarctic ozone.” GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 38, L09702, 4 PP., 2011
doi:10.1029/2011GL047266
