Friday, September 30, 2016

NASA Warnings About Climate Change Hit Home: Kennedy Space Center Threatened By Rising Sea Levels

Climate change is perhaps one of the most dangerous threats to the future of American space flight, as it turns out. Alongside some of the more banal concerns that face NASA on a regular basis (like budgetary allowances) and those events that are a bit less common (rockets blowing up, for instance) is the steadily rising nearby sea and the increased likelihood of intense storms brought on by global warming.  http://www.ibtimes.com/
Article courtesy of International Business Times by Clark Mindock

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Global Warming Trend Warms the U.S. West, Leaves East Shivering

A pattern of warm and dry winters in the West, paired with frigid conditions in the East, has become more frequent since 1980, a trend that reflects the influence of global warming on the atmosphere in the Northern Hemisphere. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27092016/global-warming-trend-warms-only-us-west-leaves-east-shivering
Article courtesy of Inside Climate New by Bob Berwyn

Greenland's receding icecap to expose top-secret US nuclear project

A top-secret US military project from the cold war and the toxic waste it conceals, thought to have been buried forever beneath the Greenland icecap, are likely to be uncovered by rising temperatures within decades, scientists have said. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/27/receding-icecap-top-secret-us-nuclear-project-greenland-camp-century-project-iceworm
Article courtesy of The Guardian by Jon Henley

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Germany has the world's first hydrogen-powered passenger train.

When it comes to rail innovations, it’s usually the fastest, longest and most expensive new connections or rolling stock that grab people’s attention. Next year, however, Germany will buck that trend with something that’s both ground-breaking and singularly modest. German rail’s most innovative project for 2017 won’t go especially fast, and you’ve probably never heard of the cities it will link. It will still revolutionize rail travel, quite possibly across the world, with one dramatic change. In December 2017, Germany will launch the first ever passenger rail service powered by hydrogen. https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=356744216134226621#editor/src=header
Article courtesy of The Atlantic City Lab by Fergus O'Sullivan

Monday, September 26, 2016

America's first wave-produced power goes online in Hawaii.

By some estimates, the ocean's endless motion packs enough power to meet a quarter of America's energy needs and dramatically reduce the nation's reliance on oil, gas and coal. But wave energy technology lags well behind wind and solar power, with important technical hurdles still to be overcome.  http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/wave-produced-electricity-us-online-hawaii-42187915
Article courtesy of The Associates Press by Cathy Bussewitz

Two chemicals together may knock out zika-carrying mosquitoes.

Aerial spraying of the insecticide naled, followed by a product that targets mosquitoes when they are in the larval stage, may be responsible for a sharp drop in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in a part of Miami where local transmission of the Zika virus was first found, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/two-chemicals-together-may-knock-out-zika-carrying-mosquitoes/?WT.mc_id=SA_TW_HLTH_NEWS
Article courtesy of Scientific American by Helen Branswell

375 top scientists warn of 'real, serious, immediate' climate threat

Yesterday, 375 of the world’s top scientists, including 30 Nobel Prize winners, published an open letter regarding climate change. In the letter, the scientists report that the evidence is clear: humans are causing climate change. We are now observing climate change and its affect across the globe. The seas are rising, the oceans are warming, the lower atmosphere is warming, the land is warming, ice is melting, rainfall patterns are changing and the ocean is becoming more acidic.  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/sep/21/375-top-scientists-warn-of-real-serious-immediate-climate-threat
Article courtesy of The Guardian by John Abraham

Greenland's huge annual ice loss is even worse than thought

The melting Greenland ice sheet is already a major contributor to rising sea level and if it was eventually lost entirely, the oceans would rise by six metres around the world, flooding many of the world’s largest cities. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/21/greenlands-huge-annual-ice-loss-is-even-worse-than-thought
Article courtesy of The Guardian by Damian Carrington

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Tackling food waste as a way to save the climate, too.

Recycling the staggering amount of food that's wasted into livestock feed is increasingly being seen as a tool in the U.S. effort against climate change. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29082016/food-waste-global-problem-solutions-climate-change-recycling-landfills-greenhouse-gas-methane-global-warming
Article courtesy of Inside Climate News by Georgina Gustin

Soaring ocean temperature is 'greatest hidden challenge of our generation.'

The scale of warming in the ocean is ‘truly staggering’, the report warns.


The oceans have already sucked up an enormous amount of heat due to escalating greenhouse gas emissions, affecting marine species from microbes to whales, according to an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) report involving the work of 80 scientists from a dozen countries.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/05/soaring-ocean-temperature-is-greatest-hidden-challenge-of-our-generation
Article courtesy of The Guardian by Oliver Milman