NASA Study Projects Warming-Driven Changes in Global Rainfall
A NASA-led modeling study provides new evidence that global warming may increase the risk for extreme rainfall and drought. ... read more >>
Lack of Water Has Lasting Effects in Kansas and Texas - Slide Show - NYTimes.com
Raising crops without irrigation is far cheaper, but yields are far lower. Drought is a constant threat: the last two dry-land harvests were all but wiped out by poor rains.
A few miles west of Mr. Yost’s farm, Nathan Kells cut back on irrigation when his wells began to falter in the last decade and shifted his focus to raising dairy heifers — 9,000 on that farm, and thousands more elsewhere.
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High Plains Aquifer Dwindles, Hurting Farmers - NYTimes.com
Lack of water has a lasting effect on Kansas and Texas. The water available of fresh water is declining sharply as competition over water resources depletes groundwater. ... read more >>
Flooding threatens one in four London properties
One in four London properties, collectively worth around £250bn, are at risk of flooding, according to official assessments of the dangers now facing homes in England and Wales. Ten of the top 25 most at-risk local authority areas across England and Wales are now London boroughs. The environment agency's 2013 national flood risk assessment, unpublished but seen by the Guardian, shows that London ... read more >>
UKs climate change adaptation team cut from 38 officials to just six
The number of people employed by the government to work on the UK's response to the effects of climate change has been cut from 38 officials to just six, triggering accusations that David Cameron's promise to be the greenest government has been abandoned. The UK is facing a multi-billion pound bill over the next few years for the costs of adapting to the effects of climate change – including floo ... read more >>
LEED: "Transforming" the built environment
The U.S. Green Building Council's LEED program is gaining traction in corporate and public buildings because it provides optimum performance and energy efficiency, Daniel Schneckenburger writes. While opponents from chemical and forestry groups criticize LEED, but the bipartisan Shaheen-Portman bill in the Senate promotes LEED for use by manufacturers, in building codes and in government building ... read more >>
For first time, single-day CO2 tops 400 ppm
The global concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit 400 parts per million for the first time in recorded history on Thursday, according to data from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. ... read more >>
Researchers develop new index to diagnose causes of water scarcity
From the water management perspective, water scarcity is an unacceptable risk of facing water shortages to serve water demands in the near future. Water scarcity may be temporary and related to drought conditions or other accidental situation, or may be permanent and due to deeper causes such as excessive demand growth, lack of infrastructure for water storage or transport, or constraints in wate ... read more >>
NASA Opens New Era in Measuring Western U.S. Snowpack - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
A new NASA airborne mission has created the first maps of the entire snowpack of two major mountain watersheds in California and Colorado, producing the most accurate measurements to date of how much water they hold. ... read more >>
Climate Change News: Mount Everest glaciers have shrunk 13% in 50 years
Glaciers in the Mount Everest region have shrunk by 13 percent and the snow-line has shifted 180 meters (590 feet) higher during the past 50 years, a new study found. This might be linked to higher carbon dioxide levels, less precipitation, higher temperatures and climate change. ... read more >>
