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Dust in the Wind Could Speed Greenland’s Ice Melt

Sun, 2014-06-08 21:22 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Meltwater channels run along the ice in Greenland. Soot, dust and microbes that live in the ice all contribute to its darkening.  Credit: Henry Patton/Flickr

climatecentral.org - by Brian Kahn - June 8, 2014

Despite it’s name, Greenland is predominantly white, as snow and ice cover the majority of the country. New research indicates that Greenland’s main color may be starting to fade and in fact darken, though, thanks to a widespread increase of dust across the ice sheets. That darkening could speed up surface melt, and with it, sea level rise around the globe.

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RESEARCH - Contribution of light-absorbing impurities in snow to Greenland’s darkening since 2009

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Canada Bars Its Meteorologists From Mentioning Climate Change

Sun, 2014-06-08 19:00 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

Pipelines carrying steam to wellheads and heavy oil back in Alberta, Canada Todd Korol/Reuters

newsweek.com - by Zoe Schlanger - June 2, 2014

Just weeks after President Obama made on-air appearances with meteorologists explicitly to address climate change, a journalist learned that in Canada, official policy dictates that government-employed meteorologists aren’t supposed to talk about climate change at all.

Government scientists “speak to their area of expertise,” a government spokesman recently wrote to journalist Mike DeSouza defending the policy. . . Questions about climate change or long-term trends would be directed to a climatologist or other applicable authority.”

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Growing Ebola Outbreak Threatens to Overwhelm Volunteers

Sun, 2014-06-08 18:15 — Elhadj Drame

When a team from Tulane University sent a batch of protective clothing and equipment to help workers fighting an outbreak of Ebola virus in Sierra Leone last month, they were fairly confident the 300 or so packs would be enough for a good start.

They couldn’t have predicted what they would be up against.

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Humanitarians in the Sky

Sun, 2014-06-08 17:15 — Kathy Gilbeaux

 submitted by Luis Kun

     

Lawmakers need to ensure their new regulations do not run counter to the humanitarian imperative.
Photograph: CorePhil/DSI

Drones are already a game-changer for disaster response

theguardian.com - by Patrick Meier - June 6, 2014

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) capture images faster, cheaper, and at a far higher resolution than satellite imagery. And as John DeRiggi speculates in "Drones for Development?" these attributes will likely lead to a host of applications in development work. In the humanitarian field that future is already upon us — so we need to take a rights-based approach to advance the discussion, improve coordination of UAV flights, and to promote regulation that will ensure safety while supporting innovation.

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Ancient Soils Found to be Rich in Carbon

Sun, 2014-06-08 17:02 — Maeryn Obley

An eroding bluff on the U.S. Great Plains reveals a buried, carbon-rich layer of fossil soil. Image credit: Jospeh Mason

Image: An eroding bluff on the U.S. Great Plains reveals a buried, carbon-rich layer of fossil soil. Image credit: Jospeh Mason

sci-news.com - May 27th 2014

The team analyzed a soil known as the Brady soil, which was formed more than 13,500 years ago in what is now Nebraska, Kansas and other parts of the Great Plains. It lies up to 6.5 m below the present-day surface and was buried by a vast accumulation of windborne dust known as loess beginning about 10,000 years ago.

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Fukushima Disaster Still A Global Nightmare

Sun, 2014-06-08 17:00 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

“The models that predicted the arrival of radioactive seawater stated that the seawater could come anytime from late March or early April to the end of year . . ."  Photo: KAI VETTER

ecowatch.com - by Harvey Wasserman - June 3, 2014

The corporate media silence on Fukushima has been deafening . . .

Ever more radioactive water continues to pour into the Pacific. . .

Hundreds more tons are backed up on site, with Tepco apologists advocating they be dumped directly into the ocean without decontamination.

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Antarctic Ice Sheet Could Contribute to Rapid Sea Level Rise, Say Scientists

Fri, 2014-06-06 00:59 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

New evidence links rapid sea level rise 14,500 years ago to icebergs breaking off Antarctica. 
Credit: Frank Roedel, Alfred Wegener Institute

Some 14,600 years ago, sea levels rose 6.5 feet in just a century, thanks to Antarctica's melting glaciers. It could happen again, say researchers.

livescience.com - by Becky Oskin - May 28, 2014

Antarctica's melting glaciers launched so many icebergs into the ocean 14,600 years ago that sea level rose 6.5 feet (2 meters) in just 100 years, a new study reports. The results are the first direct evidence for dramatic melting in Antarctica's past — the same as predictions for its future.

"The Antarctic Ice Sheet had been considered to be fairly stable and kind of boring in how it retreated," said study co-author Peter Clark, a climate scientist at Oregon State University. "This shows the ice sheet is much more dynamic and episodic, and contributes to rapid sea-level rise."

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UN Elects Cuba to Chair World Health Assembly Even as Cubans Lack Aspirin, Basic Health

Wed, 2014-06-04 23:05 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The UN today elected Cuban Health Minister Roberto Tomas Morales Ojeda to chair its 2014 World Health Assembly.

Cuban media hails decision; UN Watch condemns "UN handing propaganda victory to a dictatorship"

unwatch.org

GENEVA, May 19 – The Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch criticized the UN's election today of Cuba to chair the 67th World Health Assembly, with executive director Hillel Neuer saying the decision "wrongly hands a coveted propaganda victory to a dictatorship that imprisons journalists and brutalizes human rights defenders," and that it "enables Cuba to further perpetuate myths about a health system that is in fact crumbling, with desperate citizens reduced to asking tourists to bring them Aspirin and other basic medicines."

The consensus election today by 194 WHO member states chose the sole candidate, Cuban Health Minister Roberto Tomas Morales Ojeda.

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IMF Chief Says Banks Haven't Changed Since Financial Crisis

Wed, 2014-06-04 21:20 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, presents her address to the Inclusive Capitalism Conference. Photograph: John Stillwell/AP

Christine Lagarde tells London conference banking sector is still resisting reform and taking excessive risks

theguardian.com - by Angela Monaghan - May 27, 2014

The head of the International Monetary Fund has warned that a persistent violation of ethics among bankers and rising inequality pose a major threat to growth and financial stability.

Christine Lagarde told an audience in London that six years on from the deep financial crisis that engulfed the global economy, banks were resisting reform and still too focused on excessive risk taking to secure their bonuses at the expense of public trust.

She said: "The behaviour of the financial sector has not changed fundamentally in a number of dimensions since the crisis.

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Denmark, Portugal, and Spain Leading the World in Wind Power

Sat, 2014-05-31 13:50 — Maeryn Obley

Wind Share of Electricity Generation in Leading Countries, 2013

Image: Wind Share of Electricity Generation in Leading Countries, 2013

earthpolicy.org - May 27th 2014 - J. Matthew Roney

Denmark produced one third of its electricity from the wind in 2013. In no other country has wind’s share of annual electricity generation yet topped 30 percent. But the Danes are not stopping there—they are eyeing a goal of 50 percent wind by 2020, with most of the needed expansion coming from offshore wind farms.

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