“A new NASA study finds that the recent drought that began in 1998 in the eastern Mediterranean Levant region, which comprises Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey, is likely the worst drought of the past nine centuries. Scientists reconstructed the Mediterranean’s drought history by studying tree rings as part of an effort to… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Climate Change
Paper – Four billion people facing severe water scarcity
Science Advances 12 Feb 2016: Vol. 2, no. 2, e1500323 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1500323 “Freshwater scarcity is increasingly perceived as a global systemic risk. Previous global water scarcity assessments, measuring water scarcity annually, have underestimated experienced water scarcity by failing to capture the seasonal fluctuations in water consumption and availability. We assess blue water scarcity globally at… Continue Reading
Southwest sliding into a drier climate
News release: “The weather patterns that typically bring moisture to the southwestern United States are becoming more rare, an indication that the region is sliding into the drier climate state predicted by global models, according to a new study. “A normal year in the Southwest is now drier than it once was,” said Andreas Prein,… Continue Reading
NOAA, CIRES study: Wind, sun could eclipse fossil fuels for electric power by 2030
NOAA – “The United States could slash greenhouse gas emissions from power production by up to 78 percent below 1990 levels within 15 years while meeting increased demand, according to a new study by NOAA and University of Colorado Boulder researchers. The study used a sophisticated mathematical model to evaluate future cost, demand, generation and… Continue Reading
Bloomberg – 2015 Was the Hottest Year on Record
2015 Was the Hottest Year on Record By Tom Randall & Blacki Migliozzi, January 20, 2016: “This is what global warming looks like. Record after record after record, broken. The animation below shows the Earth’s warming climate, recorded in monthly measurements from land and sea over 136 years. The bright red line on top shows… Continue Reading
10 things to know about progress in international development
Overseas Development Institute: “Around the world, amazing progress is being made. More than 1 billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty since 1990 with major gains made in health and education and in other areas that contribute to human well-being. While the world still faces considerable challenges, including inequality, conflict and climate change, there are many lessons to be… Continue Reading
November and year-to-date 2015 were warmest on record for globe
NOAA – “The November average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.75°F (0.97°C) above the 20th century average. This was the highest for November in the 1880–2015 record, surpassing the previous record set in 2013 by 0.27°F (0.15°C), and marking the seventh consecutive month a monthly global temperature record has been broken…” Continue Reading
GAO Reports – Medicaid Managed Care, Medicare and Medicaid, Offshore Oil and Gas Resources, Homeland Security
Medicaid Managed Care: Trends in Federal Spending and State Oversight of Costs and Enrollment, GAO-16-77: Published: Dec 17, 2015. Publicly Released: Jan 19, 2016. Medicare and Medicaid: Additional Oversight Needed of CMS’s Demonstration to Coordinate the Care of Dual-Eligible Beneficiaries, GAO-16-31: Published: Dec 18, 2015. Publicly Released: Jan 19, 2016. Offshore Oil and Gas Resources:… Continue Reading
Audubon’s Birds and Climate Change Report
“The National Audubon Society has completed a continental analysis of how North America’s birds may respond to future climate change – Audubon’s Birds and Climate Change Report – Using extensive citizen science data and detailed climate layers, we developed models that characterize the relationship between the distribution of each species and climate. Then, we used… Continue Reading
USGS Releases First Comprehensive Digitized Geologic Map of Alaska
Geologic map of Alaska Scientific Investigations Map 3340 Compiled by: Frederic H. Wilson, Chad P. Hults, Charles G. Mull, and Susan M. Karl. DOI: 10.3133/sim3340 “This map and associated digital databases are the result of compilation and interpretation of published and unpublished 1:250,000-scale and limited 1:500,000- to 1:63,360-scale maps. Covering the entire state of Alaska,… Continue Reading
Unabated LA area gas leak compared to BP oil spill
Los Angeles Daily News, Susan Abram – “Eight weeks after that call was made, the leak continues. It has caused massive disruption in the northwestern San Fernando Valley community of Porter Ranch, an affluent community of nearly 31,000 residents about 28 miles from downtown Los Angeles. More than 1,800 families have been relocated by the… Continue Reading
NOAA Climate Data Online Search
“The demand for high-value environmental data and information has dramatically increased in recent years. To improve our ability to meet that demand, NOAA’s former three data centers—the National Climatic Data Center, the National Geophysical Data Center, and the National Oceanographic Data Center, which includes the National Coastal Data Development Center—have merged into the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).… Continue Reading
