“The average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces during November 2013 was record highest for November in the 134-year period of record, at 0.78°C (1.40°F) above the 20th century average. This surpasses the previous record set in 2004 by 0.03°C (0.05°F) and is also the sixth highest monthly departure from average among all months on… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Climate Change
New GAO Reports – Climate Change, DHS Employee Morale and Leadership, Audits of BFS and IRS
CLIMATE CHANGE – Federal Efforts Under Way to Assess Water Infrastructure Vulnerabilities and Address Adaptation Challenges, GAO-14-23, Nov 14, 2013 DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY – DHS’s Efforts to Improve Employee Morale and Fill Senior Leadership Vacancies, GAO-14-228T, Dec 12, 2013: “DHS is the third-largest cabinet-level department in the federal government, with more than 240,000 employees situated throughout the nation.… Continue Reading
The burden of air pollution on years of life lost in Beijing, China, 2004-08
The burden of air pollution on years of life lost in Beijing, China, 2004-08: retrospective regression analysis of daily deaths. BMJ 2013;347:f7139. Published 9 December 2013 “The effects of air pollution on human health have recently attracted increasing concern in China, in part due to the increasing number of days with very high levels of air pollution. In most… Continue Reading
Loss of U.S. Wetlands Continues Upward Trend
“NOAA has authored a new report, Status and Trends of Wetlands in the Coastal Watersheds of the Conterminous United States 2004-2009, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. According to the report’s findings, the coastal watersheds of the continental United States lost wetlands at an average rate of 80,000 acres a year from 2004-2009. That’s approximately seven football fields, every… Continue Reading
New Report Calls for Attention to Abrupt Impacts From Climate Change, Emphasizes Need for Early Warning System
“Climate change has increased concern over possible large and rapid changes in the physical climate system, which includes the Earth’s atmosphere, land surfaces, and oceans. Some of these changes could occur within a few decades or even years, leaving little time for society and ecosystems to adapt. A new report from the National Research Council extends this… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – Hurricane Sandy Relief, Small Business Contracting, Medicare, Minority AIDS Initiative
HURRICANE SANDY RELIEF – Improved Guidance on Designing Internal Control Plans Could Enhance Oversight of Disaster Funding, GAO-14-58, Nov 26, 2013 NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS – Actions Taken by FEMA to Implement Select Provisions of the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006, GAO-14-99R, Nov 26, 2013 SMALL BUSINESS CONTRACTING – Updated Guidance and Reporting Needed for Consolidated Contracts, GAO-14-36, Nov 26, 2013… Continue Reading
Managing the Risk of Catastrophes—Protecting Critical Infrastructure in Urban Areas
At the N.Y. Fed: Managing the Risk of Catastrophes—Protecting Critical Infrastructure in Urban Areas. James Orr, Rae Rosen, Max Livingston, Kaivan K. Sattar, and Eric Ster. “On November 1, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York hosted the conference “Managing the Risk of Catastrophes—Protecting Critical Infrastructure in Urban Areas.” Superstorm Sandy caused significant damage and destruction… Continue Reading
Fighting Fires With Weather Models
Via New Technology Enables Wildfire Forecasting Firefighters better predict wildfire behavior see Use of spatially refined satellite remote sensing fire detection data to initialize and evaluate coupled weather-wildfire growth model simulation. Janice L. Coen and Wilfrid Schroeder. Article first published online: 22 OCT 2013. DOI: 10.1002/2013GL057868 [full-text – no fee] “Large wildfires may grow for weeks or months from ignition until extinction. Simulating… Continue Reading
Outlook on the Global Agenda 2014
World Economic Forum: “The Outlook on the Global Agenda 2014 provides a top-of-mind perspective from the Global Agenda Councils on the challenges and opportunities of the coming 12–18 months. It offers a comprehensive overview of the world, drawing upon the foremost global intelligence network and its collective brainpower to explore the most important issues we… Continue Reading
UMD, Google and gov. create first detailed map of global forest change
News release: “A University of Maryland-led, multi-organizational team has created the first high-resolution global map of forest extent, loss and gain. This resource greatly improves the ability to understand human and naturally-induced forest changes and the local to global implications of these changes on environmental, economic and other natural and societal systems, members of the… Continue Reading
The Effects of Policy Guidance on Perceptions of the Fed’s Reaction Function
Katherine Femia, Steven Friedman, and Brian Sack. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, November 1, 2013. “In the past few years, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has been using forward guidance about the federal funds rate in a more explicit way than ever before. This paper explores the market reaction to the forward guidance, with particular focus… Continue Reading
2012 sees slowdown in the increase in global CO2 emissions
Trends in global CO2 emissions: 2013 Report and the Link to the interactive presentation “Actual global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) reached a new record of 34.5 billion tonnes in 2012. Yet, the increase in global CO2 emissions in that year slowed down to 1.1% , which was less than half the average annual increase of 2.9%… Continue Reading
