Sunday, January 13, 2013
Why the NYTimes "Green Blog" Is Now Essential
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With NYTimes environmental desk gone, Green Blog becomes essential
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Friday, January 11, 2013
Report says warming is changing US daily life
WASHINGTON (AP) - Global warming is already changing America from sea to rising sea and is affecting how Americans live, a massive new federally commissioned report says.
A special panel of scientists convened by the government issued Friday a 1,146-page draft report that details in dozens of ways how climate change is already disrupting the health, homes and other facets of daily American life. It warns that those disruptions will increase in the future.
'Climate change affects everything that you do,' said report co-author Susan Cutter, director of the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute at the University of South Carolina. 'It affects where you live, where you work and where you play and the infrastructure that you need to do all these things. It's more than just the polar bears.'
The blunt report takes a global environmental issue and explains what it means for different U.S. regions, for various sectors of the economy and for future generations.
The National Climate Assessment doesn't say what should be done about global warming. White House science adviser John Holdren writes that it will help leaders, regulators, city planners and even farmers figure out what to do to cope with coming changes.
And climate change is more than hotter temperatures, the report said.
'Human-induced climate change means much more than just hotter weather,' the report says, listing rising-seas, downpours, melting glaciers and permafrost, and worsening storms. 'These changes and other climatic changes have affected and will continue to affect human health, water supply, agriculture, transportation, energy, and many other aspects of society.'
The report uses the word 'threat' or variations of it 198 times and versions of the word 'disrupt' another 120 times.
If someone were to list every aspect of life changed or likely to be altered from global warming, it would easily be more than 100, said two of the report's authors.
The report, written by team of 240 scientists, is required every four years by law. The first report was written in 2000. No report was issued while George W. Bush was president. The next one came out in 2009. This report, paid for by the federal government, is still a draft and not officially a government report yet. Officials are seeking public comments for the next three months.
'There is so much that is already happening today,' said study co-author Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. 'This is no longer a future issue. It's an issue that is staring us in the face today'
This version of the report is far more blunt and confident in its assessments than previous ones, Hayhoe said: 'The bluntness reflects the increasing confidence we have' in the science and day-to-day realities of climate change.
The report emphasizes that man-made global warming is doing more than just altering the environment we live in, it's a threat to our bodies, homes, offices, roads, airports, power plants, water systems and farms.
'Climate change threatens human health and well-being in many ways, including impacts from increased extreme weather events, wildfire, decreased air quality, diseases transmitted by insects, food and water, and threats to mental health,' the report said.
'Climate change and its impacts threaten the well-being of urban residents in all 13 regions of the U.S.,' the report said. 'Essential local and regional infrastructure systems such as water, energy supply, and transportation will increasingly be compromised by interrelated climate change impacts.'
For example, the report details 13 airports that have runways that could be inundated by rising sea level. It mentions that thawing Alaskan ground means 50 percent less time to drill for oil. And overall it says up to $6.1 billion in repairs need to be made to Alaskan roads, pipelines, sewer systems, buildings and airports to keep up with global warming.
Sewer systems across America may overflow more, causing damages and fouling lakes and waterways because of climate change, the report said. The sewer overflows into Lake Michigan alone will more than double by the year 2100, the report said.
While warmer weather may help some crops, others will be hurt because of 'weeds, diseases, insect pests and other climate change-induced stresses,' the report said. It said weeds like kudzu do better with warmer weather and are far more likely to spread north.
'Several populations - including children, the elderly, the sick, the poor, tribes and other indigenous people - are especially vulnerable to one or more aspects of climate change,' the report said.
__
Online:
The National Climate Assessment: http://ncadac.globalchange.gov.
___
Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears
This news article is brought to you by DATING ADVICE 201 - where latest news are our top priority.
A special panel of scientists convened by the government issued Friday a 1,146-page draft report that details in dozens of ways how climate change is already disrupting the health, homes and other facets of daily American life. It warns that those disruptions will increase in the future.
'Climate change affects everything that you do,' said report co-author Susan Cutter, director of the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute at the University of South Carolina. 'It affects where you live, where you work and where you play and the infrastructure that you need to do all these things. It's more than just the polar bears.'
The blunt report takes a global environmental issue and explains what it means for different U.S. regions, for various sectors of the economy and for future generations.
The National Climate Assessment doesn't say what should be done about global warming. White House science adviser John Holdren writes that it will help leaders, regulators, city planners and even farmers figure out what to do to cope with coming changes.
And climate change is more than hotter temperatures, the report said.
'Human-induced climate change means much more than just hotter weather,' the report says, listing rising-seas, downpours, melting glaciers and permafrost, and worsening storms. 'These changes and other climatic changes have affected and will continue to affect human health, water supply, agriculture, transportation, energy, and many other aspects of society.'
The report uses the word 'threat' or variations of it 198 times and versions of the word 'disrupt' another 120 times.
If someone were to list every aspect of life changed or likely to be altered from global warming, it would easily be more than 100, said two of the report's authors.
The report, written by team of 240 scientists, is required every four years by law. The first report was written in 2000. No report was issued while George W. Bush was president. The next one came out in 2009. This report, paid for by the federal government, is still a draft and not officially a government report yet. Officials are seeking public comments for the next three months.
'There is so much that is already happening today,' said study co-author Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. 'This is no longer a future issue. It's an issue that is staring us in the face today'
This version of the report is far more blunt and confident in its assessments than previous ones, Hayhoe said: 'The bluntness reflects the increasing confidence we have' in the science and day-to-day realities of climate change.
The report emphasizes that man-made global warming is doing more than just altering the environment we live in, it's a threat to our bodies, homes, offices, roads, airports, power plants, water systems and farms.
'Climate change threatens human health and well-being in many ways, including impacts from increased extreme weather events, wildfire, decreased air quality, diseases transmitted by insects, food and water, and threats to mental health,' the report said.
'Climate change and its impacts threaten the well-being of urban residents in all 13 regions of the U.S.,' the report said. 'Essential local and regional infrastructure systems such as water, energy supply, and transportation will increasingly be compromised by interrelated climate change impacts.'
For example, the report details 13 airports that have runways that could be inundated by rising sea level. It mentions that thawing Alaskan ground means 50 percent less time to drill for oil. And overall it says up to $6.1 billion in repairs need to be made to Alaskan roads, pipelines, sewer systems, buildings and airports to keep up with global warming.
Sewer systems across America may overflow more, causing damages and fouling lakes and waterways because of climate change, the report said. The sewer overflows into Lake Michigan alone will more than double by the year 2100, the report said.
While warmer weather may help some crops, others will be hurt because of 'weeds, diseases, insect pests and other climate change-induced stresses,' the report said. It said weeds like kudzu do better with warmer weather and are far more likely to spread north.
'Several populations - including children, the elderly, the sick, the poor, tribes and other indigenous people - are especially vulnerable to one or more aspects of climate change,' the report said.
__
Online:
The National Climate Assessment: http://ncadac.globalchange.gov.
___
Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears
This news article is brought to you by DATING ADVICE 201 - where latest news are our top priority.
Federal report: Warming is changing US daily life
WASHINGTON (AP) - A massive new federal scientific report says global warming is already changing America from sea to rising sea and how Americans live.
The government issued Friday a 1,146-page draft report that details in dozens of ways how climate change is already disrupting the health, homes and other facets of daily American life. It warns that those disruptions will increase in the future.
The blunt report takes a global environmental issue and explains what it means for different U.S. regions, for various sectors of the economy and for future generations.
The National Climate Assessment doesn't say what should be done about global warming. White House science adviser John Holdren writes that it will help leaders, regulators, city planners and even farmers figure out what to do to cope with coming changes.
This news article is brought to you by GLOBAL WEATHER NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
The government issued Friday a 1,146-page draft report that details in dozens of ways how climate change is already disrupting the health, homes and other facets of daily American life. It warns that those disruptions will increase in the future.
The blunt report takes a global environmental issue and explains what it means for different U.S. regions, for various sectors of the economy and for future generations.
The National Climate Assessment doesn't say what should be done about global warming. White House science adviser John Holdren writes that it will help leaders, regulators, city planners and even farmers figure out what to do to cope with coming changes.
This news article is brought to you by GLOBAL WEATHER NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Kodak patent sale plan gets bankruptcy court approval
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Eastman Kodak Co's proposed $525 million sale of its digital imaging patents to Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corp got a bankruptcy judge's approval on Friday, bringing the photography innovator a step closer to exiting Chapter 11.
The price is a fraction of the more than $2 billion which Kodak had hoped to fetch for the patents when it filed for bankruptcy in January 2012. However, it allows the company to proceed with a plan to secure $830 million in financing and exit bankruptcy in the first half of this year.
Judge Allan Gropper gave his green light at a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.
'We're disappointed in the price, but we're moving the case forward,' Gropper said.
Intellectual Ventures and RPX lead a consortium of some of the world's biggest technology companies, including Adobe Systems Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc and Fujifilm Holdings Corp.
The deal, announced in December, allows for the licensing of patents, settlement of patent-related legal claims, and the assumption of a cross-licensing agreement between Kodak and Fuji. Kodak said it was pleased with the court's approval.
'The monetization of non-core IP assets achieves one of Kodak's key restructuring objectives while positioning its commercial imaging business for further growth and success,' the company said in a statement.
Kodak's patents hit the market as intellectual property values soared and technology companies began plowing money into patent-related litigation.
For example, Nortel Networks Corp in 2011 sold 6,000 wireless patents in a bankruptcy auction for $4.5 billion, and Google Inc spent $12.5 billion last year for patent-rich Motorola Mobility.
But Kodak's patent auction dragged on beyond the initial expectation that it would be wrapped up in August and never generated nearly as high a price.
Kodak, which traces its roots to the 19th century, invented the handheld camera but was unable to shift successfully into digital imaging. It will likely be a different company when it exits bankruptcy, leaving the consumer business and focusing instead on providing products and services to the commercial imaging market.
The Kodak bankruptcy case is In Re: Eastman Kodak Co. et al, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-10202.
(Reporting by Nick Brown; editing by Lisa Von Ahn and G Crosse)
This article is brought to you by DATING SERVICE.
The price is a fraction of the more than $2 billion which Kodak had hoped to fetch for the patents when it filed for bankruptcy in January 2012. However, it allows the company to proceed with a plan to secure $830 million in financing and exit bankruptcy in the first half of this year.
Judge Allan Gropper gave his green light at a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.
'We're disappointed in the price, but we're moving the case forward,' Gropper said.
Intellectual Ventures and RPX lead a consortium of some of the world's biggest technology companies, including Adobe Systems Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc and Fujifilm Holdings Corp.
The deal, announced in December, allows for the licensing of patents, settlement of patent-related legal claims, and the assumption of a cross-licensing agreement between Kodak and Fuji. Kodak said it was pleased with the court's approval.
'The monetization of non-core IP assets achieves one of Kodak's key restructuring objectives while positioning its commercial imaging business for further growth and success,' the company said in a statement.
Kodak's patents hit the market as intellectual property values soared and technology companies began plowing money into patent-related litigation.
For example, Nortel Networks Corp in 2011 sold 6,000 wireless patents in a bankruptcy auction for $4.5 billion, and Google Inc spent $12.5 billion last year for patent-rich Motorola Mobility.
But Kodak's patent auction dragged on beyond the initial expectation that it would be wrapped up in August and never generated nearly as high a price.
Kodak, which traces its roots to the 19th century, invented the handheld camera but was unable to shift successfully into digital imaging. It will likely be a different company when it exits bankruptcy, leaving the consumer business and focusing instead on providing products and services to the commercial imaging market.
The Kodak bankruptcy case is In Re: Eastman Kodak Co. et al, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-10202.
(Reporting by Nick Brown; editing by Lisa Von Ahn and G Crosse)
This article is brought to you by DATING SERVICE.
Times Closes Environment Desk on Same Day 'Extreme Weather' Hits Front Page
Talk about mixed signals. On the very morning The New York Times signaled its plans to reassign its nine environment desk journalists to other sections, the paper ran a chilling photo of 'extreme weather' above the fold on A1.
RELATED: How Obama Lost Climate Change
No one got fired, but Times managing editor Dean Baquet tells InsideClimate New's Katherine Bagley that the dedicated environment desk will fold over the next few weeks. 'We have not lost any desire for environmental coverage,' Baquet assures, saying that environment stories will be embedded in business, national, and local coverage. 'This is purely a structural matter.' There's no word yet on the fate of the Green blog, which has been edited from the environment desk.
RELATED: Why Americans Stopped Believing in Global Warming
Lots of environmentalists and science reporters weren't happy about the news. The Guardian's US deputy editor Staurt Millar was one of the many critics who noticed a symbolic disconnect between the paper's announcement and its current front page, teasing a story about extreme weather becoming the new normal in countries around the world.
This article is brought to you by MATCHMAKING.
RELATED: How Obama Lost Climate Change
No one got fired, but Times managing editor Dean Baquet tells InsideClimate New's Katherine Bagley that the dedicated environment desk will fold over the next few weeks. 'We have not lost any desire for environmental coverage,' Baquet assures, saying that environment stories will be embedded in business, national, and local coverage. 'This is purely a structural matter.' There's no word yet on the fate of the Green blog, which has been edited from the environment desk.
RELATED: Why Americans Stopped Believing in Global Warming
Lots of environmentalists and science reporters weren't happy about the news. The Guardian's US deputy editor Staurt Millar was one of the many critics who noticed a symbolic disconnect between the paper's announcement and its current front page, teasing a story about extreme weather becoming the new normal in countries around the world.
On day NYT closes environment desk, it runs this on front page - extreme weather becoming more frequent and intense nyti.ms/Wxl23HBut others thought this might be a good move for the paper's environment coverage, freeing up reporters and better integrating coverage with the rest of the paper. Quartz science reporter Christropher Mims thought the move could take climate coverage out of isolation, and Scientific American blog editor Bora Zivkovic agreed.
- Stuart Millar (@stuartmillar159) January 11, 2013
Topic/beat that is ghettoed in its own newspaper section is easily recycled without reading... mix it up! Throw it at unsuspecting readers.Environment reporting in general has been declining in recent years. But the Times has been running more environment stories than any other newspaper, according to a recent study by the Center for Science & Technology Policy Research. On Wednesday, the Times ran a provocative map above the front-page fold, alonside the news that 2012 saw the hottest U.S. temperature average on record.
- Bora Zivkovic (@BoraZ) January 11, 2013
This article is brought to you by MATCHMAKING.
Rhino Poaching at Record High in South Africa
Rhinoceros poaching soared to a record high level in South Africa last year. The country's government said 668 rhinos were killed within its borders in 2012, up from 448 in 2011, according to the World Wildlife Fund, an international conservation group.
A whopping 425 of those deaths last year occurred in Kruger National Park, a top safari destination and home to South Africa's largest population of both black and white rhinos. That figure marks a sharp increase from the 252 rhinos killed in the park in 2011.
The poaching boom is largely due to heightened demand for rhino horns in Asia, where the grim prizes are believed to have medicinal properties and are seen as highly desirable status symbols, especially in Vietnam. TRAFFIC, a nongovernmental global network that monitors wildlife trade, recently issued a report describing how some affluent Vietnamese individuals often use the horn as a hangover cure and general health tonic, grinding it up and mixing it with water or alcohol.
'Viet Nam must curtail the nation's rhino horn habit, which is fuelling a poaching crisis in South Africa,' Sabri Zain, TRAFFIC's director of advocacy, said in a statement. 'Rhinos are being illegally killed, their horns hacked off and the animals left to bleed to death, all for the frivolous use of their horns as a hangover cure.'
Last year also saw some crackdowns. Arrests of suspected poachers and smugglers increased in 2012, with 267 people now facing rhino-related charges and one Thai man sentenced to a record 40 years in prison for conspiring to smuggle horns to Asia, WWF officials said. Last month, Vietnam and South Africa also signed an agreement aimed at strengthening law-enforcement efforts and sharing intelligence to tackle the illegal wildlife trade.
According to WWF, an additional five rhinos have been killed since the beginning of 2013, and two men were arrested in separate incidents in Vietnam and Thailand this month for smuggling rhino horns.
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A whopping 425 of those deaths last year occurred in Kruger National Park, a top safari destination and home to South Africa's largest population of both black and white rhinos. That figure marks a sharp increase from the 252 rhinos killed in the park in 2011.
The poaching boom is largely due to heightened demand for rhino horns in Asia, where the grim prizes are believed to have medicinal properties and are seen as highly desirable status symbols, especially in Vietnam. TRAFFIC, a nongovernmental global network that monitors wildlife trade, recently issued a report describing how some affluent Vietnamese individuals often use the horn as a hangover cure and general health tonic, grinding it up and mixing it with water or alcohol.
'Viet Nam must curtail the nation's rhino horn habit, which is fuelling a poaching crisis in South Africa,' Sabri Zain, TRAFFIC's director of advocacy, said in a statement. 'Rhinos are being illegally killed, their horns hacked off and the animals left to bleed to death, all for the frivolous use of their horns as a hangover cure.'
Last year also saw some crackdowns. Arrests of suspected poachers and smugglers increased in 2012, with 267 people now facing rhino-related charges and one Thai man sentenced to a record 40 years in prison for conspiring to smuggle horns to Asia, WWF officials said. Last month, Vietnam and South Africa also signed an agreement aimed at strengthening law-enforcement efforts and sharing intelligence to tackle the illegal wildlife trade.
According to WWF, an additional five rhinos have been killed since the beginning of 2013, and two men were arrested in separate incidents in Vietnam and Thailand this month for smuggling rhino horns.
Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.
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