Category: Climate

Photo Some Californians have cut down on watering their lawns, and others have decided to forgo greenery for native plants. Credit Max Whittaker for The New York Times LOS ANGELES — Some Californians are already showering just once a week, with buckets at their feet to catch every errant drop. They are building rainwater tanks in their backyards and replacing their lawns with mesquite and desert sage. They glare at water-wasting neighbors, and post photographs online to “drought shame” businesses that spray down their sidewalks. But a day after Gov. Jerry Brown announced sweeping mandatory cuts to water use, Californians said they worried that their efforts to scrimp and conserve were simply not enough in the face of a four-year drought that has drained reservoirs, robbed mountains of snow and raised concerns about an increasingly scarce and precious resource. In Marin County, just outside San Francisco, Chas Blackford, 64, […]

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California Gov. Jerry Brown has ordered mandatory water cuts across the state for the first time in the history of the Golden State. WSJ’s Jim Carlton reports. Photo: Getty California’s long-running drought has officially reached crisis mode, with Gov. Jerry Brown ordering statewide water reductions for the first time ever. Under the governor’s order Wednesday, state officials said household rationing will likely be implemented by some local water agencies to meet Mr. Brown’s goal of reducing overall water use in the state by 25% over the next nine months, the equivalent of enough water for a city of six million people for one year. Much of the crackdown will focus on irrigation of lawns and other outdoor landscapes, which account for a large amount of water use, state officials said. In his order, the Democratic governor singled out large campuses, golf courses and cemeteries as places where restrictions would […]

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Photo Houseboats float in California’s drought-lowered Oroville Lake. Credit Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press PHILLIPS, Calif. — Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday ordered mandatory water use reductions for the first time in California’s history, saying the state’s four-year drought had reached near-crisis proportions after a winter of record-low snowfalls. Mr. Brown, in an executive order , directed the State Water Resources Control Board to impose a 25 percent reduction on the state’s 400 local water supply agencies, which serve 90 percent of California residents, over the coming year. The agencies will be responsible for coming up with restrictions to cut back on water use and for monitoring compliance. State officials said the order would impose varying degrees of cutbacks on water use across the board — affecting homeowners, farms and other businesses, as well as the maintenance of cemeteries and golf courses. While the specifics of how this will be accomplished […]

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Photo Todd Stern, climate envoy to the United Nations, is reassuring nations about the pact. Credit Stephane De Sakutin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday introduced President Obama’s blueprint for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the United States by nearly a third over the next decade. Mr. Obama’s plan, part of a formal written submission to the United Nations ahead of efforts to forge a global climate change accord in Paris in December, detailed the United States’ part of an ambitious joint pledge made by Mr. Obama and President Xi Jinping of China in November. The United States and China are the world’s two largest greenhouse gas polluters. Mr. Obama said the United States would cut its emissions by 26 to 28 percent by 2025, while Mr. Xi said that China’s emissions would drop after 2030. Mr. Obama’s new blueprint brings together several domestic […]

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ENLARGE Republicans in Congress have called the administration’s efforts to regulate power plants a ‘war on coal.’ Here, a coal-fired plant in Michigan. Photo: Jeff Kowalsky/Bloomberg News The Obama administration formally submitted its plan for cutting greenhouse gases nearly 30% by 2025, part of a global effort this year to curb emissions of carbon dioxide. The move adds pressure on other countries—including Australia, Canada, and India—that haven’t spelled out concrete plans. The U.S., the second-biggest carbon emitter after China, has taken a leading role in recent months in negotiations with nearly 200 nations to strike an agreement through the United Nations to rein in gases blamed for global warming. “Our target will help spur others to step forward with targets of their own,” said Todd Stern, the U.S. special envoy for climate change. Republicans used the announcement to amplify criticism of President Barack Obama’s federal emissions rules, with Senate […]

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German emergency services have reportedly been called to more than 900 incidents At least nine people have been killed in gales that have battered Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the UK. Seven people were killed in Germany, including two men whose car was hit by a tree. German media reports that there have been dozens of injuries from flying branches. In Austria, a man fell from a ladder and suffered fatal head injuries while securing an awning over his patio. Forecasters said that on Germany’s highest mountain, the Zugspitze, winds of more than 190km/h (118 mph) were recorded. Rail services were disrupted and the main station in Munich had to be evacuated due to concerns that parts of the roof might collapse. A man in Birmingham , UK, was seriously injured when his car was crushed by a falling tree. The biggest winds in the Netherlands were put at 120km/h […]

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Meltwater on the Greenland ice sheet could affect currents as it enters the sea. Image: James Balog/Aurora Photos via Flickr Ocean scientists find evidence of an increasing slowdown in the Atlantic’s “invisible river” that could seriously affect weather and sea levels in the US and Europe. LONDON, 25 March, 2015 − Climate scientists have once again confirmed an alarming slowdown in the circulation of the Atlantic Ocean − the process that drives the current that warms Europe, and powers the planetary climate. And this time, they are prepared to say that the changes are recent − and may be linked to global warming. The Atlantic Conveyor is a great invisible river that flows in two directions at the same time. The equatorial surface waters − warm, and therefore less dense − flow towards the north in the form of the Gulf Stream. Around Greenland, the denser and colder Arctic […]

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Haze surrounds the International Commerce Centre (ICC), center, as a cruise ship sails past in Hong Kong,. (Bloomberg) — Less than a week before the United Nations deadline for countries to file greenhouse-gas pledges necessary to keep a global climate change deal on track, it looks like most of the world is missing in action. Ahead of the March 31 target, only the European Union and Switzerland have unveiled plans, representing about 10 percent of global emissions. The U.S. has promised to hit the deadline. The rest of the world’s major economies, including China, India, Australia and Japan, are unlikely to complete submissions in time, according to environmental groups tracking UN climate talks. More than 190 nations are scheduled to meet in Paris in December to craft an international deal aimed at slowing global warming. Countries may be holding off on individual plans as long as possible to see […]

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A satellite view of Antarctica is seen in this undated NASA handout photo obtained by Reuters on Feb. 6, 2012. (NASA handout via Reuters) A hundred years from now, humans may remember 2014 as the year that we first learned  that we may have irreversibly destabilized the great ice sheet of West Antarctica, and thus set in motion more than 10 feet of sea level rise. Meanwhile, 2015 could be the year of the double whammy — when we learned the same about one gigantic glacier of East Antarctica, which could set in motion roughly the same amount all over again. Northern Hemisphere residents and Americans in particular should take note — when the bottom of the world loses vast amounts of ice, those of us living closer to its top get  more sea level rise than the rest of the planet, thanks to the law of gravity . The findings […]

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