Published on Feb 15, 2014
President Obama visited Joe Del Bosque’s farm outside of Fresno, California to view the damage caused by the California drought and discuss the administration’s response and need for future collaboration to responds to disasters emerging due to climate change.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26023166
15 February 2014 Last updated at 14:32 ET
By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News, Chicago 
The ribbon of strong winds has become wavier over the past two decades or so
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New research suggests that the main system that helps determine the weather over Northern Europe and North America may be changing.
The study shows that the so-called jet stream has increasingly taken a longer, meandering path.
This has resulted in weather remaining the same for more prolonged periods.
The work was presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago.
The observation could be as a result of the recent warming of the Arctic. Temperatures there have been rising two to three times faster than the rest of the globe.
According to Prof Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University in New Jersey: “This does seem to suggest that weather patterns are changing and people are noticing that the weather in their area is not what it used to be.”
“We can expect more of the same and we can expect it to happen more frequently” Prof Jennifer Francis Rutgers University
The meandering jet stream has accounted for the recent stormy weather over the UK and the bitter winter weather in the US Mid-West remaining longer than it otherwise would have.
“We can expect more of the same and we can expect it to happen more frequently,” says Prof Francis
The jet stream, as its name suggests, is a high-speed air current in the atmosphere that brings with it the weather.
It is fuelled partly by the temperature differential between the Arctic and the mid-latitudes.
….(read more).
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Published on Feb 15, 2014
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After a number of serious accidents involving trains carrying petroleum last year, Canada and the United States are looking at
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http://johnpilger.com/videos/the-war-you-dont-see-trailer
The official trailer for John Pilger’s new film, ‘The War You Don’t See’, in UK cinemas from Sunday 12 December 2010 and on ITV two days later at 10.35pm
See further films at: http://johnpilger.com/videos
and: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=john+pilger+war+on+democracy&sm=1
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Uploaded on Oct 14, 2011
Kayte Fairfax interviews renowned radical journalist and maker of over 50 films John Pilger.
http://visionon.tv/plugandplay
Get talking about radical media: http://live.rebelliousmediaconference…
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By Tara Lohan [2]
Droughts aren’t new to California, but this one is for the ages and comes with a distinct set of troubles.
February 14, 2014 |
There are likely a lot of East Coasters wishing they lived in sunny, dry (and comparatively warm) California right now. But Californians know their weather is anything but a blessing these days with a drought that’s being called “unprecedented.”
The situation has even sparked a trip from President Obama, who visited the epicenter of California’s massive agriculture industry, the Central Valley, on Friday and announced $100 million in livestock disaster assistance, $5 million in targeted assistance for hard-hit areas, $5 million for watershed protection programs, $60 million for food banks and 600 new sites for a summer meals program, $3 million in emergency water assistance for rural communities, and a commitment from the federal government to reduce water use and focus nation-wide on climate resilience.
While the funding and programs may be welcome for immediate assistance, solving California’s water crisis will require more than a big checkbook. Water in the West, California included, is contentious and politically wrought. Here are five key things to know if you want to truly understand the impact of California’s drought.
1. We may be facing a mega-drought
California’s Governor Brown declared a drought state of emergency on January 17 when it became clear that 2013 closed out the driest year ever recorded for many parts of the state and the 2014 water year, which began October 1, had thus far been the driest in 90 years.
Droughts aren’t new to California, there have been about nine in the last hundred years and it turns out that last century may have actually been one of the wettest in the last 7,000 years. Unfortunately that time frame is also when we decided how we would divvy up the region’s water resources among all its various consumers. If you think of water like money (and in the west it basically is), then we took a bunch of years of record profit and based those figures on how much payout different stakeholders get each year. But increasingly there is less and less in the bank to start with and the balance sheets are coming out in the red. There is water promised that simply cannot be delivered. We’ve written a check that nature can’t cash. And that situation is likely to get a lot worse.
Right now the state is in the third year of a deepening drought, but it may be part of a much longer trend, one that could last decades, even centuries according to paleoclimatologist B. Lynn Ingram [3] at the University of California at Berkeley. Part of that may have to do with human-induced climate change and part of it, she says, is caused by natural fluctuations that occur with changes in surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. The combination is a double whammy for California and much of the West.
2. We do have to conserve
A few days of rain in early February haven’t been enough yet to make a dent in California’s water shortage. There are still a few more months left in the “rainy” season but the chances that the state will emerge unscathed are practically zilch.
While the governor declared a state of emergency there are so far no statewide mandatory water restrictions (though there are some local ones). On average Californians use 196 gallons of water per day, though use varies across the state.
….(read more).
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