Fatalistic Friday: Storms, heat, drought and double-dealing

by Emily Gertz

categories: Arctic & Antarctic, Cities, Fatalistic Friday, Food & Agriculture, Fossil Energy, Greenhouse Gas, Health, Oceans, Policy & Legislation, Science, Water, Wilderness, Wildlife & Biodiversity

Published August 21, 2009 @ 08:14PM PT

Another week's end brings us to another concentrated, hurts-less-this-way burst of the worst of the week's global warming news:

Storm Fells Hundreds of Trees in NY's Central Park: Hundreds of trees in Central Park were damaged and destroyed by severe thunderstorm winds as high as 80 mph. "I've never seen a wind of that velocity in New York City," Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said. "It looks like pictures that I've seen of war zones where artillery shells have shredded trees." (The New York Times)

In hot water: World sets ocean temperature record: The ocean is 72 degrees F in Maine, 88 in Ocean City, Maryland. And all around the world, July was the hottest the world's oceans have been in almost 130 years of keeping records. "The average water temperature worldwide was 62.6 degrees, according to the National Climatic Data Center, the branch of the U.S. government that keeps world weather records. That was 1.1 degree higher than the 20th century average." (Associated Press)

Mexico Hit By Lowest Rainfall In 68 Years: It's killing cattle, threatening millions of tons of crops, and reducing the supply of water to Mexico City. (Reuters)

ConocoPhillips works to undermine climate bill, despite pledge to support climate action: Despite being a member of the pro-business US Climate Action Partnership, ConocoPhillips is now putting its weight behind opposition to climate change legislation. (Grist)

Around a dozen American cities could experience distinctly hotter Augusts by midcentury, under a relatively conservative climate change scenario based on current conditions. Public health services will be hard pressed to cope with the resulting emergencies. "Events such as the Chicago heat wave of 1995 and the 2003 European heat wave, which killed an estimated 40,000 people, have proven especially deadly to vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and persons with respiratory illnesses." (Grist)

Warming Ocean Contributes to Global Warming: Because an Arctic current has been warming over the past 30 years, the sediment beneath the seabed is warming as well. It's causing the release of once-sequestered methane, a powerfully destructive greenhouse gas. (Alpha Galileo)

Rising acidity erodes Alaska's fisheries: Alaska's marine waters - source of 60 percent of the United States' seafood harvest - are becoming more acidic as the oceans soak up more and more CO2. "...the increasing acidity has changed ocean chemistry so significantly that organisms are unable to pull crucial minerals out of the water to build shells," undermining the base of the food web. (The Daily Climate)

Climate Change Has Some Texas Animals Fleeing the Texas Heat: Climate change is warming Texas. The American goldfinch, the gray snapper, and the cedar waxwing are among the Texas wildlife that have been moving north for years in search of cooler temperatures. Eventually they may migrate out of the state forever. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

State Department Issues Permit for Canada to US Crude Oil Pipline: Sarah Burt, a lawyer for enviro law group Earthjustice, said, "This basically commits us to 50 more years of one of the most greenhouse gas intensive fuels around." Environmental groups had hoped the Obama administration would block the pipeline, she said. (The New York Times)

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Image: "Mount Hood is located within the Cascade Range of the western United States, and it is the highest peak in Oregon (3,426 meters, or 11,240 feet )...The Mount Hood stratovolcano—a typically cone-shaped structure formed by layered lava flows and explosive eruption deposits—hosts twelve mapped glaciers along its upper flanks.

"Like other glaciers in the Pacific Northwest, the Hood glaciers have been receding due to global warming, and they have lost an estimated 61 percent of their volume over the past century. The predicted loss of glacial meltwater under future warming scenarios will have significant effects on regional hydrology and water supplies." Source: NASA Earth Observatory