WASHINGTON — Climate change could lead to the widespread loss of common plants and animals around the world, according to a new study released Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change.
he study’s authors looked at 50,000 common species. They found that more than half the plants and about a third of the animals could lose about 50% of their range by 2080 if the world continues its current course of rising greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate change affects the availability of nutrition and water for animals and plants. The narrowing of the geographic range of different common species means that plants and animals readily found in a given area could diminish markedly in those areas over the next seven decades.
“This study … tells us that the average plant and animal will experience significant range loss under climate change,” said the study’s lead author, Rachel Warren, of the Tyndall Centre at University of East Anglia, United Kingdom.
Warren said that until now, much climate change research had focused on the plight of rare species rather than common animals and plants. The study’s conclusions are “entirely consistent with what others are finding around the world,” said Peter B. Reich, professor of forest ecology at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul, who read the report.
The new study predicted that plants, reptiles and particularly amphibians would face the greatest risks from climate change. It also concluded that sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, the Amazon region and Australia would likely lose the most species of plants and animals. It projected “a major loss of plant species” in North Africa, Central Asia and South America.
The study is here. You’ll need a script or student access.
The vote in the House was 223 to 197, with 35 mostly farm-state Democrats joining Republicans in support. Most Democrats held out for the broader bill.
“This House should not go home while literally hanging our ranchers out to dry without a safety net to get through this drought,” said freshman Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.), who is from a ranching family.
Congress and senate punt on providing relief to drought stricken farms across America. After rejecting the relief package, they went on a 5-week vacation. Expect food and fuel prices to go up this fall. Via
LA Times stark and brilliant drought series.
I like the LA Times, but this article on climate change and bunnies is silly. It starts with,
“Easter is still a great day for worship, candy in baskets, pagan equinox rituals and running around the yard finding eggs, but every year it gets quite a bit worse for bunnies”
and ends with,
“All of this gives new meaning to dressing up in a giant bunny costume this Sunday. Do it!”
Have a look.
I get the appeal - media’s gotta be clever to keep the audience engaged. So, maybe I’m feeling grouchy again. On the other hand, doesn’t this type of ‘reporting’ smack of wiki-laziness? What do you think?
latimes:
Oil extraction method widely used in California with little oversight: Regulators and lawmakers know very little about how and where oil companies employ hydraulic fracturing in the state.
Is Brown selling out California?
Hoping to boost the state’s sluggish economy, the Brown administration has eased rules for oil drilling in California, firing two top regulators last year over permitting delays. Though regulators said they monitor drilling operations “quite thoroughly” under existing law,they acknowledged the need for more disclosure of what chemicals are used in oil production.
Brown has the protection of the Obama administration and the EPA, which are doing virtually nothing to regulate fracking. Also, follow the LA Times.
latimes:
Sacrificing the desert to save the Earth: BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah solar power project will soon be a humming city with 24-hour lighting, a wastewater processing facility and a gas-fired power plant.
To make room, BrightSource has mowed down a swath of desert plants, displaced dozens of animal species and relocated scores of imperiled desert tortoises, a move that some experts say could kill up to a third of them.
Environmentalists are torn over the high cost of breaking reliance on fossil fuels. Public comment has been sought, but insiders are calling the shots.
Read our article here, and be sure to check out the accompanying graphic.
Images: Top, Artist’s conception of Ivanpah ‘solar farm’ project. Bottom, the impact of a solar farm on desert ecosystems.
Jan. 28, 1940: The Huntington Beach coastline in 1940 was a forest of oil derricks. Oil discoveries in Huntington Beach, Long Beach and Santa Fe Springs in 1920 and 1921 drove massive drilling.
View 130 photos for The Times’ 130th birthday on Framework.
Photo credit: Ted Hurley / Los Angeles Times
(via latimes)
nevver just posted better pics of the dust storm in Pheonix via LATimes.
nevver:
End of Days
“Tickets for the Los Angeles River adventure”?? Why do people need a ticket to kayak on the LA River? Better still, why do these middle aged men need all that gear?? I’m sure there’s something landmark here, especially since the EPA designated the river as a Traditionally Navigable Water body last summer. Still, tickets??
latimes:
Canoe, kayak trips planned along stretch of L.A. River: The 3-mile route along the San Fernando Valley’s Sepulveda Basin flood control channel will take participants through dense vegetation in water up to 15 feet deep.
Tickets for the Los Angeles River adventure are expected to go on sale as early as July 8, and promoters are promising a ride like no other.
Glen Jochimsen makes his way past a large graffiti image painted on the concrete banks of the L.A. River during a section known as the Glendale Narrows. View more photos on Framework. Credit: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times
Here’s the video:
Aaaannndd commence ftw-freakout.
Lawsuit originates from environmental justice groups concerned about increased emissions in poor communities.
A judge has temporarily halted the nation’s most ambitious program to give power plants, utilities and other polluters financial incentives to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith ruled Friday that state air quality regulators failed to properly consider alternatives to their so-called cap-and-trade program, a key piece of California’s landmark global warming law, AB 32.
Goldsmith ruled that the failure to consider alternatives violated state environmental law, so the California Air Resources Board must conduct further review before implementing the plan.
Source: LA Times (a good paper!)
HERO. MAN. HUSBAND. SON. Humbled.
This is Hideaki Akaiwa. When the Tsunami hit his home town of Ishinomaki, Hideaki was at work. Realizing his wife was trapped in their home, he ignored the advice of professionals, who told him to wait for the army to arrive to provide search and rescue.
Instead he found some scuba gear, jumped in the raging torrent - dodging cars, houses and other debris being dragged around by the powerful current, any of which could have killed him instantly - and navigated the now submerged streets in pitch dark, freezing water until he found his house. Swimming inside, he discovered his wife alive on the upper level with only a small amount of breathing room, and sharing his respirator, pulled her out to safety.
If he had waited for the army, his wife of 20 years would be dead.
Oh, and if that’s not enough badassery for one lifetime, Hideaki realized his mother was also unaccounted for, so jumped back in the water and managed to save her life also. Since then Hideaki enters the water everyday on a one man search and rescue mission, saving countless lives and proving that two natural disasters in a single day, and insurmountable odds can’t stand in the way of love. This man is my hero.
See: LA Times
(via abcsoupdot)
