4 May 2015, Climate News Network: No green light for whitening Arctic’s melting ice. Scientists pour cold water on the idea of preventing ice melt by using geo-technology to keep it white so that it reflects sunlight and stays frozen. Yet another geo-engineering solution to climate change has been proven potentially useless: even if you could paint the Arctic white, the world would still get warmer. Read More here
Monthly Archives: May 2015
The winners and losers in Tesla’s battery plan for the home. Tesla’s plans to use its new battery storage system to power homes will provide households with more opportunities to reduce bills. But it will also cause headaches for the electricity distribution companies.The company’s founder, Elon Musk, announced last week that it had developed the Powerwall batteries that could store electricity generated from solar panels. Read More here
3 May 2015, Climate News Network: US braces itself for even worse wildfire season. Years of drought and higher temperatures mean the chance of devastating wildfires in the southwest US is higher than ever − particularly in southern California. The firefighters are primed, hoses at the ready. May and June are often the peak months for forest fires in the southwest of the US, and the outlook for this year is grim. “I wish I could have some hope,” says Dr Wally Covington, director of the Ecological Restoration Institute at North Arizona University. “It’s just a terrible situation in southern California.” Read More here
1 May 2015, The Conversation: Climate change could empty wildlife from Australia’s rainforests. Climate change is one of the greatest challenges that the world’s wildlife and those who want to conserve it have ever faced. To save wildlife, we are going to have to help animals, plants and ecosystems adapt. But first we need to know just how many species are at risk and why. A paper published today in Science by Mark Urban, Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut, estimates on average we will lose about 17% (or about one in six) of all species on Earth by 2100. This massive impact will be felt across all groups of species and ecosystems although it is predicted to be worse in South America, Australia and New Zealand. Australia is predicted to lose approximately 14% of its species…. Read More here