Garry Rogers's Blog, page 13

New Fire Danger Threatens to Worsen Most Disastrous Wildfire Season in California History by Dr. Jeff Masters | Category 6 | Weather Underground

According to Thursday’s summary from Calfire, a total of 6,900 homes, businesses, and other structures were destroyed across northern and southern California. The fires have burned over 245,000 acres of land, bringing the total area burned in California this year to 1.1 million acres, the most since 2008. Nationally, 8.8 million acres have burned in 2017, says the National Interagency Fire Center, putting this year in fifth place for largest annual area burned since 1960. With over two months to go in the year, 2017 is likely to move up several places on that list. Continue reading →

How Marine Algae Could Help Feed the World

By our calculation, pea- and soy-based alternative meat products with similar nutritional amino acid value to Nanno could be produced using 6.4 times less freshwater than beef, but would require 2.2 times more fertile land. In contrast, using marine microalgae reduces land usage by over 75-fold, since no fertile land is required, and lowers freshwater usage by a factor of 7,400. Continue reading →

Tar Sands Pipeline that Could Rival Keystone XL Quietly Gets Trump Approval

Enbridge's Line 67, the Alberta Clipper, can pump nearly 900,000 barrels of tar sands oil across the Canadian border every day. Continue reading →

Warning of ‘ecological Armageddon’ after dramatic plunge in insect numbers

Another way of sampling insects – car windscreens – has often been anecdotally used to suggest a major decline, with people remembering many more bugs squashed on their windscreens in the past.

“I drove right across France and back this summer – just when you’d expect your windscreen to be splattered all over – and I literally never had to stop to clean the windscreen,” Prof Dave Goulson of Sussex University, UK said. Continue reading →

Wildfires Rage Through Portugal and Spain, Kill at Least 39

Hundreds of fires in both countries are being fanned by winds from Hurricane Ophelia in the north, currently barreling towards Ireland, and encouraged by extremely dry terrain from a scorching hot summer in the region. Continue reading →

Take Action: Tell Your Senators to Vote Against EPA Nominee with Chemical Industry Ties

Dr. Dourson’s consistent endorsement of chemical safety standards that not only match industry’s views, but are also significantly less protective than EPA and other regulators have recommended. Continue reading →

Firestorm: 1,500 Structures Destroyed as Massive Wildfires Blaze Through Northern California

". . . human carelessness [and lightening] often provides the ignition sources for fires in areas like Northern California. However, without the underlying severe climate conditions, such fires would not have become so large or spread so fast." Continue reading →

OMB Director Mulvaney Responds to Western Caucus Calls for Forestry Action | Congressional Western Caucus

Perhaps our Congresspeople see themselves as wise Walruses, but instead of asking ". . . why the sea is boiling hot--and whether pigs have wings", they wish to ask if they can stop the forest from burning by insuring there is no forest to burn. Continue reading →

How Bird-Friendly Are Your Windows?

1,000,000,000 birds are killed every year in the United States as they unwittingly fly into the windows of our man-made structures. Continue reading →

Trump administration will propose repealing Obama’s key effort to combat climate change

“We had a Clean Power Plan. What we’re getting is a Dirty Power Plan,” said David Doniger, senior attorney for climate and clean air at the Natural Resources Defense Council, adding that refusing to crack down on emissions could “leave tens of millions of Americans in greater danger from extreme weather and other climate impacts. And it will cause tens of thousands of early deaths and sicken hundreds of thousands more.” Continue reading →