2008 – Page 168 – Rising Tide North America

AccuWeather: Anticipating An Active ’08 Hurricane Season

By postMigrator April 27, 2008 April 27, 2008 RT Newswire

More 08 Caribbean hurricanes than avg: AccuWeather
Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:01am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) – AccuWeather.com on Friday predicted the 2008 hurricane season in the Caribbean would be slightly above average, with an increased chance that storms would make landfall in North America.

A waning La Nina condition in the Pacific Ocean and a warm water cycle in the Atlantic ocean are the two main factors cited by the private weather forecasting service.

“The warming is not uniform across the entire Atlantic. In some areas where hurricanes normally form … ocean water temperatures are near or below normal,” Joe Bastardi, AccuWeather’s chief long-range forecaster, said in a news release.

Bastardi told Reuters in an interview in early April that the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season would see 12 to 13 named storms.

Up to four of the predicted storms would become hurricanes, with one of those becoming a major hurricane, Bastardi said.

Average hurricane seasons have 10 named storms.

(Reporting by Robert Campbell, editing by Matthew Lewis)

————————————————————————————

Paleo-Climatology and Near-Extinction of Humans

By postMigrator April 25, 2008 April 25, 2008 RT Newswire

——————————————————————————-
“Who would have thought that as recently as 70,000 years ago,
extremes of climate had reduced our population to such small
numbers that we were on the very edge of extinction.”
—————————————————————-

Associated Press
Apr 24 06:15 PM US/Eastern

Study says near extinction threatened people
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) – Human beings may have had a brush with extinction
70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests. The human
population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in
Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis
released Thursday.

The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford
University estimated the number of early humans may have shrunk as
low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone
Age.

Forests, Rainfall, and Landslides

By postMigrator April 25, 2008 April 25, 2008 Uncategorized

Science Findings, issue one hundred one / march 2008
USDA Forest Service
Pacific Northwest Research Station
http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw

At the website, look for publications, find Science Findings, and go
to issue 101.

“Debris flows are common events that can shape stream habitat in
mountainous regions around the world, particularly in the rainy
Pacific Northwest. “A landslide, once in a stream, can create a
debris flow — a slurry of mud, rocks, and organic material that
scours sediment and wood along steep headwaters streams — and then
deposit this downstream in lower-gradient fish-bearing channels,”
explains Burnett. “But not all landslides enter streams and not all
debris flows travel to streams containing fish.”

First Nationwide Climate Change Survey of Public Health Departments Not Promising

By postMigrator April 25, 2008 April 25, 2008 RT Newswire

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 24, 2008
12:12 PM

CONTACT: Environmental Defense Fund
Jennifer Dickson, Environmental Defense Fund, (202) 572-3401 or (202) 520-1221
Becky Wexler, National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), (301) 652-1558
Tara Laskowski, George Mason University, (703) 993-8815

First Nationwide Climate Change Survey of Public Health Departments
Shows Lack of Resources for Dealing with Health Challenge

WASHINGTON, DC – April 24 – Climate change is a concern to most local public health directors but few have resources to tackle the problem, according to a national survey conducted by National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and George Mason University.
The survey, included in the report Are We Ready? Preparing for the Public Health Challenges of Climate Change, is the first national one of its kind that assesses the perceptions and activities of local public health directors regarding climate change and public health.