Perspectives From the Thawing Icebox

funny on many levels

How climate change sparked a Canadian gold rush
It's little more than an ice-bound collection of shacks besieged by hungry
polar bears. But climate change has sparked a gold rush in Churchill,
population 923. Within 10 years, this tiny Canadian port could be
transformed into a hub of world trade
Pope Brock
"Catch a wave and you're sittin' on top of the world." Maybe the Beach Boys
predicted it. Last summer, the Hawaiian surfing champs Garrett McNamara and
Kealii Mamala caught a wave on top of the planet, becoming the first people
ever to ride a tsunami made by an ice wall collapsing in the Arctic. For
about a minute they skimmed along in a hail of rock and ice. How would
McNamara rate this new form of extreme surfing? "I wouldn't recommend it,"
he said.
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A New Look at Storm Intensities

Public release date: 8-Jul-2008
University of Michigan

Contact: Nicole Casal Moore
ncmoore@umich.edu
734-647-1838

How intense will storms get? New model helps answer question

A paper on the new model is published early
online in the Swedish journal Tellus A. The paper
is called “A Thermodynamically General Theory for
Convective Vortices.” It is available at:
<http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119879028/abstract>

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—A new mathematical model
indicates that dust devils, water spouts,
tornadoes, hurricanes and cyclones are all born
of the same mechanism and will intensify as
climate change warms the Earth’s surface.

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New Report From WWF Projects Stressed Water Resources in U.S. Southeast

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 10, 2008  1:37 PM

CONTACT: World Wildlife Fund
Joe Pouliot
joe.pouliot@wwwfus.org
202-778-9730

New Report From WWF Projects Stressed Water Resources
As Region Grapples With Second Consecutive Year Of Drought, New Findings Illustrate Significant Climate Vulnerability

WASHINGTON – July 10 – As the Southeast contends with the second consecutive year of exceptional drought, a new report commissioned by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) projects that climate change will increasingly stress water resources and affect water quality over a major portion of the region. The report, which was presented at a congressional briefing on Capitol Hill today, concludes that climate impacts on water resources are likely to be further exacerbated by population growth and land use changes.  At risk are hundreds of unique, threatened, or endangered aquatic vertebrate species.

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Extreme Weather Events Will Increasingly Affect US Water Supply

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 10, 2008  3:04 PM

CONTACT: Pacific Institute
Nancy Ross, Pacific Institute,
nross@pacinst.org · 510.251.1600 x106

Extreme Weather Events Will Increasingly Affect US Water Supply
With global warming we are ‘loading the dice,’ Cooley testifies before Congress

WASHINGTON – July 10 – “With global warming, there is an increased risk of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and heat waves,” according to the Congressional testimony of Heather Cooley, senior research associate of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California. Cooley’s testimony was provided to the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming for the hearing on Climate Change and Extreme Events on Thursday, July 10.

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