J u s t C l o u d s

Climate News

• Mozambique's food riots - the true face of global warming
  Guardian: It has been a summer of record temperatures – Japan had its hottest summer on record, as did South Florida and New York. Meanwhile, Pakistan and Niger are flooded and the eastern US is mopping up after hurricane Earl. None of these individual events can definitively be attributed to global warming. But to see how climate change will play out in the […]
• His Corporate Strategy: The Scientific Method
  NYT: THE scientific rebel J. Craig Venter created headlines – and drew comparisons to Dr. Frankenstein – when he announced in May that his team had created what, with a bit of stretching, could be called the first synthetic living creature. Two months later, only a smattering of reporters and local dignitaries bothered to show up at a news conference to hear […]
• Rising wheat prices raise fears over UK commitment to biofuels
  Guardian: The soaring price of wheat has raised questions about the UK's commitment to biofuels as it attempts to wean itself from its dependence on oil. A network of biorefineries that convert wheat and other crops into bioethanol that can then be blended with petrol are being developed as the UK looks to meet its EU renewable transport fuels obligatio […]
• Key oil spill evidence raised to Gulf's surface
  AP: A crane hoisted a key piece of oil spill evidence to the surface of the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, giving investigators their first chance to personally scrutinize the blowout preventer, the massive piece of equipment that failed to stop the gusher four months ago. It took 29 1/2 hours to lift the 50-foot, 300-ton blowout preventer from a mile beneath t […]
• United Kingdom: Miliband accuses coalition of 'greenwash' over North Sea oil
  Independent: David Cameron's claim to lead the "greenest government ever" was thrown into the heart of the Labour leadership contest last night, amid concern about plans for a deep-sea drilling operation in the North Sea. David Miliband, one of the candidates to succeed Gordon Brown as Labour leader, said the coalition's refusal to impose […]
• French science vessel to start second leg of climate voyage
  AFP: The French yacht Tara leaves Sunday on the second leg of a three-year voyage across the world's oceans to chart the effects of climate change on micro-organisms which produce half our oxygen. The 36-metre (118-foot) schooner will depart from Cape Town a year after leaving Lorient in western France to head across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans for […]
• U.N. Raises Concerns as Global Food Prices Jump
  NYT: With memories still fresh of food riots set off by spiking prices just two years ago, agricultural experts on Friday cast a wary eye on the steep rise in the cost of wheat prompted by a Russian export ban and the questions looming over harvests in other parts of the world because of drought or flooding. Food prices rose 5 percent globally during August, […]
• Indonesia: Scientist Watches Glacier Melt Beneath His Feet
  NPR: Earlier this summer, a group of scientists spent two weeks in Indonesia atop a glacier called Puncak Jaya, one of the few remaining tropical glaciers in the world. They were taking samples of ice cores to study the impacts of climate change on the glacier. Lonnie Thompson, a professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University, led the team and what he […]
• A climate warning from the deep
  Guardian: Bryozoans make unlikely prophets of doom. Nevertheless, scientists believe these tiny marine creatures, which live glued to the side of boulders, rocks and other surfaces, reveal a disturbing aspect about Antarctica that has critical implications for understanding the impact of climate change. British Antarctic Survey researchers have found the dis […]
• United States: Koch brothers give $1M to back Proposition 23
  AP: Oil billionaires David and Charles Koch have jumped on board an effort to suspend California's global warming law by making a million-dollar contribution this week. A subsidiary of Wichita, Kan.-based Koch Industries, the nation's second-largest private company with oil refineries and pipelines, made a $1 million contribution Thursday to the ca […]
• Gas cars could get 74 m.p.g. by 2035, researcher says
  NYT: A new report from a University of Michigan researcher estimates that, even without going electric, U.S. cars and trucks could achieve an average efficiency of 74 miles per gallon by 2035. Compared to a federal 2005 Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) baseline, that's a tripling of fuel economy. Under the researcher`s fuel economy projections, the […]
• U.N. predicts bigger swings in food supply
  United Press International: A U.N. agency says the 2010 global wheat harvest is one of the largest ever but experts say a less stable climate will mean bigger food supply fluctuations. The United Nations reported a 5 percent rise in food prices in August, The New York Times said. Contributing factors included a Russian ban on wheat exports because drought ha […]
• BP replaces failed blowout preventer on Gulf well
  Reuters: BP Plc successfully replaced a failed blowout preventer from atop its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well late on Friday, the top U.S. official overseeing the spill response said. Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen called the equipment switch "an important milestone" toward permanently killing the leak that spewed more than 4 million barr […]