This winter’s La Niña has been keeping the storm track north of much of New Mexico, leading to reduced winter precipitation in the southern and eastern parts of the state. The Las Cruces Sun reports that snowpack is below average in the Rio Hondo Basin, Sacramento Mountains, and Capitan Mountains, even though a...
In The News
Snowpack Down in NM, Up in the Sierras
January 19, 2011 |
Las Cruces Sun and Sacramento Bee
Earth is Getting Dustier
January 19, 2011 |
ScienceDaily
New research presented at last month’s American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting by Natalie Mahowald suggests that it’s been getting dustier worldwide since the 1800s. According to ScienceDaily, Mahowald and her collaborators combined records of past dust from ice cores, sediments, and corals with a climate...
House Republicans Propose to Cut EPA’s Regulating Power
January 19, 2011 |
ClimateBiz.com
Republican representatives proposed three different bills last week aimed at limiting the power of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. According to...
Oil Shale Development Could Impact SW Water Supplies
January 19, 2011 |
U.S. GAO
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, extracting oil from large oil shale deposits in the Southwest—specifically Utah and Colorado--could strain the state’s water supplies. This conclusion is based on a report, “Energy-Water Nexus: A Better and Coordinated Understanding of Water Resources Could Help...
Water Managers to Climate Researchers: This Is What We Need
January 14, 2011 |
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, together with the U.S. Geological Survey and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, have collaborated on a series of reports to address how to incorporate climate change science into water planning. A 2009 report, Climate Change and Water Resources Management: A Federal...
NM Gov Retracts Climate Change, Water Safety Regs
January 11, 2011 |
New York Times
Susana Martinez, New Mexico’s new Republican governor, has suspended plans to limit greenhouse gas emissions across the state. According to the New York Times, a rule to reduce statewide emissions by 3% per year is probably now history, since it was not recorded in the state registry last week. The Times...
Know Your Carbon Cycle?
January 11, 2011 |
ScienceDaily
Do you know how carbon moves through the atmosphere, oceans, and biosphere? ScienceDaily reports that according to research by Michigan State University scientists, most college students don’t. A study led by Laurel Hartley, a former MSU postdoctoral researcher, evaluated how well over 500 U.S. college...
Report Lists SW Desert as Endangered Ecosystem
January 11, 2011 |
Endangered Species Coalition
The advocacy group Endangered Species Coalition has put together a list of the top ten endangered ecosystems in the U.S., which includes the southwestern desert. The group’s scientific advisory panel considered...
Dry December for AZ, NM; More Expected
January 7, 2011 |
CLIMAS
The December Southwest Climate Outlook for Arizona and New Mexico, produced by the University ofArizona’s CLIMAS program, reported that drought conditions expanded over the previous month to about 95 percent in both states. The latest...
Local Governments Offer Successful Sustainability Strategies
January 7, 2011 |
ICMA
International City/County Management Association (ICMA), a leadership and management association focused on local government, recently published Getting Smart About Climate Change, a 32-page report that offers “nine...