Southwest News
The Southwest climate change news feed includes stories on climate change and energy from newspapers in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah, courtesy of Environmental Health News.
Climate change related to reduced plant size in Nevada’s Great Basin.
Plants are shrinking in the Great Basin of Nevada, and warming climate could be the culprit, according to a paper published in the renowned science journal Global Change Biology based on research conducted by University of Nevada, Reno plant ecologist Beth Leger.
Study quantifies sea level rise from melting glaciers.
The world’s biggest ice sheets haven’t really started a major meltdown yet. But the rest of the world’s glacial regions have been losing ice at a rate of about 260 billion metric tons annually, raising sea level by about 0.03 inches per year — about a third of the observed sea level rise.
CU-Boulder researchers help show impact of global melt.
A new study that included contributions by University of Colorado researchers shows that glacial melt from sources not including the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets contributes as much to sea level rise as does the ice loss from those two land masses.
EU Ice2sea report offers new estimates of sea level rise.
After four years of studies and more than 150 peer-reviewed papers, the EU-funded ice2sea program has concluded that under a moderate scenario, melting ice may contribute only 3.5 and 36.8 centimeters (1.4 to 14.5 inches) to sea level rise by 2100.
Mt. Everest’s glaciers melting away.
Even at the frozen roof of the world in the mighty Himalaya, global warming is evident. The snow line in the Mt. Everest region has moved uphill by 180 meters. Glaciers in the region are shrinking, and precipitation has declined, according to a team of scientists.
Steinberg floats legislation for governing proposed Delta tunnels.
California's state Senate leader has an idea to resolve mistrust generated by Gov. Jerry Brown's plan for two giant water diversion tunnels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: new legislation that would lay out regulations for how the tunnels would operate.
$2.2M hydrogen-fueled zero-emissions bus rolls through Marin.
In Marin County a zero-emissions bus, powered by hydrogen fuel cells, is rolling through the county's streets and on Highway 101 – part of a California state plan to cut the amount of diesel pollutants standard buses spew into the air.
Cutthroat trout face upstream swim against climate change.
Colorado’s cutthroat trout live life on the edges, at high elevations and in isolated pockets other trout haven’t been able to reach. It appears to have toughened them up, according to a recent study looking at climate change’s impact on the species.
The subnivium, a secret world beneath the snow, is at risk from global warming.
Beneath winter’s deep snows there is a secret world of frozen insects and amphibians in quasi-hibernation. Now, the subnivium, as scientists have dubbed it, is at risk from global warming.
Hidden redwood is remnant of forest giants.
Rocks tumbled down the nearly vertical slope as Todd Keeler-Wolf jumped, slid, clutched branches and crawled over crumbly rock and poison oak to reach what, to scientists, is a cliffside holy grail: the last living specimen of the magnificent ancient forests that once dominated the East Bay hills.