Sunday set: Mountain time!

Around the Grossglockner …

Among the peaks of the Grossglockner mountains.

What’s left of the glaciers around the Grossglockner, Austria’s highest peak.

Mondsee, one of the Salzkammergut lakes, from the highway.

Grosses Wiesbachhorn (3,564 M) from the Grossglocknerstrasse.

Austrian high country.

Our reporting for the global warming in the Alps project took us to the high country around Austria’s highest peak, the Grossglockner, late last week, where we saw firsthand how the once mighty glaciers have dwindled to remnant shards of ice in the past few decades, with uncertain consequences for ecosystems below. The mountain valleys are still lush green in the Austrian high country, but there are great concerns that the meltdown could affect aquatic life in the streams below the glaciers, not to mention hydropower production, one of Austria’s main sources of renewable energy.

Feds seek to boost offshore wind power

New strategic plan could boost investment

Offshore wind turbines near Copenhagen, Denmark. Under the Obama administration and Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the U.S. may start catching up with other countries in developing renewable energy resources. PHOTO VIA THE CREATIVE COMMONS.

Staff Report

After laying the groundwork for utility scale solar development with an over-arching plan covering public lands, the Obama administration wants to take similar steps to foster offshore wind power. Last week, cabinet officials said their strategic vision for offshore wind energy includes reducing technical costs and risks to make investments more predictable.

The Department of Interior will take steps to make the regulatory process more predictable, transparent, efficient and informed by lessons learned from regulators in other countries. The Energy and Interior departments also committed to analyzing field data from operating offshore wind farms to asses impacts on marine life, turbine radar interference in to support future offshore wind siting and plan reviews. Continue reading “Feds seek to boost offshore wind power” →

Climate: 3d-warmest year-to-date for U.S.

Summer temps well above normal across U.S.

Every state was warmer than average for the summer

Staff Report

This year’s meteorological summer in the contiguous U.S. (June-August) will go down in the climate annals as the fifth-warmest on record, at 2.8 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average.

The year-to-date is the third-warmest on record, with Alaska on pace for a record-warm year after eight months, according to NOAA’s monthly State of the Climate summary, available here. August was the 17-warmest on record, with record warmth in the Northeast, and below average temperatures in the Southwest.

After record rain storms in parts of the Midwest and along the Gulf Coast, August ended up as the second wettest on record.

For the summer, according to NOAA, every state across the contiguous U.S., had a statewide temperature that was above average. Twenty-nine states across the West and in the East were much warmer than average for the summer. California, Connecticut and Rhode Island each had their warmest summer on record.

Alaska observed its second warmest summer in its 92-year record at 53.6°F, 3.0°F above average. Only the summer of 2004 was warmer with a statewide temperature value of 55.9°F. Several locations across the state were record warm including Anchorage, Kenai, King Salmon and Yakutat.

The full report will be available Sept. 13 here.

Queen bees exposed to neonicotinoids lay fewer eggs

Systemic pesticides seen to affect hives in various ways

honeybees neonicotinoids — A wild bumblebee foraging for pollen. **@bberwyn photo**.

Staff Report

A new study led by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln entomologist reinforces the link between neonicotinoid pesticides and declining honeybee colonies. The researchers experimentally fed queen bees with a syrup laced with imidacloprid, finding that queens laid significantly fewer eggs than queens in unexposed colonies.

“The queens are of particular importance because they’re the only reproductive individual laying eggs in the colony,” said lead author Judy Wu-Smart, assistant professor of entomology. “One queen can lay up to 1,000 eggs a day. If her ability to lay eggs is reduced, that is a subtle effect that isn’t (immediately) noticeable but translates to really dramatic consequences for the colony.” Continue reading “Queen bees exposed to neonicotinoids lay fewer eggs” →

Sunday set: Provence postcards

Summertime …

July’s full moon rising above the Mediterranean.

St. Raphael harbor from the Ferris wheel.

Lavender fields in the Provence on the Valensole Plateau.

Splashy near Cap Roux.

Dragonfly, Pont du Loup.

From the ragged and rocky shoreline of the Côte d’Azur to nearby high plateaus and pre-alpine canyons, the Provence has always been on the European travel A-list. Yes, the big resort towns are overcrowded and overpriced, but there are plenty of quiet, hidden shoreline coves where you can enjoy a swim away from the maddening beach crowds, and there’s also plenty of “backcountry” just a few miles from the main tourist strips.

For the third time in ten years, a judge orders the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to consider critical habitat for lynx in Colorado

‘The Service’s own representations suggest that parts of Colorado constitute suitable critical habitat, appropriate for designation’

A lynx in the wild counry of Colorado. PHOTO COURTESY COLORADO DIVISION OF PARKS AND WILDLIFE.TANYA SHENK. — A lynx in the Colorado high country. Photo courtesy Colorado Division of Wildlife/Tanya Shenk.

This Colorado Division of Wildlife map gives a general idea of the distribution of lynx in the Rockies through 2007. — A Colorado Division of Wildlife map gives a general idea of the distribution of lynx in the Rockies through 2007.

*For more detailed info, visit the Summit Voice lynx archive

Staff Report

A federal judge in Montana has once again ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act when it excluded Colorado from a critical habitat designation for threatened lynx. In the end, the rare cat may yet get some protected sanctuaries in the Colorado high county.

In a Sept. 7 ruling, Chief District Judge Dana L. Christensen said the agency’s decision is arbitrary and capricious, and “offends the ESA.” The court ordered the USFWS to develop a new critical habitat designation that complies with the law. The order also covers parts of Montana and Idaho. Continue reading “For the third time in ten years, a judge orders the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to consider critical habitat for lynx in Colorado” →

Climate trackers say August was record-warm globally

Streak of record global heat continues

Surface air temperature anomaly for August 2016 relative to the August average for the period 1981-2010. Source: ERA-Interim. — Surface air temperature anomaly for August 2016 relative to the August average for the period 1981-2010. *Source: ERA-Interim.*

Staff Report

August 2016 is down in the global climate annals as the warmest August on record and the second-warmest month of all time, just behind July. According to Copernicus, Europe’s earth observation program, August’s global average temperature was 0.62 degrees Celsius above the 1981-2010 average, and 0.17 degrees Celsius warmer than the previous August record, set in 2015.

According to the Copernicus update, the global temperature anomaly crested in February, coinciding with the peak of ocean-warming El Niño conditions, dropped from March to June, but spiked again during July and August. Each month from August 2015 onward has been the warmest on record for that particular month. Continue reading “Climate trackers say August was record-warm globally” →