July was the hottest month ever in the continental U.S., and the past twelve months have been hotter than any such period on record. Half of all counties in the country have been declared disaster areas, mainly due to drought. We’ve rounded up some of the best journalism on the effects of rising temperatures. Got others you’re burning to share? Add them in the comments.
Profits on Carbon Credits Drive Output of a Harmful Gas, New York Times,
August 2012
Under a U.N. carbon
credit program, manufacturers can get credits for reducing emission of greenhouse
gases. But air-conditioner and refrigerator manufacturers realized they could
profit from a waste gas produced while making coolant, and they started making
and destroying more of it to earn credits. The result: more production
of the original coolant, which also contributes to global warming and damages
the ozone layer.
In Drought-Stricken Midwest, It's Fodder Vs. Fuel, NPR, July 2012
A U.S. law requires gas companies to
buy a certain amount of ethanol, which is made from corn. That means ethanol
factories are buying up the crop. Farmers who need corn for livestock, and who
are already struggling with drought, say the system isn't fair.
Wildfire: Red slurry's toxic dark side,Denver Post, June
2012
Hundreds of thousands of gallons of
"red slurry" were dropped on wildfires raging in Colorado. The
chemical mixture is effective at firefighting, but it’s also full of toxins,
including ammonia and nitrates, which threaten the water supply and wildlife.
For more background on the Colorado fires, read I-News Network’s account on how
more people are moving into the state’s high-risk “red
zones”, even as the frequency of fires
has increased over the past decade.
Oysters in deep trouble: Is Pacific Ocean’s chemistry
killing sea life?, The Seattle
Times, April 2012
Since 2005, millions of Pacific oysters
in a Washington estuary
have failed to reproduce and the oyster
larvae have been dying. Though region-specific causes contributed to the decline,
some scientists believe that greenhouse gases are leading to increased
corrosive seawater sooner than expected.
The Great Oasis, The New Yorker, December 2011
About a third of the earth is covered
in desert, a percentage that increases each year thanks in part to climate
change and unsustainable farming. The New Yorker’s Burkhard Bilger examines the
science and politics involved in various countries’ efforts to stop
desertification, from China and Israel to Oman and Nigeria.
Our Dying Forests, The Salt Lake Tribune, September 2011
This multi-part series centers on the
decline of the once-lush forestation in the Rocky Mountain West, where warmer
winters and longer growing seasons have sparked an explosion of native beetle
species that have destroyed 40 million acres of moisture-starved spruce, firs
and aspen.
Extreme Heat Blanches Coral, and Threat is Seen, The New York Times, September 2010
In 2010 many of the world’s coral reefs
turned white in reaction to too-warm waters. Coral bleaching and die-offs often
occur in years when El Niño or other
unusual weather patterns contribute to hot ocean temperatures, but scientists
say that global warming is also playing a factor in what they call “global
bleachings.”
Losing
Louisiana, The Times-Picayune,
December 2008
Rising sea levels pose a particular
problem for Louisiana’s fragile coastline, where the land is sinking and
protective wetlands have been ravaged by development and hurricanes. North
Carolina’s shore is also seeing the impact of rising seas, as the Charlotte
Observer covered in a recent series on coastal erosion.