News stories tagged with "global-warming"

(03/06/12) North Country congressman Bill Owens is praising a Canadian company for its plan to move forward with construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Owens' backing for the controversial pipeline comes at a time when New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is also pushing a plan to import more hydro-electric power from Quebec.

Canada is already the biggest foreign supplier of energy to the US. And across the political spectrum, American leaders see Canada as a safer alternative to energy suppliers in the Middle East and Central America.

But there are growing questions about the environmental costs to Canada's energy boom and the debate is causing some Canadians to rethink their country's image as one of the world's most environmentally friendly societies. Brian Mann has our story. more

(01/03/12) The gas drilling technique known as hydro-fracking has raised fears about water supplies and environmental damage. But as the Innovation Trail's Matt Richmond reports, there's a new conflict about fracking brewing: what effect will emissions from the production process have on global climate change? more

(12/09/11) Delegates from nearly 200 countries have been meeting over the past two weeks in South Africa for the United Nations Convention on climate change. St. Lawrence University professor Jon Rosales just returned from Durban. He's been advocating on behalf of villages on the Bering Strait, on the west coast of Alaska, which are the focus of his research. Julie Grant has more. more

(12/08/11) One of the lead investigators of the recent report on climate change in New York says the heavy storms this spring and summer, and the mild temperatures this fall will not necessarily be the "new normal" for the north country and Adirondacks. But Cornell University climate researcher Arthur DeGaetano says the heavy rainfall and warm weather could be a glimpse into the future.

The report, released late last month by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, is based on the work of more than 50 scientists. It paints a harsh picture of extreme climate events - predicting that upstate New York will have heavier, and more frequent downpours, like those we've seen this year.

The report says the temperature in New York has already warmed 2.4 degrees in the past forty years. It projects a further rise of as much as three degrees by the 2020s, with the temperature steadily warming as much as nine degrees by the 2080s.

DeGaetano says that means northern New York would have a climate more like North Carolina or Georgia. He says the report isn't meant to scare people. It's meant to help them transition along with the climate. DeGaetano says agriculture will be one of the industries most affected. He spoke with Julie Grant.

(09/27/11) This summer, the St. Lawrence County legislature considered a measure to create a climate action plan. The plan would find ways to save money while reducing the county government's carbon footprint. That could include anything from energy audits in county buildings to anti-idling policies in county parking lots. The legislature tabled the matter because it wanted a better cost-benefit analysis of the plan.

Clarkson University professor Stephen Bird hopes to provide that analysis. Bird studies energy and environmental policy. He's working with faculty and students at all four universities in Canton and Potsdam. Bird told David Sommerstein that climate change models project significant changes for the North Country in the future.

(03/01/11) A researcher in the Adirondacks is literally rewriting the history of global climate change.

Curt Stager, a scientist at Paul Smiths College, is publishing an article later this month in the journal Science that describes an ancient drought that transformed Asia and Africa thousands of years ago.

The "H1 mega-drought" may have wiped out whole tribes of humans, as it dried up rivers and lakes across whole continents.

As Brian Mann reports, Stager thinks that devastating event could be a warning for people living in a new period of global warming. more

(12/28/10) As 2010 draws to a close, we're revisiting important environmental stories of the year. Climate change tops the list, as scientists struggle to understand how global changes will impact local regions.

This morning, Brian Mann talks with Paul Smith's scientist and researcher Curt Stager. His work often takes him far afield, to sample lake bottoms in Africa and Russia for evidence of ecological changes over geological time.
This year he focussed closer to home, on the impact of climate change in the Champlain Valley. Stager co-authored the study with Adirondack-based journalist Mary Thill. The research was funded by the Adirondack Nature Conservancy in an effort to find out how global warming might affect one relatively small region.

The study shows that since the 1970s, temperatures have already risen in the Champlain Valley by roughly two degrees Fahrenheit. Increased precipitation has also raised the lake level by an average of a foot. Warming is expected to continue over the next century.

Stager told Brian Mann that scientists are struggling to understand the local impacts of climate change.

(09/28/10) For a couple of decades now, we've been hearing about climate change as something happening on a global scale. It's a story of polar bears and shrinking arctic ice. Ecologist Jerry Jenkins' new book aims to bring the discussion back home.

"Climate Change in the Adirondacks" paints a detailed, intimate picture of how the warming trend will affect our lives here in the North Country.

Jenkins works for the Wildlife Conservation Society's Adirondack Program. He says temperatures in the Adirondack-North Country have already risen by roughly 2 degrees Fahrenheit. Jenkins told Brian Mann that reducing carbon pollution will mean making decisions that no one is going to like.

(05/19/10) This morning in Lake Placid, the Adirondack Research Consortium begins its annual conference. The group gathers to share the latest research and thinking about the North Country.

One of the papers being delivered this week focuses on the impact of climate change in the Champlain Valley. The research was funded by the Adirondack Nature Conservancy in an effort to find out how global warming might affect one relatively small region. The study shows that temperatures have already risen in the Champlain Valley by roughly two degrees Fahrenheit since the 1970s. Increased precipitation has also raised the lake level by an average of a foot. Warming is expected to continue over the next century.

Dr. Curt Stager, a researcher at Paul Smiths College, co-authored the study with Adirondack-based journalist Mary Thill. Stager told Brian Mann that scientists are struggling to understand the local impacts of climate change.

(12/11/09) Using carbon credits to encourage power plants and other polluters to protect forestland is one strategy for limiting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But here in the North Country, some local government leaders and environmental groups think communities should also be compensated for helping preserve forests.

In some Adirondack towns, more than 70% of the land is protected by park rules that ban logging and development. There's a regional carbon trading market, but local governments haven't ever been issued carbon credits they could sell alongside the credits polluters buy and sell.
John Sheehan, with the Adirondack Council, told Brian Mann the forestland idea is gaining more credibility.