A home destroyed during the landfall of Superstorm Sandy is pictured in Mantoloking, New Jersey March 22, 2013.  Credit: REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

reuters.com - by Barbara Liston - September 24, 2013

(Reuters) - More than a million homeowners living in older houses along the coastlines and riverbanks of the United States are being jolted by federal flood insurance rate hikes under a law passed in the wake of devastating storms.

Carol Giovannoni, 51, of St. Pete Beach, a barrier island community off Florida's west coast, is one of the people dreading October 1, when the law takes effect. Giovannoni said the annual flood insurance premium on her standard 1950s concrete-block, ranch-style home on the waterfront will jump from $1,700 to $15,000 over the next few years.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CLICK HERE - Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012

ipcc.ch - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

"Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis" is the contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This comprehensive assessment of the physical aspects of climate change puts a focus on those elements that are relevant to understand past, document current, and project future climate change.

(CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND FOR LINKS TO THE FULL REPORT)

submitted by Margery Schab

eesi.org - Environmental and Energy Study Institute

Educating Congress on energy efficiency and renewable energy; advancing innovative policy solutions

For more information contact: Amaury Laporte at (202) 662-1884 or ***@***.***

"The emergence of the global warming problem creates an imperative for action that cannot be ignored." – The Environmental and Energy Study Institute's Board of Directors' unanimous statement, 1988.

In the past quarter century, the case for action has become ever more pressing, and the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a scientific body under the auspices of the United Nations, adds yet more urgency. The IPCC, first set up in 1990, has become the world's leading scientific authority on climate change.

cnn.com - by Dave Hennen, Brandon Miller and Eliott C. McLaughlin - September 27, 2013

(CNN) -- The world's getting hotter, the sea's rising and there's increasing evidence neither are naturally occurring phenomena.

So says a report from the U.N. International Panel on Climate Change, a document released every six years that is considered the benchmark on the topic. More than 800 authors and 50 editors from dozens of countries took part in its creation.

The summary for policymakers was released early Friday, while the full report, which bills itself as "a comprehensive assessment of the physical science basis of climate change," will be distributed Monday. Other reports, including those dealing with vulnerability and mitigation, will be released next year.

Here are the highlights from Friday's summary:

Man-made climate change is almost certain

submitted by Katie Cook

shakeout.org

Many areas of the globe are prone to earthquakes. You could be anywhere when an earthquake strikes: at home, at work, at school or even on vacation. Are you prepared to survive and to recover quickly?

Great ShakeOut earthquake drills are an opportunity to practice how to be safer during earthquakes: "Drop, Cover and Hold On." ShakeOut also has been organized to encourage you, your community, your school, or your organization to update emergency plans and supplies, and to secure your space in order to prevent damage and injuries.

(CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)

Secretary of the Treasury, Jack Lew says debt ceiling will be reached Oct. 17

huffingtonpost.com - by Luke Johnson - September 25, 2013

WASHINGTON -- The debt ceiling will be reached Oct. 17 and the Department of the Treasury will have less cash on hand than it previously estimated, said Secretary Jack Lew in a letter released Wednesday.

"Treasury now estimates that extraordinary measures will be exhausted no later than October 17. We estimate that, at that point, Treasury would have only approximately $30 billion to meet our country's commitments," he said in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

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Nearly one in 10 U.S. watersheds is “stressed,” with demand for water exceeding natural supply, according to a new, CIRES-led analysis of surface water in the United States. This map shows all stressed watersheds in the continental United States (1999-2007), with color indicating increasing levels of stress, from light green to red. (Map – CIRES)

CIRES Study - Sectoral contributions to surface water stress in the coterminous United States

huffingtonpost.com - by Matt Ferner - September 24, 2013

Nearly one in 10 watersheds in the United States is "stressed," with demand for water exceeding natural supply -- a trend that appears likely to become the new normal, according to a recent study.

                                                   CLICK HERE - BOULDER FLOOD RELIEF

Boulder Flood Relief is a local, boots on the ground, all-volunteer group organizing relief for displaced and in need individuals.

Call: (720) 943-4482

http://boulderfloodrelief.org/

cnn.com - by Greg Botelho and Elwyn Lopez - September 20, 2013

(CNN) -- Efforts continued Friday to cope with fallout from flooding that''s rocked the Rocky Mountain state -- including more airlifts of stranded residents, discoveries of oil spills and a plea to one town's residents to stay away until E. coli is cleared from their tap water.

CDC - cnn.com - by Miriam Falco - September 17, 2013

(CNN) -- Health officials have been warning us about antibiotic overuse and drug-resistant "superbugs" for a long time. But today the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sounding the alarm in a new way.

For the first time, the CDC is categorizing drug-resistant superbugs by threat level.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Press Release - Centers for Disease Control - Untreatable: Today’s Drug-Resistant Health Threats
http://www.cdc.gov/media/dpk/2013/dpk-untreatable.html

Three vehicles crashed into a creek close after the road washed out from beneath them near Dillon Rd. and 287 in Broomfield, Colorado, September 12, 2013 in heavy flooding. Three people were rescued. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post)

huffingtonpost.com - by Andrea Rael - September 12, 2013

Residents in Lyons, Colorado are "completely isolated" by floodwaters that have disrupted their sewer and fresh water.

Boulder County Sheriff Joseph Pelle told 7News that residents were being told to reach for higher ground.

"They're completely isolated at this point. There is no access in or out," Pelle said during a Thursday media briefing. "They've lost their sewer plant, they've lost their fresh water, lost their market."

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

submitted by Albert Gomez

No Straight Lines - by Alan Moore - September 7, 2013

It has been said that privacy is dead. Not so. It’s secrecy that is dying. Openness will kill it.

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thenextgeneration.org - by Robert Collier - August 8, 2013

This is the first installment of a special series looking at the potential climate and public health implications of a boom in Monterey Shale production.

Over the past few years, the United States has found itself in the midst of a major boom in oil and gas production. Rapid expansion in the use of a drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” has opened up previously unreachable pockets of oil and gas, and returned the U.S. to its historic position as a major global producer of these fossil fuels.

And it seems the boom may be coming to California.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

submitted by Albert Gomez

veritythink.com - by Andrej Verity - September 3, 2013

In my June post Who are the Humanitarian Decision Makers, I outlined why I have problems with how easily we use the phrase “for the decision makers” without really knowing who they are. Once you start investigating the problem, you quickly realize how large and diverse the range of decision makers are in humanitarian response.

Now, it is easy to complain but harder to do something. So rather than leaving this problem to fester within the community, a few of us decided to do something.

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Protesters converged on Dimock, Pennsylvania, in 2011 over the effects of fracking on residents' water. Now an increasing number of communities are seeking to ban fracking outright, sparking court battles.  Photograph by Nina Berman/NOOR/Redux

Obama's trip to fracking territory underscores the controversy.

nationalgeographic.com - by Joe Eaton - August 22, 2013

As President Obama visits upstate New York and northeastern Pennsylvania this week to discuss his education agenda, a separate issue looms large in the background: fracking, a practice that has transformed Pennsylvania's economy and divided New York, where a moratorium is in place.

Protesters on both sides of the issue are expected to greet the President. And while his trip highlights many unresolved issues related to America's new wealth of natural gas and oil, a growing number of communities are taking matters into their own hands.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)