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Study finds Colorado River Basin’s worst known megadrought was 1,800 years ago

Green Car Congress

An even more intense “megadrought” hit the region around 1,800 years ago, according to a new study published in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters. The new study used tree-ring data and other climate records to identify a drought period unmatched in severity by the current drought or other ancient droughts.

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Study: Crop relocation can help buffer US agriculture from climate change but southern states may face massive loss of productive land

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The research applied a new approach to barley, corn, cotton, soybeans, rice, and wheat crops to estimate the economic potential of crop reallocation in the United States over the next 50 years. In order to avoid these losses, 57% of counties in the United States would be required to plant different crops than they currently do.

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Heat Pumps Take on Cold Climates

Cars That Think

Twenty homes scattered across Canada and the northern United States are keeping warm this winter using prototypes of the latest iteration in residential heating systems: cold climate heat pumps. states and two Canadian provinces, where furnaces and boilers burning fossil gas, fuel oil or propane are more commonly used.

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Study finds methane emissions from coal mines ~50% higher than previously thought

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The results have important implications for Earth’s climate because methane is about 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide when it comes to warming the planet over a long period. The study is one of the first to account for methane leaking from old, abandoned mines. Mines are getting deeper every year.

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Study projects thermoelectric power in Europe and US vulnerable to climate change due to lower summer river flows and higher river water temperatures

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A study published in Nature Climate Change suggests that thermoelectric power plants (i.e., nuclear and fossil-fueled generating units) in Europe and the United States are vulnerable to climate change due to the combined impacts of lower summer river flows and higher river water temperatures.

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UMD-led study: road salts and other human sources are threatening world’s freshwater supplies

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But a new study led by Sujay Kaushal of the University of Maryland warns that introducing salt into the environment—whether it's for de-icing roads, fertilizing farmland or other purposes—releases toxic chemical cocktails that create a serious and growing global threat to our freshwater supply and human health. Increasing Cl ?

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US DOI report highlights impacts of climate change on Western water resources

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Projected median temperature change in °F (of 112 climate projections) over the Western United States, 2070–2099 relative to 1950–1979. The report, which responds to requirements under the SECURE Water Act of 2009, details several increased risks to western United States water resources during the 21 st century.