This June Was Earth’s Hottest Month On Record Since 1880 When NOAA Started Keeping Track

No shocker! We all know its been a hot summer, but very few of us have probably realized the true significance of this particular temperature rise.

Graphic courtesy of radiogreenearth.org.

“The global-averaged land surface temperature for June 2012 was the all-time warmest June on record,” said the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which began keeping track in 1880.

Many people still argue that there is no such thing as global warming, but the new data makes a freighting case for it. NOAA also reported that, “The global land surface temperature for June was above the 20th century average. This is the second month in a row that the global land temperature was the warmest on record.”

Along with the land, the oceans are getting hotter too, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. NOAA reported that, “The Northern Hemisphere land and ocean average surface temperature for June 2012 was the all-time warmest June on record.”

The data for just the land in the Northern Hemisphere had its own story to tell. “The Northern Hemisphere average land temperature, where the majority of Earth’s land is located, was record warmest for June. This makes three months – April, May, and June – in which record-high monthly land temperature records were set.”

Most areas experienced much higher-than average monthly temperatures, including most of North America, Eurasia, and northern Africa.

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London’s Blackfriars Station Full Open This Month As Part of World’s Largest Solar Railway Bridge

London’s Blackfriars solar railway bridge. Photo courtesy of designer and installer Solarcentury.

London’s Blackfriars central railway station, which spans the iconic River Thames, will be fully operational for passengers this month with two new entrances, four new platforms, and a new London Underground station.

Network Rail – which is doing the rebuilding – said the new station’s roof will be home to about 4,400 solar panels that are expected to generate up to 50 percent of the station’s energy needs. The solar panels for the Blackfriars station were funded by the UK Department of Transport’s safety and environment fund.

The solar panels – manufactured by Panasonic, but designed and installed by Solarcentury – will cover an area of about 6,000 square meters, making the Blackfriars the largest solar bridge in the world.

The bridge is expected to generate about 900,000 kilowatts of electricity every year, and save over 500 tons of CO2 annually. Work on the bridge is expected to be completed later this year.

“Blackfriars is the first bridge over the Thames since the 13th century London Bridge to generate its own power. The old London Bridge used waterwheels to drive water pumps and grain mills,” said Solarcentury.

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U.S. Federal Agencies Spending New Funding To Bring Biofuels To A Commercially Viable Level

The Obama administration has just authorized another $30 million in federal funding to advance biofuel technologies.

A basic model of a biofuel production process. Graphic courtesy of the University of Illinois.

The $30 million in multi-agency funds will be used to match private investments to advance the development and production of commercial-scale drop-in (ready to use) biofuels for primary use in military and commercial transportation.

Last week, a multi-agency teleconference – with senior officials from the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture - announced the funding.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus explained some of the provisions of the funding, saying the funding “will have to be matched at least on a one-to-one basis,” and justified the need for biofuels says that they “will reduce the need for foreign oil, which is a significant and very well-recognized military vulnerability.”

Mabus was candid in saying that right now we give our foreign oil suppliers “too much of an input on whether our ships sail, our aircraft fly, or our surface vehicles operate, and that one of the ways this happens is that every time the price of oil goes up a dollar a barrel, it costs the Navy an additional $30 million in fuel. We have faced price spikes this year going into the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

President Barrack Obama also similarly said last April that the “Department of Defense estimates that for every dollar increase in the price of a barrel of oil, we incur an additional $130 million in fuel costs.” 

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EPA Settles With 70 Companies To Clean Up NJ’s Passaic River Pollution Out of Their Own Pockets

Seventy companies – considered potentially responsible for polluting New Jersey’s lower Passaic River with toxic chemicals – have settled with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the pollution using their own money.

Tony Falcon holding a fish he caught in the lower Passaic River in Paterson. Such fish are often contaminated, according to NorthJersey.com, which also provided the photo.

The companies will be expected to remove about 16,000 cubic yards of highly contaminated sediment from a half-mile long area of the river near the town of Lyndhurst.

The soil has been found to contain high levels of chemicals, including PCBs, mercury, and dioxins, according to the EPA, adding that, “PCBs are likely cancer-causing substances and mercury can cause serious damage to the nervous system. Dioxins can cause cancer and other serious health effects” including hormonal disruptions, early developmental problems, and skin disease.

The agency says that, “The highly contaminated sediment was discovered in Lyndhurst during sampling performed by the EPA and the parties late in 2011. The work is scheduled to begin in spring 2013.”

Specifically, the agreement calls for the companies to  remove the contaminated soil from the mud flat area that’s near the north section of Riverside County Park, and install a protective cap over the excavated five-acre area and further test their “sediment treatment technologies.”

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Central African Countries Sign Plan To Toughen Enforcement of Elephant Anti-Poaching Laws

Nearly a dozen countries in Central Africa signed a plan this month to toughen anti-poaching laws designed to fight against escalating illegal wildlife trade, especially decimating elephant populations in the thousands each year.

Cameroon Elephants. Stock Photo.

In March 2012, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reported that the Cameroon military entered a national park in the north region of the country where poachers had slaughtered hundreds of elephants since January.

The WWF added that “up to 12,000 elephants are killed each year for their ivory, most in Central Africa.”

This new plan to combat the problem has been adopted by 10 member countries of the Central African Forest Commission, which are: Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Congo, Gabon. Rwanda, and Sao Tome e Principe. The commission is also known as COMIFAC.

This plan includes provisions to increase anti-poaching efforts in each of the participating countries and enable joint-country patrols in transboarder areas.

The wildlife ministers from the COMIFAC countries have also pledged to cooperate with law enforcement agencies, including police, customs, and judiciary systems in order to address the problem.

There is also a conference planned for sometime next year for the heads of state to address the wildlife losses and strategize on efforts to maintain biodiversity in the continent, said the WWF, which together with TRAFFIC and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has provided technical and financial support toward the development of the plan.

The WWF will also said that it will continue provide ongoing support for the implementation of the plan. Elephant poaching on the continent has been an escalating problem.

The poachers suspected of killing the elephants in North Cameroon’s Boube N’Djida National Park are “believed to be foreigners who entered the country illegally across its boarder from Chad,” said the WWF.

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