Author: Travis Swaim

Antonio “Tony” Busalacchi leads a double life — much of the time he’s a prominent climate scientist, investigating the potential impact of manmade global climate change, publishing studies, and teaching earth science at the University of Maryland in College Park. But he has some other titles, all of which are singularly unique in the climate science world. How many climate scientists can say they are also a “Certified Specialist of Spirits?” Sure, climate researchers like to have …

Scott Rudlosky and his new blog “It’s Severe,” which focuses on severe weather events such as floods, wildfires and lightning, were featured in a Capital Weather Gang article on the Washington Post’s website Monday. The article, titled “Lightning gone wild during Washington D.C.’s derecho,” focused on lightning as the “second most striking feature” of the storm, behind high winds. Lightning data from the Washington, D.C. Lightning Mapping Array (DCLMA), which Rudlosky works …

The Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Brazil from June 20 to 22, turned out to be nothing more than a disappointment for some. The conference – which marked the 20th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also in Rio de Janeiro, and the 10th anniversary of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg – produced very little of note, according to Bryan Walsh of TIME Science. The Rio+20 website …

A cross-section of media synopsis articles on the United Nations “Rio +20 Conference on Sustainable Development” are provided below. The conference held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (June 20-22, 2012) was an international effort aimed to reduce poverty, advance social equality and ensure environmental protection, according to the conference website. Publication – ThinkProgress Date: June 13, 2012 “As Rio+20 Begins, Revisiting The Words Of Severn Suzuki: ‘Make Your Actions Reflect …

Researcher: Charon Birkett Grant-Sponsor: NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center Amount: $164,417 Grant-Study: “The Global Reservoir and Lake Monitor (GRLM): Expansion and Enhancement of Water Height Products.”…

Publication – Environmental News Network
Date: June 26, 2012 “Sea Level Rise may continue for Centuries” If global warming continues, sea levels around the world can be expected to rise by several meters in coming centuries, according to new research. The study gives a comprehensive projection for this long perspective, based on observed sea-level rise over the past millennium, as well as on scenarios for future greenhouse-gas emissions. “Sea-level rise is a hard to quantify, yet critical …

ESSIC Visiting Assistant Research Scientist Scott Rudlosky launched a new blog on the ESSIC website today, entitled “It’s Severe.” The posts will focus on presenting information to the public about extreme weather events such as flooding, wildfires, and lightning. The subject of the first post, lightning, is a particularly relevant topic this week: NOAA’s Lightning Safety Awareness Week. According to the National Weather Service, there have been five deaths from lightning strikes so …

Not only is it definite that sea levels are rising, but it is also clear that the level of the Chesapeake Bay is rising twice as fast as global rates, according to ESSIC professor Raghu Murtugudde. The Associated Press published a story Monday that said U.S. Geological Survey scientists have found that the entire East Coast is particularly in danger of rising sea levels. Murtugudde, director of the Chesapeake Bay Forecast System Project, said that part of the problem is that with every …