East Bay enviro named to state energy panel

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger nominated Julia Levin, 45, of Kensington, to the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission — commonly called the California Energy Commission — on Thursday.

Levin, a Democrat, has worked for the National Audubon Society as its global warming campaign director since 2007 and before that as its California policy director since 2003.

Talbyv: Hottest February Days - Sydney

As Sydney prepares for a hot week-end, I will post here the hottest (over 40ºC) February days in Sydney from January 1859 to December 2005.

8/2/26 42.1
1/2/77 41.4
21/2/80 41.3
22/2/30 41.1
14/2/91 40.8
17/2/26 40.6
20/2/31 40.1

Note that two are in the roaring twenties; two in the thirties; one in the seventies, one in the eighties and one in the nineties.
So far, there are no temperatures over 40ºC in the naughties.

Florida Tech scientists warn of impacts of global warming

MELBOURNE — Global warming could kill coral, spark more wildfires and usher in a king-crab invasion of Antarctica, Florida Tech scientist warned today.

“We’re running this great global experiment,” Mark Bush, a Florida Tech biologist, told the crowd of about 150 people in the school’s F.W. Olin Life Sciences auditorium.
...
“Brazil basically will lose its Amazon forest, and that will be a huge extinction event,” he said.

Warming also could trigger mass extinction along the Antarctica seafloor, warned Rich Aronson, another Florida Tech biologist.

Florida Freeze Continues - Central Florida News 13

After the cold weather leaves, it might bring about another potential problem -- brush fires.

A representative from Orange County Fire Rescue says things have been quiet as far as weather-related fires. However, they are well aware of the fact that after cold weather settles in and dries out an area, it is susceptible to brush fires.

Back in January, we had two fairly intense brush fires in the same night, which was during another cold spell.