US coastal cities in danger as sea levels rise faster than expected, study warns

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/28/us-coastal-cities-sea-level-rise

Sea-level rise is occurring much faster than scientists expected – exposing millions more Americans to the destructive floods produced by future Sandy-like storms, new research suggests.

Weatherwatch: Would modern humans survive a volcanic winter?

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2012/nov/30/weatherwatch-volcano-ash-winter-eruption

 

Some 74,000 years ago an Indonesian super-volcano exploded, blanketing the planet in a thick cloud of ash, and plunging our ancestors into a decade long volcanic winter, followed by centuries of cool climate. Or did it? The impact of this mega-eruption is heavily debated by scientists, but new ice core evidence suggests that Toba didn't chill the world quite as much as we thought.

David Cameron forced into U-turn on flood defence spending cuts

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/30/flooding-120m-defence-spending

  

The devastating flooding across Britain has forced David Cameron into a partial U-turn on deep cuts in flood defence spending, with the provision of an extra £120m.
The funding will allow 50 delayed schemes to go ahead, ministers said, but hundreds of projects remain without financial support. The Guardian has also learned that cuts are forcing the Environment Agency to stop or reduce the maintenance of some schemes.

Climate change is happening now – a carbon price must follow

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/29/climate-change-carbon-price

 

 Will our short attention span be the end of us? Just a month after the second "storm of a century" in two years, the media moves on to the latest scandal with barely a retrospective glance at the implications of the extreme climate anomalies we have seen.

Hurricane Sandy was not just a storm. It was a stark illustration of the power that climate change can deliver – today – to our doorsteps.

 Christmas shoppers told to expect potato and sprouts shortages

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/27/christmas-shoppers-winter-vegetable-shortages 

 

Consumers have been warned to expect shortages of British winter vegetables in the run-up to Christmas, as UK farmers count the cost of devastating floods and poor weather on their crops.
Supermarkets have said they might be forced to import some of the staple ingredients in the traditional Christmas dinner – notably potatoes and sprouts – while homegrown carrots will be smaller because of difficult growing conditions. Supplies of cauliflower are also unpredictable, and retailers are likely to have to source red cabbage from abroad from April onwards.