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Archive for October 22nd, 2010
The Diversity of Birds and Fishes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 22nd, 2010
NYT: This is our third full day in our first camp. It is early afternoon. I am back from a walk along Trail 3, at 4.3 kilometers (2.7 miles) the shortest of the loop trails that the advance team has built for us. It took me only seven hours to walk that trail. Juan Diaz, my Peruvian counterpart from the Peruvian Andes Research Institute in Iquitos, and an old hand at these inventories is still out on Trail 2, where I have yet to go. Debby Moskovits chose to make the long trek out to Quebrada ...
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Take a deep breath: Air pollution is on the way down
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 22nd, 2010
Jerusalem Post: Unprecedented gov't environmental survey brings some encouraging news on cleaner air and water reuse, but it's not all happy reading. The Environmental Protection Ministry released the first summary of Israel's environmental issues by the numbers late Wednesday night – and it makes for a mixed read of improvements and deteriorations. The report, entitled "The Environment in Israel – Indicators, Data and Trends, 2010," outlines an unprecedented more than 100 measurements of ...
Drought May Threaten Much of the Globe by 2030
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 22nd, 2010
SustainableBusiness: The United States and many other heavily populated countries face a growing threat of severe and prolonged drought in coming decades, according to a new study by National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientist Aiguo Dai. The detailed analysis concludes that warming temperatures associated with climate change will likely create increasingly dry conditions across much of the globe in the next 30 years, possibly reaching a scale in some regions by the end of the century that ...
South-east climate changing: CSIRO
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 22nd, 2010
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Scientists at the CSIRO in Canberra are warning recent rainfall in the nation's south-east is not indicative of likely rainfall in the future. The CSIRO has put together a report for the South Eastern Australian Climate Initiative looking at the effects of climate variability and change on water resources in the south-east. The report found that while natural fluctuations in rainfall are the biggest drivers in weather patterns, climate change will result in drier than average ...
Climate change threatens Asian coastal megacities
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 22nd, 2010
International Business Times: If current climate change trends persist, Asia's coastal mega-cities will flood more often, on a larger scale, and ultimately hurt economic growth in the respective countries. A study jointly undertaken by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the World Bank, determined that costs from major flooding events on infrastructure and the economy could run into the billions of dollars, with urban poor populations likely to be the hardest ...
US: No warning system before deadly Ark. flood
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 22nd, 2010
AP: The U.S. Forest Service acknowledges in a new report that the agency had no warning plan in place the night 20 people died in a flash flood in southwestern Arkansas. The Forest Service released the report Friday about the deadly June flood. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the Forest Service will make changes nationwide as a result. The Forest Service says it will put in place an emergency notification system and evacuation plans. It will also train staff and volunteers on the ...
Warming threat to life in rivers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 22nd, 2010
BBC: Future warming could have "profound implications" for the stability of freshwater ecosystems, a study warns. Researchers said warmer water affected the distribution and size of plankton - tiny organisms that form the basis of food chains in aquatic systems. The team warmed plankton-containing vessels by 4C (7F) - the temperature by which some of the world's rivers and lakes could warm over the next century. The findings appear in the journal Global Change ...
Vital role for ‘neglected’ fish
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 22nd, 2010
BBC: Inland fisheries provide employment for more people than their marine equivalents, as well as being a vital source of nutrients, a study concludes. The UN-backed Blue Harvest study says that in Africa alone, fish from rivers and lakes are a key source of protein and minerals for 100 million people. However, dams and other kinds of water management have drastically reduced yields, particularly in Europe. Properly valuing these fisheries could lead to better forms of ...
Hard to Put a Price-tag on Healthy Rivers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 22nd, 2010
Inter Press Service: Damming a river may bring electric power, but it often comes at the price of high-quality food fisheries, experts say. When dams are proposed for power, flood control or irrigation, the often devastating impacts on fisheries in rivers and lakes are ignored or discounted. "It is very difficult to put a dollar value on what inland fisheries represent because it is much more than the landed value of the fish at the dock," says Yumiko Kura of the WorldFish Center office in Phnom Penh, ...
Yemen’s capital ‘will run out of water by 2025’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 22nd, 2010
SciDev.Net: Water shortages in Yemen will squeeze agriculture to such an extent that 750,000 jobs could disappear and incomes could drop by a quarter within a decade, according to a report. Poor water management and the enormous consumption of water for the farming of the popular stimulant khat are blamed for the predicted water shortages, which experts say could lead to the capital Sana'a running out of water by around 2025. The report was produced by McKinsey&Company, an ...