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Archive for February, 2011
Inconvenient Youth convenes to deal with climate change
Posted by Jakarta Post: Raden Ghea Garnita Dendadipura Moeis on February 20th, 2011
Jakarta Post: “Ice asks no questions, presents no arguments, reads no newspapers, listens to no debates. It is not burdened by ideology and carries no political baggage as it changes from solid to liquid. It just melts.” Dr. Henry Pollack, professor of Geophysics at University of Michigan, wrote that statement in his book A World without Ice as a counterargument for those who insist climate changing is a hoax. In his lecture on the first day of the Climate Project Asia-Pacific Summit 2011 in Jakarta, Dr. Pollack...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Inconvenient Youth convenes to deal with climate changeClimate change having impact on Alaska transportation
Posted by Associated Press: Molly Rettig on February 20th, 2011
Associated Press: "With over 6,600 miles of coastline and 80 percent of the state underlaid by ice-rich permafrost, you can certainly imagine we are at the forefront of climate change impacts," said Mike Coffey, maintenance and operations chief for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.
Coffey discussed the impact of climate change on transportation in a recent webinar hosted by the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
New challenges include...
Sarawak government mocks its indigenous people
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 20th, 2011
Mongabay: The Sarawak government mocked the plight of its rainforest people in a press release issued earlier this month, says a rights' group. The release says forest people are poised to benefit from massive dam and forestry projects under the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) scheme that will convert the Malaysian state's rivers into lakes and forests into open pit mines, wood-pulp plantations, and oil palm estates. "SCORE will develop 10 key industries including hydropower, heavy industry...
What does the Arab world do when its water runs out?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 20th, 2011
Guardian: Poverty, repression, decades of injustice and mass unemployment have all been cited as causes of the political convulsions in the Middle East and north Africa these last weeks. But a less recognised reason for the turmoil in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen, Jordan and now Iran has been rising food prices, directly linked to a growing regional water crisis.
The diverse states that make up the Arab world, stretching from the Atlantic coast to Iraq, have some of the world's greatest oil reserves,...
Scotland’s wild salmon face ‘calamity’ from trade deal with China
Posted by Guardian: David Sharrock on February 20th, 2011
Guardian: China's appetite for Scottish farmed salmon is threatening dwindling stocks of sea trout and wild salmon, according to conservationists.
A new trade agreement was signed last month with the Chinese vice-premier, Li Keqiang, by Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, who boasted that "even if 1% of the people of China decide to eat Scottish salmon, then we'll have to double production in Scotland".
But the prospect of a massive increase in farmed fish production has horrified defenders of Scotland's...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Scotland’s wild salmon face ‘calamity’ from trade deal with ChinaGlobal warming could spur toxic algae, bacteria in seas
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 20th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: Global warming could spur the growth of toxic algae and bacteria in the world's seas and lakes, with an impact that could be felt in 10 years, US scientists said Saturday.
Studies have shown that shifts brought about by climate change make ocean and freshwater environments more susceptible to toxic algae blooms and allow harmful microbes and bacteria to proliferate, according to researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
In one study, NOAA scientists modeled...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Global warming could spur toxic algae, bacteria in seasU.S. study predicts prolonged toxic algal outbreaks due to climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 20th, 2011
Xinhua: Climate change could prolong toxic algal outbreaks by 2040 or sooner, posing a health threat to humans, a new study suggests.
Using cutting-edge technologies to model future ocean and weather patterns, a team of U.S. researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) the University of Washington looked at blooms of Alexandrium catenella, more commonly known as "red tide," which produces saxitoxin, a poison that can accumulate in shellfish.
If consumed by humans, saxitoxin...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on U.S. study predicts prolonged toxic algal outbreaks due to climate change‘Water poverty’ to rise in the UK as scarcity pushes up bills
Posted by Guardian: Jamie Doward on February 20th, 2011
Guardian: "Water poverty" will become the new fuel poverty for an increasing number of households as scarcity of supply pushes up bills, according to an influential thinktank that says Britain must deal urgently with climate change.
A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, one of the largest social policy research-and-development charities, says that low-income households are at particular risk because of new methods being introduced to increase the efficient use and distribution of water. It defines...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on ‘Water poverty’ to rise in the UK as scarcity pushes up billsAl Gore: “The Hard Right or the Easy Wrong?”
Posted by Huffington Post: Ginna Kelly on February 19th, 2011
Huffington Post: Yesterday I attended the symposium "Forests at Risk: Climate Change and the Future of the American West," organized by the non-profit For the Forest in Aspen, Colorado.
The educational symposium included distinguished scientists from around the United States and Canada to explore the critical connection between forest health and climate change. Al Gore, former vice president to the United States, was the keynote speaker and concluded the symposium with a call to action. "There is one choice in...
Thanks to climate change water will make us ill
Posted by Thinq: Paul Hales on February 19th, 2011
Thinq: Climate change could increase our exposure to water-borne disease from ocean, coastal and lake ecosystems, scientists told a conference in Washington today.
Researchers from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said their studies had shown how climate change makes ocean and freshwater environments more susceptible to toxic algal blooms and the proliferation of harmful microbes and bacteria.
Delegates at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)...