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Archive for May, 2011
Climate change is quite real
Posted by Daily Astorian: None Given on May 19th, 2011
Daily Astorian: Climate change holds all sorts of surprises, and especially for farmers. When our newspaper group committed itself in 2004 to a year-long series on climate change, our editors’ first interviews were with agricultural economists – from Oregon State University and the University of California at Davis. The most striking prediction those two scientists made was that the amount of precipitation might not change so much as when the rainfall comes. We are already observing that phenomenon. Our series...
Hauling Icebergs From the Poles to Slake Globe’s Growing Thirst
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 19th, 2011
New York Times: Every year, tens of thousands of icebergs containing billions of gallons of fresh water calve off the glaciers of Greenland and Antarctica into the ocean, where most eventually drift into warmer waters break up and melt.
Wouldn`t it be nice to haul a few icebergs to someplace short on water -- southern Spain, perhaps, or western Australia -- and melt them for drinking water?
It`s a seemingly outlandish idea that`s been around for decades and has never been successfully realized. But a small...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Hauling Icebergs From the Poles to Slake Globe’s Growing ThirstNew paper stirs up controversy over how scientists estimate extinction rates
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 19th, 2011
Mongabay: A new paper in Nature negating how scientists estimate extinction rates has struck a nerve across the scientific community. The new paper clearly states that a mass extinction crisis is underway, however it argues that due to an incorrect method of determining extinction rates the crisis isn't as severe as has been reported. But other experts in the field contacted disagree, telling mongabay.com that the new the paper is 'plain wrong'. In fact, a number of well-known researchers are currently drafting...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on New paper stirs up controversy over how scientists estimate extinction ratesEurope faces extinction of many species, EU says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 19th, 2011
Associated Press: The Iberian lynx that prowls the grasslands of southern Spain. The Mediterranean monk seal swimming waters off Greece and Turkey. The Bavarian pine vole that forages in the high meadows of the Alps.
These are among hundreds of European animal species -- up to a quarter of the total native to the continent -- that are threatened with extinction according to a warning issued this month by the European Union.
"Biodiversity is in crisis, with species extinctions running at unparalleled rates,"...
Wildfires and no drought relief in sight for Southwest
Posted by Climate Central: Alyson Kenward on May 19th, 2011
Climate Central: Water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to spare. Across large parts of the Southwest, that is.
All along the Mississippi River, from Illinois to Louisiana, record floods continue to drown towns and farmland following the wettest April on record for several states in the Ohio River valley, which has in turn engorged the Mississippi. But while some areas remain under water, other regions have been suffering from the opposite extremes of drought and wildfire. In fact, tinder-dry conditions across...
Climate Change in the Northland
Posted by msnbc.com: None Given on May 19th, 2011
msnbc.com: Climate change has been in headlines for more than a decade, but many don't understand the difference between climate and meteorology. Meteorologist Jeff Edmondson helps clear up the misunderstanding.
So you're in a thunderstorm. Lightning, wind and rain all around you. How did this storm develop? What conditions came together to make this storm happen? The answer lies in the interplay between climate and meteorology.
"Weather is what you see day to day. Climate is the long term trends, the...
Parched Earth
Posted by BBC: Patrick Jackson on May 19th, 2011
BBC: French wheatfields, like this one near Lyon, are parched
Farmers in northern Europe are finding themselves caught between a hard place and a rock-hard place as an unusually dry spring turns to summer.
France, the EU's top wheat producer, has formed a national "drought committee", limiting water consumption in many regions and lifting curbs on the use of fallow land for grazing.
The European Commission has just approved in principle France's request for an advance on the Common Agricultural...
Deforestation Devours Rich Ecosystems
Posted by Inter Press Service: Franz Chávez on May 19th, 2011
Inter Press Service: Occupations of land for agriculture over the last four decades in Bolivia, whether by individuals or in organised collective initiatives, have led to severe ecological damages and low levels of productivity because of the intensive use of machinery and the failure to take into account the limitations of the soil, said environmentalist Marco Ribera.
"To this aggressive approach towards ecosystems is added the irregularity of many processes of obtaining land, in murky periods in which the phenomenon...
Three Gorges Dam has caused urgent problems, says China
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 19th, 2011
Associated Press: China says the Three Gorges Dam has caused urgent problems.
China has acknowledged that its showcase Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric project, has caused a slew of urgent environmental, geologic and economic problems.
The state council, or cabinet, made the rare admission late on Wednesday that the $23bn (£14bn) project was successful but requires action to curb pollution, counter risks of natural disasters and improve the living standards of the 1.4 million people who were...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Three Gorges Dam has caused urgent problems, says ChinaLocal knowledge ‘can corroborate climate data’
Posted by SciDev.Net: Usha Raman on May 19th, 2011
SciDev.Net: Knowledge held by communities about environmental shifts, such as temperature changes and species distribution, conforms closely to scientifically obtained data on climate change, new research shows.
A study by Kamal Bawa, a biology professor at the University of Massachusets, United States, and graduate student Pasupati Chaudhary published online last month (27 April) in Biology Letters, reported that local communities in villages observed changes that overwhelmingly supported scientific findings...