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Archive for October 17th, 2011
Farm Subsidies Birds And Fish Would Choose
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 17th, 2011
National Public Radio: With the 2012 farm bill coming up fast, we're taking a closer look at what it is and how it shapes food policy and land use in an occasional series. This is part three.
Capitol Hill is a scrum of lobbyists fighting over a shrinking budget these days, and farm subsidies are under attack as never before. Some of those subsidies appear likely to die.
I hear cheering. Farm subsidies are wildly unpopular almost everywhere except among the people who receive them. After all, why should taxpayers...
Climate change a ‘catastrophic’ threat to global health – experts
Posted by AlertNet: Katie Murray on October 17th, 2011
AlertNet: Climate change will be "catastrophic' to global health and could foster global instability and insecurity, a group of prominent scientists, environmental health experts and government officials warned Monday.
They urged governments around the world to tackle climate change, and asked that the EU immediately adopt a 30 percent CO2 greenhouse reduction target by 2020.
Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne asked governments around the world to focus on preventative climate...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Climate change a ‘catastrophic’ threat to global health – expertsClimate change poses immediate threat to health: experts
Posted by Agence France-Press: None Given on October 17th, 2011
Agence France-Press: Climate change poses an immediate and serious threat to global health and stability, as floods and droughts destroy people's homes and food supplies and increase mass migration, experts warned Monday.
In a statement issued at a meeting in London, they urged tougher action to reduce climate change including upping the EU target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from 20 percent by 2020 to 30 percent from 1990 levels.
"It is not enough for politicians to deal with climate change as some abstract...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change poses immediate threat to health: experts‘Fertilizer’ Trees Provide Boost to African Crop Yields, Study Says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 17th, 2011
Yale Environment 360: The planting of so-called “fertilizer trees,” indigenous tree species that draw nitrogen from the air and replenish the soil, has significantly improved the crop yields in five African nations over the last two decades, researchers say. Since the 1980s, when the World Agroforestry Centre started working with local farmers to identify trees that can help improve soil fertility, more than 400,000 small farmers in parts of Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe have planted these “fertilizer”...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on ‘Fertilizer’ Trees Provide Boost to African Crop Yields, Study SaysAct now to tackle the health and security threat of climate change, say experts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 17th, 2011
EurekAlert: Climate change poses an immediate, grave and escalating threat to the health and security of people around the globe and must be tackled urgently, warned leading experts at a high-level meeting hosted by the BMJ (British Medical Journal) in London today.
Opening the conference, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne urged governments around the world to limit the impact of climate change for a "cleaner, healthier, safer future for us all."
"Climate knows no frontiers,"...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Act now to tackle the health and security threat of climate change, say expertsU.S. Water Agencies Eye Water Alternatives Across Mexico Border
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 17th, 2011
Yale Environment 360: Four water districts in the western U.S. are working with Mexican officials to develop two huge desalination plants in Playas de Rosarito, a coastal city located in the Mexican state of Baja California, as communities on both sides of the border look to wean themselves from the drought-prone Colorado River. One group -- including the water agencies that provide water to much of Southern California, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Tijuana -- is now studying the costs of a plant that would provide about 50...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on U.S. Water Agencies Eye Water Alternatives Across Mexico BorderIndigenous people sound the alarm on climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 17th, 2011
National Geographic: The air in the auditorium smelled faintly of burnt herbs. Josefina Lema Aguilar, a Kichwa elder from the mountains of Ecuador, lit a tiny sacred fire to bless last week`s conference on "Seeking Balance: Indigenous Knowledge, Western Science and Climate Change."
Dressed in traditional garb from the Andes, Aguilar gave the event`s opening prayer at the (now LEED-certified) National Museum of the American Indian in Washington.
"At home we would light a big fire, but here in this developed country,...
United States: Drought, flooding cause hard times
Posted by Associated Press: Jeannie Nuss on October 17th, 2011
Associated Press: In a year when severe drought scorched the Southwest, a hurricane drowned crops in the East, and river flooding swamped farms in the Midwest, one of the worst places to be a farmer may be just west of the Mississippi River.
Not only have Arkansas and Louisiana experienced both drought and flooding, but in some cases, so have individual farmers in those states. The cost of the bad weather could reach $1 billion.
Jerry Gill estimated he lost $100,000. Flooding submerged the 150 acres where he...
Bolivian president facing election blow amid road protests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 17th, 2011
Guardian: Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, appears to have suffered his first electoral defeat since taking power in 2005, amid growing protests against the construction of a road through indigenous lands in the Amazon.
An estimated 5.2 million voters were expected at the polls to elect 28 national judges and 28 other members of the judiciary. But according to one preliminary count, around 45% of voters spoiled their ballots while around 20% abstained.
The high proportion of spoilt ballots was widely...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Bolivian president facing election blow amid road protestsAustralia: Camel cull could limit climate change
Posted by AAP: Julian Drape on October 17th, 2011
AAP: Killing feral camels to reduce the amount of methane they emit into the atmosphere provides an exciting opportunity to tackle global warming, the federal climate change department says.
Private company Northwest Carbon has put forward a proposal that could result in farmers and others paid for culling camels on their land and selling offsets under the federal government's carbon farming initiative (CFI).
Department official Shayleen Thompson points out that the idea of generating credits by...