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Archive for January, 2012
Flooding is the United Kingdom’s biggest climate threat
Posted by Nature: Katherine Rowland on January 26th, 2012
Nature: Severe flooding that could affect millions of people is the United Kingdom's most pressing climate-change risk, says a study released yesterday by the country's government.
The first Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA), published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), examines 100 potential consequences of climate change for the United Kingdom. The study draws on climate projection models from 2009, known as the UKCP09, and examines how different levels of greenhouse-gas...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Flooding is the United Kingdom’s biggest climate threatThailand: Even worse flood crisis this year unless government is decisive
Posted by Nation: None Given on January 26th, 2012
Nation: Water experts yesterday urged the government to be decisive about flood-prevention measures in order to prevent a repeat of last year's severe flooding, as the La Nina phenomenon is expected to bring early rains and more storms this year.
They expressed concern that a lack of clear decisions from the government would leave the flood-prevention efforts in disarray.
Seree Supharatid, director of Rangsit University's Centre on Climate Change and Disaster, warned that due to the La Nina climatic...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Thailand: Even worse flood crisis this year unless government is decisiveFood security: Dampened prospects
Posted by Financial Times: None Given on January 26th, 2012
Financial Times: Bangladeshi women farmers in rainbow-bright saris survey their flooded rice paddies with dismay: the rains have drowned the tender seedlings and, with them, their livelihoods. Climate change, ill-judged policies, protectionism, urbanisation and plain greed have all conspired to reignite Malthusian prophesies of a growing world population unable to feed itself. Come 2050, the UN predicts earth will be home to another 2bn people; in order to feed us all, production needs to increase by an estimated...
Obama to propose tax credit for natgas trucks
Posted by Reuters: Caren Bohan on January 26th, 2012
Reuters: President Barack Obama pitched a plan on Thursday to boost U.S. use of natural gas and open more land for offshore drilling during a campaign-style tour aimed at bolstering confidence in his economic stewardship.
At a stop in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Democratic president sought to counter Republican criticisms of his energy policies as he proposed tax incentives for companies to buy natural gas trucks, which would help build demand for abundant domestic supplies of the fuel.
Republicans have...
How climate change, urbanization are changing disaster aid
Posted by Reuters: Katie Nguyen and Megan Rowling on January 26th, 2012
Reuters: Picture this: a terrible drought forces you to abandon your meager plot of farmland, so you migrate to a city where the jobs are, only to end up living in a slum regularly submerged by floods.
It's a scenario that's going to become more and more familiar in coming years as climate change and rapid urbanization play an ever-greater role in shaping humanitarian crises, according to an AlertNet poll of the world's biggest aid organizations.
To adapt to the new reality, aid agencies will need to...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on How climate change, urbanization are changing disaster aidRiver pollution triggers water panic buying in China
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2012
Reuters: Residents of a town in southern China have been rushing to buy bottled water after excessive levels of carcinogenic cadmium were found in a river source of drinking water, state media said on Thursday in the latest health scare to hit the country.
Pollution of waterways by toxic run-offs from factories and farms is a pressing issue in China, prompting the authorities to call for policy tightening to cut heavy metal pollution, though the problem shows no sign of going away.
Cadmium levels at...
Climate change ‘may cost billions’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2012
Press Association: The costs to the UK of flooding could rise to billions of pounds a year in the coming decades, according to the first national assessment of the risks of climate change.
The UK will also face threats including water shortages, more droughts and diseases such as red band needle blight which could hit the timber industry in the next century, the assessment conducted for the Government showed.
However, the changing climate will bring some opportunities to the UK, including the chance to grow new...
World’s giant trees are dying off rapidly, studies show
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2012
Guardian: The biggest trees in the world, known as the true ecological kings of the jungle, are dying off rapidly as roads, farms and settlements fragment forests and they come under prolonged attack from severe droughts and new pests and diseases.
Long-term studies in Amazonia, Africa and central America show that while these botanical behemoths may have adapted successfully to centuries of storms, pests and short-term climatic extremes, they are counterintuitively more vulnerable than other trees to today's...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on World’s giant trees are dying off rapidly, studies showNew biodiversity map of Andes shows species in dire need of protection
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2012
ScienceDaily: The Andes-Amazon basin of Peru and Bolivia is one of the most biologically rich and rapidly changing areas of the world. A new study published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Ecology has used information collected over the last 100 years by explorers and from satellite images which reveals detailed patterns of species and ecosystems that occur only in this region. Worryingly, the study also finds that many of these unique species and ecosystems are lacking vital national level protection....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on New biodiversity map of Andes shows species in dire need of protectionNanomaterials’ Effects on Health and Environment Unclear, Panel Says
Posted by New York Times: Cornelia Dean on January 26th, 2012
New York Times: Tiny substances called nanomaterials have moved into the marketplace over the last decade, in products as varied as cosmetics, clothing and paint. But not enough is known about their potential health and environmental risks, which should be studied further, an expert panel of the National Academy of Sciences said on Wednesday. Nanoscale forms of substances like silver, carbon, zinc and aluminum have many useful properties. Nano zinc oxide sunscreen goes on smoothly, for example, and nano carbon...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Nanomaterials’ Effects on Health and Environment Unclear, Panel Says