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Archive for July 21st, 2012
United Kingdom: Dairy farmers step up the pressure on supermarkets over cuts to milk prices
Posted by Guardian: Dan Glaister on July 21st, 2012
Guardian: It was a scene that seemed to belong more to the French countryside, where outbreaks of rural militancy are commonplace: at dusk last Thursday, 80 tractors and farm vehicles, accompanied by about 500 dairy farmers, gathered in protest around a milk processing plant in Somerset. The farmers blocked the depot for several hours, refusing to let milk in or out, only relenting as night turned to morning and the more traditional activities of the dairy farmer beckoned.
The protest was replayed at two...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on United Kingdom: Dairy farmers step up the pressure on supermarkets over cuts to milk pricesTop Ten Impacts Climate Change Is Making Worse Right Now
Posted by ThinkProgress: Rebecca Leber and Ellie Sandmeyer on July 21st, 2012
ThinkProgress: The onslaught of extreme weather and record temperatures this year have had an impact on people globally, directly through drought and temperature, and more indirectly impacting food prices and public transportation.
Here are 10 impacts we`re seeing right now that climate change is very likely worsening, in some cases playing a major role:
Rising Food Prices
Over half of the Continental U.S. is now facing severe drought--the worst in fifty years. As a result of extreme temperatures and little...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Top Ten Impacts Climate Change Is Making Worse Right NowDrought grips U.S., including Indian country
Posted by Indian Country: None Given on July 21st, 2012
Indian Country: Two-thirds of the United States is gripped in drought, the most severe bout since the 1950s, the National Climatic Data Center says in its latest report.
June’s hot, dry weather not only spawned devastating wildfires but is also hitting the cornbelt, USA Today reported, and we can expect to see that reflected in food prices later in the year.
“In the 18 primary corn-growing states, 30 percent of the crop is now in poor or very poor condition,” meteorologist Rich Tinker of the Climate Prediction...
U.S. drought could have global impact on food prices
Posted by Marketplace: Jeff Horwich on July 21st, 2012
Marketplace: Jeff Horwich: The weather forecast offers no relief for weeks across much of the U.S. breadbasket. Corn and soybean prices are at new records today -- wheat is rising too. And when we have this kind of farming weather, the whole world suffers with us. Rob Bailey is a senior research fellow on energy, environment and resources with the Royal Institute of International Affairs in the UK. Good to talk with you. Rob Bailey: Hello. Horwich: We're very focused on how our drought effects us here at home,...
Australia: Emails show government wary of ethanol target
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: James Robertson on July 21st, 2012
Sydney Morning Herald: THE state government was told a year ago there was not enough ethanol in Australia to fulfil its law requiring that ethanol make up 6 per cent of all petrol in NSW.
The Herald revealed this month that oil companies have been unable to source enough ethanol to comply with state law.
Senior government figures had warned last year that the 6 per cent targets, adopted in September, were unachievable, emails obtained by the Herald under freedom of information laws show.
''There is insufficient...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: Emails show government wary of ethanol targetCanada: Ontario’s corn crop withers under drought
Posted by Toronto Star: Alyshah Hasham on July 21st, 2012
Toronto Star: Beneath the blistering sun the parched cornfields of Ontario are "wavy like a roller-coaster.'
In a few grateful pockets (mostly south and west of London) the million-dollar rain has come, giving some fields tall, green stalks and potentially bumper yields.
In others, "the crops look completely burnt off, as if they've been dead for two weeks,' says Greg Stewart, a corn specialist at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
The months of drought plaguing southern Ontario...
Vancouver plans to face climate change head-on
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 21st, 2012
Vancouver Sun: The city of Vancouver has designed a climate change “adaptation” strategy to tackle a potential increase in street flooding, sewer backups, damaged forests and heat-related illnesses by 2050.
The strategy, scheduled to go to council for approval in principle Tuesday, suggests nine measures to address the potential impacts of climate change, which is expected to bring more intense rain and windstorms, hotter and drier summers and rising sea levels, affecting the city’s economic prosperity and livability....
Record Summer Temperatures, By The Numbers
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on July 21st, 2012
Climate Central: The weather this summer has been so extreme that it has rivaled the most destructive and unbearable summers in U.S. history, years that are infamous in weather lore. Those years include 1934 and 1936, which were in the middle of the Dust Bowl era, as well as 1954 and 1988, which was the year that Yellowstone National Park burned and NASA scientist James Hansen first warned the U.S. Senate about the consequences of manmade global warming.
As a reporter and analyst on the extreme weather and climate...
Snapshot of the Drought’s Impact Across the Country
Posted by Climate Central: Dan Yawitz on July 21st, 2012
Climate Central: The record-breaking drought currently affecting a majority of the country has only gotten worse in the past week, and shows no signs of improving. More than a third of U.S. counties have been declared federal disaster areas. As the heat and dry weather have persisted, the threat to American farmers and ranchers has increased, as the drought continues to dry out already-suffering crops and pastures.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has forecasted that corn and soybean yields will drop 12 percent...
‘Dirty snow’ hastens glacial melt in Himalayas
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 21st, 2012
Inter Press Service: Every morning, as Gian Pietro Verza walks up the lateral moraine of the Khumbu Glacier in this Himalayan country's north-east to take measurements, the wind makes colourful prayer flags flutter noisily. That same wind carries soot particles that are causing the snow on the mountains to melt faster.
The Italian scientist and mountaineer has been working at the Pyramid International Observatory below Mt Everest since 1987, and has seen the rapid retreat of the glaciers around him even in the last...