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Archive for July 24th, 2012
Water maps spark concern about “liquid gold rush”
Posted by AlertNet: Astrid Zweynert on July 24th, 2012
AlertNet: As competition for clean water grows, some of the world's biggest companies have joined forces to create unprecedented maps of the liquid gold that flows beneath our feet.
The Aqueduct Alliance, which allows users to create maps by combining hydrological data with geographically specific details, gives companies and investors unprecedented detail of water availability in some of the world's largest river basins.
The promoters say the data should help companies use water more responsibly while...
Climate change goes AWOL
Posted by Chicago Sun-Times: Editorial on July 24th, 2012
Chicago Sun-Times: We can’t help but wonder where our president and would-be president are in all this. Everywhere President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney campaign across this drought-stricken land, there is evidence of the coming devastation of global warming, yet they seldom utter a word about it. A freight train falls from a bridge in Glenview, crushing two people. The cause is a rail warped by heat. Downstate farmers cut and bale vast acres of withered corn stalks to use as hay for cattle. The summer drought...
How much “virtual water” do you use every day?
Posted by AlertNet: Emma Batha on July 24th, 2012
AlertNet: If you had a cup of coffee, a couple of slices of toast and an egg this morning, you also inadvertently consumed around 450 litres (120 gallons) of water - enough for three typical baths.
That's a calculation made according to a global water footprint standard that seeks to measure both direct and indirect uses of water in everything from making cars to growing apples.
The indicators underline that water is not just for washing and drinking. The world uses phenomenal amounts of water to produce...
Australians have limited understanding of climate change, Climate Institute finds
Posted by News.com.au: None Given on July 24th, 2012
News.com.au: FIVE years after Kevin Rudd described it as our generation's greatest moral challenge, people still have no idea what climate change is or what's being done to tackle it.
A new survey by the Climate Institute on attitudes to climate change shows the majority are concerned for the environment, but confusion reigns supreme.
After years of vigorous and at times toxic debate, more than 1000 people surveyed gave an amazing array of answers when asked what thoughts climate change triggered, from...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Australians have limited understanding of climate change, Climate Institute findsClimate change’s costs hit the plate
Posted by Globe and Mail: Thomas Homer-Dixon on July 24th, 2012
Globe and Mail: In the mid-1980s, when I was a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and beginning to study climate change, I attended a lecture by a specialist in plant physiology at nearby Harvard University. He spoke about global warming's impact on crop productivity. He was quite optimistic. More carbon dioxide in the air, he explained, causes certain kinds of plants to grow faster. So, on balance, food output should rise in a warmer and CO2-rich world.
I chased him down after the...
With Warming, Peril Underlies Road to Alaska
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 24th, 2012
New York Times: In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the Army Corps of Engineers an assignment: Build a road from British Columbia across the Yukon to Alaska — in eight months, before winter sets in. Japan had just destroyed much of the Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor. Alaska was vulnerable to invasion (in fact, the Japanese occupied two Aleutian Islands that June). If Americans did not build a supply road linking Alaska to the heart of North America, the thinking went, invading Japanese would do...
Ongoing Coverage of Historic Drought in U.S
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on July 24th, 2012
Climate Central: After a warm and dry spring and a scorchingly hot start to the summer, the U.S. is in the grips of one of its top 10 worst drought events on record. The drought extends from Delaware to California, with the most intense drought conditions centered in the nation's heartland. Corn growers and ranchers have been hard-hit this year, prompting fears of a food crisis as corn prices rise and prospects for a bumper crop are diminished. The drought is the most extensive and intense drought to hit the U.S....