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Archive for August 1st, 2012
USDA Expands Drought Disaster Zones Across U.S
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on August 1st, 2012
Climate Central: In response to the widespread and intense drought that is expected to cost billions in agricultural losses and other impacts, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated 50.3 percent of all U.S. counties as agricultural disaster areas, making federal assistance available to farmers in those areas.
On Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack added 218 more counties in 12 states to the list of primary natural disaster areas "due to damage and losses caused by drought and excessive heat,"...
Half of all US counties deemed ‘natural disaster areas’
Posted by NBC News: Miguel Llanos on August 1st, 2012
NBC News: Just over half of the counties in the U.S. are now labeled "natural disaster areas" after the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday added 218 counties in 12 states to the list.
With drought drying up food crops and animal feedstock, the USDA also said it was allowing haying and grazing on 3.8 million protected acres, many of them wetlands, and that insurance companies agreed to a 30-day grace period for farmers on insurance premiums.
"The assistance announced today will help U.S. livestock...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Half of all US counties deemed ‘natural disaster areas’Gas drilling research suffers from lack of funding
Posted by Associated Press: Kevin Begos on August 1st, 2012
Associated Press: Is gas drilling ruining the air, polluting water and making people sick? The evidence is sketchy and inconclusive, but a lack of serious funding is delaying efforts to resolve those pressing questions and creating a vacuum that could lead to a crush of lawsuits, some experts say.
A House committee in June turned down an Obama administration request to fund $4.25 million in research on how drilling may affect water quality. In the spring, Pennsylvania stripped $2 million of funding that included...
Cities Across U.S. Bore Brunt of Record-Setting July Heat
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on August 1st, 2012
Climate Central: Preliminary climate data for July shows that many cities across the U.S. experienced record-setting months, with temperatures propelled upwards by a massive area of High Pressure, more popularly known as a Heat Dome, that kept cooling rains at bay.
For example, in St. Louis, Mo., where the year-to-date has been the warmest such period on record, the city has already exceeded its all-time record for the greatest number of days with high temperatures of 105°F or above, beating the 10 such days that...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Cities Across U.S. Bore Brunt of Record-Setting July HeatHuman Right to Water and Sanitation Remains a Political Mirage
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2012
Inter Press Service: When the 193-member General Assembly, the U.N.`s highest policy-making body, declared water and sanitation a basic human right back in July 2010, the adoption of that divisive resolution was hailed by many as a "historic" achievement.
But as the international community commemorated the second anniversary of that resolution last week, there was hardly any political rejoicing either inside or outside the United Nations.
"This human right is yet to be fully implemented," complained a coalition...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Human Right to Water and Sanitation Remains a Political MirageNature soaks up more greenhouse gases, brakes warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2012
Reuters: Oceans and land have more than doubled the amount of greenhouse gases they absorb since 1960 in new evidence that nature is helping to brake global warming, a study showed on Wednesday.
"Even though we have done very little to decrease our emissions, the Earth continues to lend us a helping hand," lead author Ashley Ballantyne of the University of Colorado told Reuters.
Carbon soaked up from the atmosphere by the seas and by plants and soil on land rose to an estimated 5 billion metric tons...
Juiced by Climate Change: Extreme Weather On Steroids
Posted by ThinkProgress: Stephanie Hanson Damassa and Noreen Nielsen on August 1st, 2012
ThinkProgress: The brutal summer of 2012 is what climate change looks like. It’s only the beginning of August, and yet nearly every corner of the United States has suffered through extreme weather such as oppressive heat waves, damaging storms, and devastating droughts and wildfires. 2011 saw the most billion-dollar disasters on record in the United States, and 2012 may be similarly as costly. Insurance claims from wildfires in Colorado have already reached nearly $500 million, and experts fear costs from the current...
Use of mercury in gold mining stirs controversy in Brazil
Posted by SciDev.Net: Catarina Chagas on August 1st, 2012
SciDev.Net: Scientists in Brazil have expressed concern that new regulations in the country's Amazonas state continue to permit the use of mercury in gold mining, and have put forward what they say are more environmentally-friendly alternatives.
Mercury is used mainly in small-scale 'artisanal' mining, using amalgamation processes that extract gold from other minerals by binding it to the mercury, and then burning off the mercury.
This activity is increasing in developing countries across Latin America...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Use of mercury in gold mining stirs controversy in BrazilClimate change the cause of summer’s extreme weather, Congress told
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 1st, 2012
Guardian: Drought, wildfires, hurricanes and heatwaves are becoming normal in America because of climate change, Congress was told on Wednesday in the first hearing on climate science in more than two years.
In a predictably contentious hearing, the Senate's environment and public works committee heard from a lead scientist for the UN's climate body, the IPCC, on the growing evidence linking extreme weather and climate change.
"It is critical to understand that the link between climate change and the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change the cause of summer’s extreme weather, Congress toldDrought Helps Dry Up Tornadoes as July Sees Record Low
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on August 1st, 2012
Climate Central: Thanks, in part, to the record-setting drought that is gripping much of the U.S., the country had a record low number of tornadoes for the month of July, and the lowest number of tornadoes for any May-through-July period since high quality recordkeeping began in 1954, according to the U.S. Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. With just 24 tornado reports in July, the U.S. saw fewer tornadoes this month than Canada did, which is unusual.
With about 231 tornadoes during the May-to-July period,...