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Archive for August 24th, 2012
Drought Weakens Mississippi River’s Flow; Threatens New Orleans’ Water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 24th, 2012
National Geographic: New Orleans may be the victim of a one-two punch as Hurricane Isaac threatens to strengthen over the Gulf of Mexico and the ongoing affects of this summer's drought continue to trickle down to the Delta.
The record temperatures and lack of rain that have devastated crops in America's heartland upstream also have weakened the once-mighty Mississippi River's defenses against saltwater intrusion.
Freshwater flowing south from the Mississippi and salty water from the Gulf are constantly arm wrestling...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Drought Weakens Mississippi River’s Flow; Threatens New Orleans’ WaterWill Emissions Disclosure Mean Investor Pressure on Polluters?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 24th, 2012
New York Times: A new financial tool developed by the investment firm South Pole Carbon, in partnership with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, provides greenhouse gas emissions profiles of more than 40,000 publicly listed companies. This index is aimed at encouraging greater disclosure from companies while, hopefully, also pushing investors to build more responsible portfolios.
"Investors have long been aware that the greenhouse gas profile, especially of major emitters like electric utilities, is a...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Will Emissions Disclosure Mean Investor Pressure on Polluters?Reviewing how native peoples will deal with climate change
Posted by High Country News: None Given on August 24th, 2012
High Country News: Extreme weather events forced an awareness of urgent climate disruptions this year, with July 2012 being the hottest month on record – hotter even than the Dust Bowl’s July 1936.The science tells us climate changes would be abrupt and include extreme weather events. The book, Asserting Native Resilience – Pacific Rim Indigenous Nations Face the Climate Crisis, issued June 1, 2012, couldn’t be more timely. In the book’s introduction editors Zoltán Grossman and Alan Parker tell us, “Climate change...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Reviewing how native peoples will deal with climate changeIs It Too Late To Defuse The Danger Of Megafires?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 24th, 2012
National Public Radio: I hike up into the Santa Fe National Forest just outside Santa Fe, N.M. My guide is William Armstrong, the service's fire manager for this forest. He's dressed all in green and is so lanky, he looks like a sapling himself, except his eyes are a piercing blue.
I remark just how lush his forest is, how the Ponderosa pines almost reach out and touch one another. He doesn't take it as a compliment. "They're a plague," he says. "On this forest, it's averaging about 900 trees per acre. Historically...
Species Adapting to Climate Change is more complicated than thought
Posted by Environmental News Network: Allison Winter on August 24th, 2012
Environmental News Network: With climate change happening, species will be forced to adapt or to move out of the habitats they are accustomed to. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are trying to understand how these species will respond to changing environmental conditions and where they will go.
One study published in the journal Global Change Biology finds that changes in precipitation have been overlooked as a factor in driving bird species out of their normal range. The second study, published in...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Species Adapting to Climate Change is more complicated than thoughtUnited Kingdom: Let’s keep the green belt safely fastened
Posted by Telegraph: Editorial on August 24th, 2012
Telegraph: Among the many striking images from the London Olympics, TV shots of the glorious countryside that rings Europe's greatest metropolis will live long in the memory. The Games opened with a cycle race that hurtled through the lush downland of the Surrey Hills, past ancient villages with Norman churches and 16th-century coaching inns and back to the capital by way of well-preserved market towns. It was an idealised vision of England that could have been conjured by Danny Boyle. But it was, in fact,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Let’s keep the green belt safely fastenedConstruction of controversial Belo Monte dam halted after court ruling
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 24th, 2012
Mongabay: Belo Monte dam developer Norte Energia, S.A. has stopped all work on the Belo Monte dam after receiving formal notification of the decision last week by the Brazilian Federal Appeals Court to suspend the project, reports International Rivers. Norte Energia said it would take "all available measures to reverse the decision."
The Federal Appeals Court ruled that Belo Monte cannot proceed without the consent of indigenous communities that will be impacted by the dam, which will redirect 80 percent...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Construction of controversial Belo Monte dam halted after court rulingICT will help Ugandan farmers cope with climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 24th, 2012
SciDev.Net: Ugandan cattle farmers are set to benefit from the use of information and communications technology (ICT) tools and meteorological data to improve their ability to adapt to climate change-induced hazards such as water stress and prolonged droughts. Climate Change Adaptation and ICT (CHAI), a two-year project launched in Kampala earlier this month (3 August), will generate agricultural, environmental management, market and meteorological information for herdsmen in Uganda's 'cattle corridor'. The...
“The Truth is That All Problems Have Solutions” – Even Climate Change in Ethiopia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 24th, 2012
Inter Press Service: Eight years ago Kenbesh Mengesha earned an uncertain income collecting firewood from local government forests and selling them to her fellow slum-dwellers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She would earn on average about 50 cents a day, if she was lucky.
But now she is part of a successful women's farming project that is a model for training other urban farmer groups all over Africa on how to adapt to climate change.
According to the World Bank, Ethiopia is extremely vulnerable to drought and other...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on “The Truth is That All Problems Have Solutions” – Even Climate Change in EthiopiaUnited Kingdom: It’s easy to go wrong with hedges
Posted by Telegraph: Germaine Greer on August 24th, 2012
Telegraph: Not everyone has room for a wood, but those of us who live in the country generally have room for a hedge, which is a pretty good connector between one patch of woodland and another. Hedges are cheaper than walls, and a better-looking than fences, but they do present challenges. You can get them wrong.
When I acquired my three acres of north-west Essex, the property was surrounded by an old hawthorn hedgerow standing above the ploughland, probably because the ploughland's slipping downhill year-on-year...