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Archive for October 12th, 2012
Forests to feel climate change effect—damage could cost billions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 12th, 2012
PhysOrg: A new pan-European study suggests that the economic value of forests will decline between 14 % and 50 % due to climate change. If measures are not taken to change this, the damage could reach several hundred billion euros, say researchers led by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) in Switzerland. The study was presented in the journal Nature Climate Change. Researchers from Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland believe that changes in both temperature...
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Comments Off on Forests to feel climate change effect—damage could cost billionsClimate change threatens one million farmers in Central America
Posted by Ag Professional: None Given on October 12th, 2012
Ag Professional: Higher temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns could transform the agricultural landscape of Central America, threatening the livelihoods of one million maize and bean farmers, according to a pioneering report released that for the first time takes a specific look at the impact of climate change on a local level.
Published by scientists at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), as part of a project led by...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change threatens one million farmers in Central AmericaIndia Ignoring Coastal Biodiversity – NGOs
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 12th, 2012
Inter Press Service: Indian civil society organisations see in the 11th United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), underway in this south Indian city, a rare opportunity to highlight alleged neglect of biodiversity along the country's extensive coastal and marine areas.
The Bombay Natural History Society, Kalpavriksh, Greenpeace India, Coastal Protection Campaign, Dakshin Foundation and PondyCAN are among groups accusing ports, power plants, shipyards and aquaculture...
Some Improvement, Some Deterioration for Drought in U.S
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 12th, 2012
Climate Central: Despite a series of low-pressure systems that brought rain to the northern Great Plains, the Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic states, and Florida over the past week or so, the drought that has gripped the Lower 48 states since the spring (and even longer than that, in some areas) is still holding on, according to the latest update of the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The report shows that while the overall drought footprint has shrunk slightly, the scope of the most intense areas of drought have actually expanded...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Some Improvement, Some Deterioration for Drought in U.SClimate change likely to heat up Western Colorado
Posted by Grand Junction Free Press: Hannah Holm on October 12th, 2012
Grand Junction Free Press: Western Colorado could get 6 degrees warmer by 2080, which would make Grand Junction feel like somewhere in Arizona - although probably not as far south as Phoenix. The higher temperatures would also increase the severity of droughts.
That was part of the message given by Dr. Jeff Lukas of the Western Water Assessment team at the University of Colorado in the lecture he gave for Colorado Mesa University's Natural Resources of the West Seminar Series on Monday evening titled, "Drought and Climate...
In Hyderabad, a Focus on the World?s Shrinking Biodiversity
Posted by New York Times: Betwa Sharma on October 12th, 2012
New York Times: If it’s Thursday, it must be Tree Diversity Day – at least for the nature lovers milling about the ballroom of a massive conference center in Hyderabad, home of the 11-day United Nations Conference on Biodiversity.
About 8,000 tree species, approximately 10 percent of the Earth’s total, is threatened with extinction. The Tree Diversity Day, organized by the World Agroforestry Center based in Nairobi, brought together experts to discuss ways of preventing these losses.
During one such discussion,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on In Hyderabad, a Focus on the World?s Shrinking BiodiversityScientists say billions required to meet conservation targets
Posted by BBC: Matt McGrath on October 12th, 2012
BBC: Reducing the risk of extinction for threatened species and establishing protected areas for nature will cost the world over $76bn dollars annually.
Researchers say it is needed to meet globally agreed conservation targets by 2020.
The scientists say the daunting number is just a fifth of what the world spends on soft drinks annually.
And it amounts to just 1% of the value of ecosystems being lost every year, they report in the journal Science.
Back in 2002, governments around the world...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Scientists say billions required to meet conservation targetsTribes Add Powerful Voice Against Northwest Coal Plan
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 12th, 2012
New York Times: At age 94, Mary Helen Cagey, an elder of the Lummi Indian tribe, has seen a lot of yesterdays. Some are ripe for fond reminiscence, like the herring that used to run rich in the waters here in the nation’s upper-left margin, near the border with Canada. Others are best left in the past, she said, like coal. “I used to travel into Bellingham and buy my sack of coal,” she said, standing in sensible shoes on a pebbled beach at a recent tribal news conference, talking about her girlhood of rural subsistence...
Carbon dioxide may damage glaciers
Posted by OurAmazingPlanet: Becky Oskin on October 12th, 2012
OurAmazingPlanet: A computer model of carbon dioxide in ice cracks has two MIT researchers speculating that the greenhouse gas could structurally weaken glaciers, which are already under pressure from global warming.
Materials scientist Markus Buehler, a professor at MIT, studies the mechanical properties of fracturing in everything from spider silk to bones. He works on a nano-sized scale, looking at the bonds between molecules and atoms. Even an iceberg the size of Manhattan starts with a single broken bond,...
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Don’t blame Obama for green failures
Posted by Politico: Darius Dixon on October 12th, 2012
Politico: Instead, environmentalists should turn their anger on Congress, which scuttled carbon cap and trade legislation, said Kennedy, the founder of the Waterkeeper Alliance and son of the slain U.S. senator.
"His principal environmental initiatives, like all of his other initiatives, had been shut down by a Republican Congress,' he said. "For example, cap and trade, which passed [the House] ... was killed by the oil lobby in the U.S. Senate and by Republicans who say, 'If Obama's for it, we're gonna...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Don’t blame Obama for green failures