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Archive for October, 2012
Hurricane Sandy expected to stun US and be a climate change reminder
Posted by Times of India: Chidanand Rajghatta on October 29th, 2012
Times of India: The United States, at least the eastern seaboard of the country, is under attack. Not from Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela or any of the usual suspects. The offender who dares to assault the world's only superpower is a hurricane, innocuously named Sandy.
Sandy though is an overgrown progenitor of Mother Nature, who no one messes with; not even a superpower. As if to remind US Presidential candidates that it is not a good idea to put global warming -- or human aggravated climate change -- on...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Hurricane Sandy expected to stun US and be a climate change reminderIn aftermath of drought, U.S. corn movement turns upside down
Posted by Reuters: Julie Ingwersen on October 29th, 2012
Reuters: The devastating U.S. drought and ensuing crop disease are upending traditional grain movement patterns, with dozens of trains and barges shipping North Dakota or Mississippi corn into the Corn Belt rather than out to the coasts.
Processors and ethanol producers in No. 2 corn state Illinois, where the average corn yield was the lowest in nearly 25 years, are "importing" millions of bushels of the grain - an unprecedented volume - from North Dakota, which produced a record crop this year, trade...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on In aftermath of drought, U.S. corn movement turns upside downWhat’s A Lake Doing In The Middle Of The Desert?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 26th, 2012
National Public Radio: One place you don't expect to see waves lapping against the shore is in the middle of a desert. But that's exactly what's happening deep inside the United Arab Emirates, where a recently formed lake is nestled into the sand dunes, and a new ecosystem is emerging.
Drive through the desert in the United Arab Emirates, and all you see mile after mile are red, rolling dunes. Maybe some occasional trees or shrubs, but otherwise a dry, red sandscape.
And then, suddenly, a bright blue spot comes into...
Hot, dry winds raise fire danger for San Diego
Posted by MSNBC: None Given on October 26th, 2012
MSNBC: With hot, dry, Santa Ana winds expected to blow into San Diego through Saturday, fire officials are warning locals to be on high alert for the next few days.
A high-wind warning was to take effect Thursday night, followed by a red flag warning, which means fire danger is high. As a result of the dangerous weather conditions, more local firefighters will be on duty through Saturday.
"We're getting our first traditional offshore Santa Ana wind event,' California Fire Capt. Mike Mohler said. "(That...
Biodiversity protection needs community input
Posted by SciDevNet: T. V. Padma on October 26th, 2012
SciDevNet: A pledge to increase support for biodiversity targets in developing countries is welcome, but care for indigenous people is vital too.
This month's meeting of the 11th Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), held in Hyderabad in India, came as a reality check on the capacity of the international community to implement pledges on biodiversity made two years ago in Nagoya, Japan.
At that landmark meeting in Nagoya, countries agreed on 20 global biodiversity...
Shale oil and gas boom puts global warming issue on the back burner
Posted by South China Morning Post: Peter Schwartz on October 26th, 2012
South China Morning Post: A technological revolution is transforming the world's energy landscape as we move from an expectation of shortages of oil and gas to a new era of abundance. The development of natural gas from shale, that has already taken off in the US, and a variety of technologies are creating new options for oil development, so much so that the notion of peak oil has vanished from the conversation.
We can expect some consequences. Chief among them is the fact that, as energy gets more abundant, the incentives...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Shale oil and gas boom puts global warming issue on the back burnerFlood-hit Pakistan moves toward disaster insurance
Posted by AlertNet: Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio on October 26th, 2012
AlertNet: Hussain Khan lost everything in the 2010 floods that swept through Pakistan: His two children, his home on the banks of the Swat River, his dozens of cattle, sheep and goats, and his six-acre cherry crop.
Today the 43-year-old farmer, the sole breadwinner for a family of 10, works as a motel waiter in Mingora, a bustling town in the Swat Valley, some 160 kms (100 miles) northwest of Pakistan's capital city Islamabad. He is grateful to no longer be begging to survive, but he doubts he will recover...
Rains help shrink drought but High Plains still parched
Posted by Reuters: Carey Gillam on October 25th, 2012
Reuters: Many areas of the drought-stricken United States continued to see improvement over the last week as steady rains started recharging parched soils, but for key agricultural areas of the U.S. Heartland, there was little relief, according to a climatology report issued Thursday. "We've seen some improvement ... but the impact of the drought and the dryness is far from over," said Brian Fuchs, a climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Roughly 61.79...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Rains help shrink drought but High Plains still parchedRapid Thinning of Glaciers Seen After Collapse of Antarctic Ice Shelf
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 25th, 2012
Yale Environment 360: NASA has released satellite photos that vividly depict the precipitous thinning and retreat of two Antarctic glaciers following the disintegration of the Larsen B Ice Shelf. That ice shelf -- which floated on top of the Weddell Sea and once was the size of Connecticut -- collapsed in 2002 after several years of warm summer temperatures. The Larsen B had acted as a buttress slowing the flow of numerous glaciers into the sea. The NASA satellite images, taken in 2002 and in 2012, demonsrate how swiftly...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Rapid Thinning of Glaciers Seen After Collapse of Antarctic Ice ShelfCameroon urged to reduce disaster risk after northern floods
Posted by AlertNet: Elias Ntungwe Ngalame on October 25th, 2012
AlertNet: Following severe flooding in the north of Cameroon, the country is being urged by the United Nations to take steps to reduce disaster risks in the face of extreme weather.
Three weeks of heavy rain in August in the North region caused the partial collapse of the Lagdo dam and the overflow of the Benue River, triggering deadly flooding in some 15 villages of both Cameroon and Nigeria.
According to UN reports, 30 people died and 60,000 were displaced in Cameroon's North and Far North regions,...
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