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Archive for March, 2013
Evacuation orders lifted as Colorado wildfire eases
Posted by Reuters: Keith Coffman on March 17th, 2013
Reuters: Evacuation orders were lifted on Saturday for hundreds of Colorado residents forced to flee their homes due to a wind-driven wildfire in a canyon northwest of Denver, as firefighters made progress in containing the blaze, officials said. Calmer winds, higher humidity levels and cooler temperatures allowed firefighters to cut containment lines around 45 percent of the so-called Galena Fire, said Nick Christensen, spokesman for the Larimer County Sheriff's Office. The blaze signaled an early start...
UK farmers face disaster as ‘perfect storm’ strikes
Posted by Guardian: Jay Rayner on March 16th, 2013
Guardian: British agriculture is facing a wider crisis than the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak of 2001, with around 90% of farmers affected, according to the Prince's Countryside Fund. The charity, established by the Prince of Wales in 2010, is co-ordinating welfare efforts for families in dire need.
"This crisis is unique because it's so broad," said Tor Harris, the fund's director. "There have been others in the past but they have affected particular groups, such as livestock farmers. This affects upland...
Britain’s farming crisis: ‘People don’t realise how tough everything is’
Posted by Guardian: Jay Rayner on March 16th, 2013
Guardian: A few hours before I arrived at Kit Dean's dairy farm on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, near where North Yorkshire smudges into Cumbria, he took a call from his animal feed supplier. "I had to put them off again," he says. The bill, running into thousands of pounds, will have to remain unpaid. "They've put a stop on the account," says his wife, Jane, bluntly. "I don't know how we're going to afford to buy the feed we need through the winter."
We are at the table in their handsome,...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Britain’s farming crisis: ‘People don’t realise how tough everything is’Nepal: Call for interdisciplinary strategies to combat climate change impacts
Posted by Republica: None Given on March 16th, 2013
Republica: A regional workshop on ´climate change impacts in Asian mountains´ has stressed for a pressing need to unite varied disciplines and foster strategies in order to lessen the impact of climate change on Asia´s mountainous countries.
The 3-day workshop organized by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and International Center for Integrated Mountain development (ICIMOD) in the capital this week concluded that there is a need to better harness...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Nepal: Call for interdisciplinary strategies to combat climate change impactsWildfires rage in Colorado as fears grow over continued drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 16th, 2013
Reuters: Two wind-driven wildfires erupted in northern Colorado on Friday, prompting the evacuation of about 50 residents and signaling an early start to the wildfire season in the parched Rocky Mountain west.
The larger of the two blazes that prompted the evacuations, the Soldier Canyon Fire, has charred about 800 acres near Lory State Park, Poudre Fire Authority Captain Patrick Love told Reuters.
"We've been experiencing strong, erratic winds from the north all afternoon," Love said.
Along with...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Wildfires rage in Colorado as fears grow over continued droughtHuman climate change big factor in Somali famine
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 16th, 2013
Associated Press: Global warming may have contributed to low rain levels in Somalia in 2011 where tens of thousands died in a famine, research by British climate scientists suggests.
Scientists with Britain's weather service studied weather patterns in East Africa in 2010 and 2011 and found that yearly precipitation known as the short rains failed in late 2010 because of the natural effects of the weather pattern La Nina.
But the lack of the long rains in early 2011 was an effect of "the systematic warming due...
Global warming detailed in new temperature records
Posted by Washington Post: Editorial on March 16th, 2013
Washington Post: SCIENTISTS HAVE a good sense of what the Earth's climate has been like over the past handful of centuries. But what about many thousands of years back?
In a recent article in the journal Science, researchers at Oregon State University and Harvard explained how they used marine fossils to piece together a rough temperature record going back 11,300 years to the most recent ice age. That record indicates that the Earth warmed as it emerged from the ice age, followed by a long-term cooling trend....
Arctic melting stacked weather deck in favor of Superstorm Sandy
Posted by ClimateWire: Elizabeth Harball on March 16th, 2013
ClimateWire: A number of unusual atmospheric phenomena combined to form the massive "Frankenstorm" that was Superstorm Sandy. While many have said global warming fueled the storm's strength, it is unclear exactly how it played a role. But scientists are starting to see evidence that warm weather in the Arctic led to conditions that made the hurricane so incredibly powerful.
An article in the March issue of Oceanography, authored by scientists from Cornell and Rutgers universities, points to 2012's unprecedented...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Arctic melting stacked weather deck in favor of Superstorm SandyALERT! Massive Chinese Dam Threatens Cambodia’s Cardamom Rainforests
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on March 16th, 2013
By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal
TAKE ACTION!
The Areng Valley's rainforests in the Cardamom Mountains [search] of south-west Cambodia is threatened with flooding by a Chinese hydropower dam. This biodiversity gem - home of the Siamese crocodile and indigenous Khmer Daeum - is to be destroyed for a relatively small amount of electricity. Standing large, connected, and ecologically intact old-growth forests are required for local and global ecological sustainability and well-being.
Posted in Uncategorized Comments Off on ALERT! Massive Chinese Dam Threatens Cambodia’s Cardamom RainforestsRecent Supreme Court Decision May Affect Environmental Standing
Posted by Environmental News Network: Devin McDougall, Devin McDougall, Sive Paget and Riesel, P.c. on March 16th, 2013
Environmental News Network: A recent decision by the United States Supreme Court has raised questions about the scope of plaintiffs' standing to bring suit in federal court, a critical issue for environmental litigants. Federal courts have long recognized that certain types of environmental harms can form the basis of standing under Article III of the United States Constitution, which requires plaintiffs to establish an "actual or imminent" injury that is "fairly traceable" to the challenged conduct and "likely to be redressed"...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Recent Supreme Court Decision May Affect Environmental Standing