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Archive for June, 2013
GM crops won’t help African farmers
Posted by Guardian: Million Belay and Ruth Nyambura on June 24th, 2013
Guardian: Last week we heard that Owen Paterson, the UK's environment minister, is claiming that GM crops are necessary to help address hunger in developing countries, and that it would be immoral for Britain not to help developing countries to take up GM. Millions of small-scale farmers in Africa would disagree. African farmers and civil society have repeatedly rejected GM crops, and asked their governments to ban them.
Paterson does not appear to understand the complex realities and challenges of farming...
Our Overcrowded Planet: Failure of Family Planning
Posted by Yale Environment 360: Robert Engelman on June 24th, 2013
Yale Environment 360: Until just a couple weeks ago, the great global food challenge was how to feed 9 billion people in 2050. But no longer -- the number of mid-century mouths just jumped. Now it’s projected to be 9.6 billion, closing in on double-digit billions. And forget about expectations that world population will stabilize this century: By 2100, according to the latest projections, the number of people on the planet will hit 10.9 billion -- and will still be growing by 10 million a year. These hundreds of millions...
8 Images to Understand the Drought in the Southwest
Posted by Climate Central: Daniel Yawitz on June 24th, 2013
Climate Central: In states like Missouri, last summer's drought was downright scary. Farmers saw their corn shrivel in the fields, ranchers ran out of feed for their cattle, and commerce on the Mississippi River slowed to a crawl, as barges struggled to avoid newly exposed rocks on the low-flowing river. But this spring brought relief. And now, after one of the wettest springs on record, life will return to a different sort of normal for many Midwestern farmers, as they deal with the problem of having too much water....
Biggest Dead Zone Ever Forecast in Gulf of Mexico
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 24th, 2013
National Geographic: A possibly record-breaking, New Jersey-size dead zone may put a chokehold on the Gulf of Mexico (map) this summer, according to a forecast released this week.
Unusually robust spring floods in the U.S. Midwest are flushing agricultural runoff—namely, nitrogen and phosphorus—into the Gulf and spurring giant algal blooms, which lead to dead zones, or areas devoid of oxygen that occur in the summer.
The forecast, developed by the University of Michigan and Louisiana State University with support...
Better air quality linked to worse hurricanes
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on June 24th, 2013
Climate News Network: Scientists from Britain's Meteorological Office have fingered a new suspect in their attempt to solve the mystery of tropical storms. It is, unexpectedly, air quality.
If North Atlantic hurricanes are more destructive or more frequent, it may be linked to lower levels of atmospheric pollution. Conversely, sulphate aerosols and other particles from factory chimneys, vehicle exhausts, domestic fires, power stations and other human economic advances may have played a role in keeping tropical storms...
Were India’s floods caused by reckless greed?
Posted by Guardian: Kavitha Rao on June 24th, 2013
Guardian: Natural disasters often follow a predictable path in India. A flood or an earthquake happens every few years, the government blames the vagaries of nature, the right sympathetic noises are made, and all is forgotten until the next one comes along. But last week's cataclysmic floods in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, surrounded by the Himalayas, have provoked a debate on whether this particular disaster was caused - or at least worsened - by reckless human greed.
At last count, 5000 people...
Obama Climate Change: Why the President’s Promises Are Just Rhetoric
Posted by Policymic: Blair Koch on June 24th, 2013
Policymic: President Barack Obama made headlines upon declaring, "we've got to do something about climate change," during his State of the Union address on February. With a majority of Americans expressing support for planning the impacts of climate change and global warming, as well as the funding of additional studies into increasing clean energy resources and reducing pollution, such as the 2012 study by the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale Project on Climate Change Communication:...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Obama Climate Change: Why the President’s Promises Are Just RhetoricMilitary Report: America Has ‘Misguided’ Fixation With Domestic Drilling
Posted by InsideClimate: John H. Cushman Jr. on June 24th, 2013
InsideClimate: A new report from the U.S. Center for Naval Analyses and the London-based Royal United Services Institute, two of the NATO alliance's front-line strategy centers, recommends putting more effort into fighting global warming than securing reliable supplies of fossil fuels.
The authors call the habitual American fixation on winning energy independence through expanded North American production of oil and natural gas "misguided." They say the "only sustainable solution" to the problem of energy insecurity...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Military Report: America Has ‘Misguided’ Fixation With Domestic DrillingCanada’s power supplies could be hit for months by floods
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 24th, 2013
Guardian: Power cuts in the Canadian oil capital of Calgary could last for weeks or even months, city authorities said on Sunday, after record-breaking floods swept across southern Alberta, killing three people and forcing more than 100,000 to flee their homes.
Some Calgary residents were able to return to sodden homes as rivers dropped and some evacuation orders were lifted. But Bruce Burrell, director of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency, said power restoration in the city centre, where many of...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Canada’s power supplies could be hit for months by floodsGlobal warming will make Indian monsoon worse and unpredictable, says study
Posted by Times India: Kounteya Sinha on June 24th, 2013
Times India: Scientists have found that the pattern of the Indian monsoon will change under global warming in the future.
Computer simulations with a comprehensive set of 20 state-of-the-art climate models now consistently show that Indian monsoon daily variability might increase.
Scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said, "ups-and-downs of Indian monsoon rainfall is likely to increase under warming."
Scientists found that a 4% to 12% variability change of daily monsoon rainfall...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Global warming will make Indian monsoon worse and unpredictable, says study