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Archive for November, 2013
Typhoon Haiyan: climate change is increasing the intensity of extreme weather events
Posted by Guardian: Paddy Ashdown on November 29th, 2013
Guardian: Three weeks ago the most powerful typhoon ever recorded to hit land destroyed parts of the Philippines. The devastation has been catastrophic, flattening homes, schools and hospitals and leaving thousands dead and 5.5 million children affected.
Unicef has worked in the Philippines since 1948 and experienced staff returning from the worst affected areas such as Leyte are reporting having never seen anything like this – not even after the Asian tsunami on Boxing day almost a decade ago. They have...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Typhoon Haiyan: climate change is increasing the intensity of extreme weather eventsChina: Desert lake shrinking faster than ever
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 29th, 2013
Guardian: The rate at which China's largest desert freshwater lake is shrinking has accelerated dramatically in the past four years, figures show.
Hongjiannao Lake, several hundred kilometres to the west of Beijing, has been disappearing since the 1970s, due to a combination of coal mining and climate change. But the speed at which it is losing area has increased rapidly since 2009, when it measured 46 square kilometres (sq km), down from 67 sq km in 1969.
Data released by local meteorological agencies...
Pitting profits and food supply against the natural world
Posted by Conversation: None Given on November 29th, 2013
Conversation: The arguments for increasing food demand are well publicised and well understood. By the middle of this century, the planet’s population will top nine billion, presenting a third more mouths to feed. Much of the world is getting richer, which leads to changes in diet such as increasing meat and dairy consumption, foodstuffs that use up more resources than crops. Countries are also becoming increasingly urbanised, leading people to want food that is cheap, convenient and, inevitably, wasted. Current...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Pitting profits and food supply against the natural worldPakistan: ‘Climate changes increasing workload on women’
Posted by Express Tribune: None Given on November 29th, 2013
Express Tribune: The impact of climate change is mostly discussed in terms of global warming, agriculture and health but on Thursday, a seminar organised by Shirkat Gah looked into how the women in Pakistan have been affected by the climatic change in Sindh’s coastal belt. “The lack of fresh water has severely affected the people, especially women,” said Sikandar Brohi of the Participatory Initiatives. “Give them fresh water and they’ll start walking on the path to development eventually.” Shirkat Gah, women’s...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Pakistan: ‘Climate changes increasing workload on women’China desert lake shrinks by one-third in 13 years
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 28th, 2013
Agence France-Presse: China's largest desert freshwater lake has shrunk by one-third in the last 13 years, state media said Thursday, as the country's breakneck modernisation continues to damage the environment. Northern China's Hongjiannao Lake covers 32.16 square kilometres (12.86 sq miles), less than half its size in 1969 and two-thirds of its area in 2000, Xinhua news agency said. "Experts said human activities including reservoir construction, mining and agricultural irrigation are the main causes for the sad phenomenon,"...
Greenlands’s First Known Subglacial Lakes Revealed
Posted by Nature World News: By on November 28th, 2013
Nature World News: New research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters details the first subglacial lakes to be identified in Greenland.
Two lakes lie about 800 meters below the Greenland Ice Sheet according to researchers at the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) at the University of Cambridge. The area of the two lakes are between 8 and 10 kilometers squared, but at one point the bodies of water may have been up to three times their current size.
The discovery of the lakes will help researchers...
California water woes hit hard in driest year on record
Posted by Reuters: Sharon Bernstein on November 28th, 2013
Reuters: To nurture his acres of pistachio trees, Tom Coleman has long relied on water from California's mountain-ringed reservoirs, fed by Sierra streams and water pumped from the massive Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
But the driest year on record has left the reservoirs so depleted - and the delta so fragile - that state water officials say they may be able to provide just 5 percent of the water he and others were expecting for next year.
Other sources of water, including resources from a federal...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on California water woes hit hard in driest year on recordUS may be producing 50% more methane than EPA estimate indicated
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 28th, 2013
LA Times: The United States may be emitting 50% more methane, a potent greenhouse gas, than the federal government had previously estimated, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Though carbon dioxide from the combustion of fossil fuels is the main driver of climate change, and less methane than carbon is emitted overall, methane is an even more powerful heat-trapping gas than carbon.
In April, the Environmental Protection Agency said that better pollution control...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on US may be producing 50% more methane than EPA estimate indicatedTwo Lakes Discovered Under Greenland’s Ices
Posted by Softpedia: None Given on November 28th, 2013
Softpedia: A team of researchers with the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) from the University of Cambridge announces the discovery of two subglacial lakes in Greenland, the first of their kind to be found on the island. Similar formations were thus far only known to exist beneath the Antarctic ice sheets.
According to the research group, these lakes are now only one third of their previous area. Measurements conducted by the team revealed that each of the two lakes covers an area of 8 to 10 square...
Japan mulls more than $100 million new spending on Fukushima water-crisis: sources
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 28th, 2013
Reuters: Japan is considering more than $100 million in extra government spending to handle contaminated water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, boosting the budget allocation by at least a fifth, government officials familiar with the matter said.
The additional budget allocation of between 10 billion and 15 billion yen ($98 million-$147 million) aims to accelerate work on containing leaks and decontaminating the water, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The move comes...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Japan mulls more than $100 million new spending on Fukushima water-crisis: sources