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Archive for June, 2014
Safer climate disasters
Posted by Project Syndicate: None Given on June 15th, 2014
Project Syndicate: Too often, participants in the climate-change debate make an erroneous distinction between protecting ourselves from the longer-term impact of global warming and better preparing ourselves against today’s extreme weather events. Recent reports from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have sought to break down this artificial divide. While seeking to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, we must work toward more effective disaster-risk management.
Adaptation to climate...
Dried up: poverty in America’s drought lands
Posted by Deseret News: Amy McDonald on June 15th, 2014
Deseret News: This story is part of the Deseret News National Edition, which focuses on the issues that resonate with American families.
In more than two decades working at a Central California food bank, Sandy Beals has never seen anything like this spring.
Last month alone, FoodLink of Tulare County served 22,000 people who came in for food - 5,000 more than it usually serves each month and a 12 percent increase from the same month last year. For Beals, who runs the food bank, the spike in hunger traces...
Calif: High-intensity oil extraction ban headed ballot
Posted by Santa Barbara Independent: Lyz Hoffman on June 15th, 2014
Santa Barbara Independent: Seven months and one day removed from their controversial approval of Santa Maria Energy’s 136 cyclic steam injection wells, the Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Friday to place a measure on the November ballot that would ban new cyclic steaming, hydraulic fracturing, and acidizing operations in the unincorporated areas of the county. Although the four-hour hearing’s conclusion was foregone — it was either put the initiative on the ballot or adopt it outright — its messages...
India’s plant, animal species under severe threat: Govt report
Posted by Outlook: None Given on June 15th, 2014
Outlook: India's plant and animal species, particularly in the global biodiversity hotspots of Himalayas, Western Ghats, Northeast and the Nicobar Islands, are under severe threat due to overexploitation, forest fires and climate change, says an official report.
The Environment Ministry report, came out in the midst of raging debate between environmental protection and industrial growth, rings alarm bells over destruction of forest and biodiversity in the country, which is home to 45,000 species of plants...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on India’s plant, animal species under severe threat: Govt reportStudy urges sustainable corn production, warns climate change danger
Posted by Journal Star: None Given on June 15th, 2014
Journal Star: Corn farmers could see growing pressure from the companies that buy their golden kernels to adopt sustainable practices, according to a new report that warns of price swings, risk of groundwater depletion and nitrogen runoff contributing to the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone. U.S. farmers produced almost 14 billion bushels of corn in 2013 worth $67 billion. The annual harvest is essential to a wide variety of industries and products from sweeteners and plastics to meat and ethanol. But there are threats...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Study urges sustainable corn production, warns climate change dangerWhat the hell does “sustainable” even mean?
Posted by Salon: Lindsay Abrams on June 15th, 2014
Salon: And not just define, but really define - explain not just what they mean, but how they`re implemented, and why they`re important to reforming our food system?
It`s harder than most people realize, says artist and author Douglas Gayeton. These buzzwords are the shorthand by which we talk about new, better ways to grow and eat food, but often they`re just that - buzzwords, lacking the context needed to be useful. And that`s before we get into things like "integrated pest management," "riparian buffers,"...
Obama rolls out climate change challenge
Posted by Hill: None Given on June 14th, 2014
Hill: President Obama laid out a billion-dollar climate change challenge on Saturday, urging the nation to help combat the effects of natural disasters. “Can you imagine a more worthy goal, a more worthy legacy, than protecting the world we leave to our children,” the president said as he delivered the commencement address at the University of California, Irvine. "U.S. action is critical on climate change, as the world is watching and will follow the U.S.’s lead, he said. “This is a fight America must...
Australia: ‘Conservationist’ Abbott links himself with Obama on climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 14th, 2014
Sydney Morning Herald: Prime Minister Tony Abbott has described himself as a ''conservationist'' who has no disagreement with President Barack Obama on climate change.
In an interview with Fairfax Media in Washington, Mr Abbott said any divisions between Australia and the US over climate policy were overblown, insisting both he and the US President took climate change ''very seriously''.
Mr Obama is understood to have told Mr Abbott that while his administration wanted more co-ordinated international action on global...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: ‘Conservationist’ Abbott links himself with Obama on climate changeRegional partners to focus on sea-level rise in Delaware
Posted by News Journal: Molly Murray on June 14th, 2014
News Journal: A new partnership of scientists and federal officials from Delaware to Virginia will take a regional look at sea-level rise and how best to prepare for the
impacts, including shoreline loss and increased flooding from storms.
One of their first initiatives could be a regional effort to develop a real time, online, coastal flood map similar to what was developed at the University of Delaware for Delaware Bay following the Mother's Day storm of 2008.
That storm, while damaging along the ocean...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Regional partners to focus on sea-level rise in DelawareUnited Kingdom: Alarm raised over threat to lakes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 14th, 2014
BBC: The Environment Agency says urgent action is needed to protect lakes in England and Wales. BBC environment correspondent Sarah Mukherjee reports from a conference on the topic on the shores of Lake Windermere.
The pungent smell of wild garlic and the hazy azure of bluebells assault your senses as you climb the slippery woodland path from Ambleside to Troutbeck in the Lake District.
The woods begin to thin, and you start to see sheep grazing the fells. And then you turn a corner and your heart...