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Archive for March, 2015
Researchers Find Possible Link Between Food Safety & Climate Change
Posted by Tech Times: None Given on March 8th, 2015
Tech Times: Food safety used to be a matter involving proper food preparation. Now researchers have found that it is also linked to how food is grown, which could be affected by climate change. Problems with food security have been previously linked to climate change, but now researchers have found that food safety might also be a concern. In a study published in the journal Food Research International, researchers from Ghent University and Wageningen University have discovered a relationship between food...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Researchers Find Possible Link Between Food Safety & Climate ChangeArtificial Glaciers in India Help Drought Villages
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 8th, 2015
Guardian: Villagers of the high desert of Ladakh in India's Jammu and Kashmir states used to harvest bountiful crops of barley, wheat, fruits, and vegetables in summer. An artificial glacier made in the form of an ice stupa in Ladakh in an effort to help with water shortages. But for years the streams have run dry in spring, just when farmers needed water to sow seeds. They had water when it wasn't needed during the rest of the year, such as in winter, when Ladakhis let water gush from taps to prevent pipes...
Prices Fail to Reflect Fossil Fuels’ Real Costs
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on March 8th, 2015
Climate News Network: Forget the price of petrol at the pumps. The true cost of any fossil fuel is much greater if social costs are factored in, according to new research.
A climate scientist in the US reports in Climatic Change journal that American motorists get a gallon of gasoline for at least $3.80 less than it really costs, and the price of coal-fired electricity would quadruple if consumers had to pay the real price. In contrast, solar and wind power are much cheaper than they might seem.
Professor Drew Shindell,...
Syria war drought link
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 8th, 2015
Associated Press: The conflict that has torn Syria apart can be traced, in part, to a record drought worsened by global warming, a new study says. In what scientists say is one of the most detailed and strongest connections between violence and human-caused climate change, researchers from Columbia University and the University of California Santa Barbara trace the effects of Syria’s drought from the collapse of farming, to the migration of 1.5 million farmers to the cities, and then to poverty and civil unrest....
Growing seasons changing across globe
Posted by IANS: None Given on March 8th, 2015
IANS: A new study using satellite data has found that the growing seasons have changed everywhere around the world during the last couple of decades.
The results may have significant impact on agriculture, interactions between species, the functioning of ecosystems among others.
"There is almost no part of the Earth that is not affected by these changes", explained Robert Buitenwerf, Ph.D. scholar at the Goethe University, Frankfurt.
He evaluated satellite data from 1981 to 2012 with regard to...
Why fresh water shortages will cause next great global crisis
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 8th, 2015
Guardian: Water is the driving force of all nature, Leonardo da Vinci claimed. Unfortunately for our planet, supplies are now running dry – at an alarming rate. The world’s population continues to soar but that rise in numbers has not been matched by an accompanying increase in supplies of fresh water.
The consequences are proving to be profound. Across the globe, reports reveal huge areas in crisis today as reservoirs and aquifers dry up. More than a billion individuals – one in seven people on the planet...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Why fresh water shortages will cause next great global crisisMinistry urged to assess impact of Mekong River damming
Posted by Vietnam Net: None Given on March 7th, 2015
Vietnam Net: Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has told the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to assess impact of hydropower damming in the mainstream Mekong River on residents in the downstream.
The ministry said at a meeting on Tuesday with the Deputy PM that it has invited representatives of Laos and Cambodia, and international organizations and experts to jointly prepare a study on impact of hydropower projects.
Le Duc Trung, office manager of the Vietnam National Mekong Committee, said...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Ministry urged to assess impact of Mekong River dammingWomen and Children are Most Affected by Water Scarcity
Posted by National Yemen: Asma al-Mohattwari on March 7th, 2015
National Yemen: Yemen is a country with one of the highest rates of population growth in the world. It is also the country with the highest rate of exhaustion of water sources in the Middle East. Half of the Yemeni population in the country is in need of access to clean water. The water crisis has become a real threat.
Running water is available in some parts of Yemen, but most villages remain without it. An example is the rural population in Amran province, which lies to the north of the capital Sana’a, which...
Wendell Berry’s Thoughts On ‘Our Only World’
Posted by Planet Save: None Given on March 7th, 2015
Planet Save: It’s a shame Wendell Berry’s new book of essays, Our Only World, has received scant recognition from reviewers. Not that the media have failed to acknowledge the work, just that they have all printed the same review by Kevin Begos of the Associated Press--a good review, but sadly singular.
Spiritual kin as well as an associate of Edward Abbey, Larry McMurtry, Tillie Olsen, and Ken Kesey through Wallace Stegner’s Stanford writing class, the Kentucky-born poet-philosofarmer deserves more attention....
China pollution film disappears from local video sites
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 7th, 2015
Reuters: A popular documentary on China's struggles with pollution was inaccessible on the country's video sharing websites on Saturday, sparking concern from Chinese Internet users that it had been censored within a week of its launch.
"Under the Dome", a film by journalist Chai Jing that explains air pollution in straightforward terms, spurred a national debate after its release last weekend and quickly garnered hundreds of millions of views on streaming video sites.
Its removal will likely be seen...