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Archive for April, 2015
Severe storm kills 24, injures more than 50 in Bangladesh
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 5th, 2015
Reuters: A severe storm sweeping across Bangladesh killed at least 24 people and injured dozens more, mostly in Bogra district in the northern part of the country, police and officials said on Sunday.
Women and children were among the dead, who included some victims in the capital Dhaka, they said, and more than 50 people were injured and admitted to hospitals around the country.
Shafiqur Reza Biswas, Bogra's chief district administrator, told reporters storm killed at least 14 people killed alone in...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Severe storm kills 24, injures more than 50 in BangladeshCalifornia Drought Tests History Endless Growth
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 5th, 2015
New York Times: For more than a century, California has been the state where people flocked for a better life — 164,000 square miles of mountains, farmland and coastline, shimmering with ambition and dreams, money and beauty. It was the cutting-edge symbol of possibility: Hollywood, Silicon Valley, aerospace, agriculture and vineyards. But now a punishing drought — and the unprecedented measures the state announced last week to compel people to reduce water consumption — is forcing a reconsideration of whether...
Climate Change Makes Droughts in Australia Worse
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on April 5th, 2015
Guardian: Climate change is making drought conditions in southwest and southeast Australia worse, with serious ramifications for people's health and the agriculture industry, a new paper has warned. The Climate Council report says projected decreases in average rainfall are linked to reduced agricultural productivity and increased suicide risk in rural areas. The Climate Council report states that since the mid-1990s, southeast Australia has experienced a 15 percent drop in rainfall during late autumn and...
China to step up urbanization along Yangtze River
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 5th, 2015
Reuters: China's government released on Sunday a framework to develop sprawling urban areas along the Yangtze River as it moves forward with a decade-long ambition to turn the Chinese heartland into a major economic belt.
Although no specific investment details were released, the State Council, China's cabinet, said on its website it would designate 317,000 square kilometers along the river to become urban areas, hosting transportation and energy projects.
The designated urban development area will...
Calif drought: agribusiness, fracking untouched by water rationing
Posted by Ecologist: Evan Blake on April 5th, 2015
Ecologist: There are immense water efficiencies to be gained, but any rational reorganization is blocked by the US financial oligarchy, which, controlling the entire political system, will not abide any impingement on its profits.
The unprecedented drought gripping California has deepened for the fourth consecutive year, having already set new records for the lowest annual precipitation levels on record. 2014 brought the highest calendar-year temperature for the state, while this February was the hottest...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Calif drought: agribusiness, fracking untouched by water rationingCoping With California’s Drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 4th, 2015
National Public Radio: In a week when Governor Jerry Brown announced mandatory water restrictions, NPR's Arun Rath talks with reporter Kirk Siegler about his visit to the Sierra Nevada mountains, where the snowpack so vital to the state water supply is dramatically absent.
ARUN RATH, HOST:
While the world struggles with the problem of too much oil, here in California we're consumed with a far more primal concern - not enough water. From the moment we moved this show to Los Angeles, we've been reporting on how bad...
One Farmer’s Battle with California’s Worst Drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 4th, 2015
Climate Central: On a warm March afternoon, farmer Cannon Michael walks alongside wheat fields adjacent to his house in Los Banos, in California's Central Valley. Most of these fields won't be watered again this year.
Cannon Michael in on a mission to preserve farming in California, despite layers of agricultural regulations and the state's historic drought.
"Wheat's not a glamorous crop, but it makes a lot of bread,' Michael quips.
This wheat, though, won't return much money, Michael says. So it will be...
The many droughts of California
Posted by New York Times: Jeff Wheelwright on April 4th, 2015
New York Times: CALIFORNIA has only two seasons, rainy and dry. In March, when the rains stop — assuming they have begun — we must forget about precipitation for at least six months. The rainfall determines our mood for the summer and fall. Where I live, on the Central Coast, 17 inches of rain per winter has been the long-term average. Beating that number — we last did it five years ago — feels like winning the lottery. Lately, the average has been well under 10. The difference between a good rain year in California...
California imposes first-ever mandatory water restrictions
Posted by Al Jazeera: Haya El Nasser on April 4th, 2015
Al Jazeera: Four years of a historic drought that has left California parched forced Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday to declare the first mandatory water restrictions in the state’s history. He ordered the State Water Resources Control Board to enact mandatory cuts in water use by 25 percent, which could save 1.5 million acre-feet of water over nine months. An acre-foot contains 325,851 gallons of water. Brown issued the executive order while visiting the Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada — an area that...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on California imposes first-ever mandatory water restrictionsCalifornia snowpack is at a record low
Posted by Grist: None Given on April 3rd, 2015
Grist: The previous record for low snowpack was the 25 percent of normal recorded this time last year, as well as in another period of record drought, from 1976-1977. California has been in the throes of a drought that is now in its fourth year, and that has been linked to climate change.
“So we’re not only setting a new low, we’re completely obliterating the previous record,” David Rizzardo, the chief of snow surveys for California’s Department of Water Resources, said during a teleconference held by...