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Archive for May 22nd, 2015
It’s official: California farmers volunteer to give up water
Posted by Grist: None Given on May 22nd, 2015
Grist: California`s drought has touched everyone in the state. First the government eliminated irrigation water deliveries through much of the public canal system. Then the governor told cities and industry to cut back water use by 25 percent. Now the state is taking a step it hasn`t resorted to since 1977: It`s claiming water from people with old riparian water rights. These are people who have been drawing water from rivers since the Gold Rush era, and who are generally immune to cuts. But in the most...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on It’s official: California farmers volunteer to give up waterClimate Change Is Killing Agriculture As We Know It
Posted by Gothamist: None Given on May 22nd, 2015
Gothamist: If we don't drown or suffocate first, it's a very real possibility that life on earth will starve to death as climate change ravages planet Earth. Though it serves as the background story for Christopher Nolan's film Interstellar, the agricultural implications of climate change haven't been the face of the planetary event--polar bears are much cuter, of course--but a new documentary film from Academy Award-winning director Sandy McLeod aims to change that, bringing the human toll of drought and crop...
Why Sacred Places Matter
Posted by Earth Island: Christopher McLeod on May 22nd, 2015
Earth Island: In the last month, Native Hawaiians blockaded construction machinery headed for the top of sacred Mauna Kea, where a 30-meter telescope is to be built. Thirty-one people were arrested. In Arizona, members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe walked 45 miles to Oak Flats and occupied a ceremonial initiation site that the US Congress has handed over to a London-based mining company for a copper mine. In California, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe continues their fierce opposition to government plans to raise the...
Why Sacred Places Matter
Posted by Earth Island: None Given on May 22nd, 2015
Earth Island: In the last month, Native Hawaiians blockaded construction machinery headed for the top of sacred Mauna Kea, where a 30-meter telescope is to be built. Thirty-one people were arrested. In Arizona, members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe walked 45 miles to Oak Flats and occupied a ceremonial initiation site that the US Congress has handed over to a London-based mining company for a copper mine. In California, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe continues their fierce opposition to government plans to raise the...
Climate change blamed for severe drought hitting Vietnam coffee crops
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 22nd, 2015
Guardian: The last time Nguyen Van Viet saw water in his well was almost four months ago. The 44-year-old has farmed coffee in central Vietnam for two decades and says that’s never happened before.
“This is the worst drought I’ve seen in over a decade,” Viet, told the Guardian. “Some people don’t have enough water to drink.”
For Viet and millions of other coffee farmers, this season has been disastrous. A prolonged drought has affected all five provinces in Vietnam’s Central Highlands – a region that...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate change blamed for severe drought hitting Vietnam coffee cropsCalifornia drought may benefit Oregon
Posted by Public Radio: None Given on May 22nd, 2015
Public Radio: The agriculture industry in California is in the midst of its worst drought in decades and that may inadvertently be having a positive impact on Oregon. It's caused some growers to look north. One Oregon crop that is being affected is hazelnuts, which are drawing record sales and prices.
It takes a gallon of water--usually diverted from a river or aquifer--to grow a single California almond. But Oregon hazelnuts (sound of rain) get their water from the sky. 99-percent of the U.S. hazelnut crop...
California drought making spring allergy season worse
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 22nd, 2015
CBS: Millions of Americans are suffering through a miserable allergy season, and on the West Coast, the ongoing drought is making things even worse. Los Angeles native Lesley Holmes says she's been having more trouble than usual with her chronic allergies to pollen, pets and pollution. Her symptoms improve when she travels, but then return with a vengeance when she gets back home. "This year, it's been a lot worse, to where it's really affecting my daily life," she told CBS News. "It's stressful, you...
Antarctic glaciers thinning so fast, it’s like a switch was flipped
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 22nd, 2015
Christian Science Monitor: A new study has recorded a sudden and rapid thinning of once-stable glaciers along the southern Antarctic Peninsula, demonstrating that significant changes in glacier mass can occur surprisingly quickly as ocean and air temperatures rise.
The findings support what researchers have been seeing in other parts of Antarctica, with scientists warning last year that four key glaciers on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appear to be on the verge of wholesale retreat with nothing to stop them.
The new...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Antarctic glaciers thinning so fast, it’s like a switch was flippedCrews work to assess, control Santa Barbara-area oil spill
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 22nd, 2015
LA Times: Efforts to clean the crude-stained Santa Barbara coastline ramped up Thursday as scientists, government officials and workers tried to get a handle on the size, extent and environmental impact of Tuesday's oil spill.
Officials responding to the spill, which sent an estimated 21,000 gallons of oil into the water near Refugio State Beach, asked for patience as the massive cleanup effort turned into a 24-hour operation with some 300 workers and 18 boats.
Investigators were still working Thursday...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Crews work to assess, control Santa Barbara-area oil spillNovelists, Directors Respond as ‘Water Wars’ Loom
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 22nd, 2015
Inter Press Service: Item: In a recent blog post at the New Yorker magazine, staff writer Dana Goodyear surveys the current drought impacting California and writes: “It’s hard to escape the feeling we are living a cli-fi novel’s Chapter One.” Item: Edward L. Rubin, a professor at Vanderbilt University Law School in Nashville, surveys the ongoing California drought in an oped at Salon magazine, writing: “As the California drought enters its fourth year, it is threatening to strangle the splendid irrigation system that...