RSS Feed
Archive for December, 2015
California snowpack exceeds average for first time in years
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 24th, 2015
LA Times: A series of powerful snowstorms in the Sierra Nevada has resulted in a small milestone in drought-stricken California: The snowpack is now higher than average for this time of year.
The storms, which are likely to continue into Friday, have fattened the mountain snowpack to levels California hasn't seen for two years, said Steve Nemeth, water supply forecaster for the state Department of Water Resources.
The announcement was welcome news to a state that has struggled with extremely dry conditions...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on California snowpack exceeds average for first time in yearsAs Climate Change Imperils Winter, the Ski Industry Frets
Posted by InsideClimate: Katherine Bagley on December 24th, 2015
InsideClimate: The typical scene at New England ski resorts over Christmas vacation--madhouses filled with students as young as 2 or 3 packing onto bunny hills while parents head to higher elevations for their first runs of the season--has been replaced by a sobering reminder that climate change is already taking a bite out of winter.
Most mountains in the northeast this December are covered in brown, not white. Killington Ski Resort in central Vermont has 24 of its 155 trails open. Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on As Climate Change Imperils Winter, the Ski Industry FretsChina waste site firm ‘urged stop work’ days before landslide
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 24th, 2015
Reuters: The firm managing a waste heap which collapsed and buried dozens of buildings in southern China was urged to stop work four days before the disaster, an executive with a government-appointed monitoring agency said on Thursday, citing safety concerns.
Two people died and more than 70 people were missing after Sunday's landslide at an industrial park in Shenzhen, a boomtown near Hong Kong, in China's latest industrial disaster. A man was pulled out alive from the rubble on Wednesday.
The man-made...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on China waste site firm ‘urged stop work’ days before landslideMalnutrition a Silent Emergency Papua New Guinea
Posted by Inter Press Service: Catherine Wilson on December 24th, 2015
Inter Press Service: High up in the mountainous interior of Papua New Guinea (PNG), the most populous Pacific Island state of 7.3 million people, rural lives are marked by strenuous work toiling land in rugged terrain with low access to basic services.
While more than 80 per cent of people are engaged in subsistence agriculture and village food gardens are visible across the landscape, widespread malnutrition, especially in children, is stubbornly evident.
Last year this under-reported health issue, which contributes...
Brazil’s government charged with ethnocide in building of Amazon dam
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on December 24th, 2015
Mongabay: Brazil’s Public Federal Ministry (Ministério Público Federal, MPF), an independent state body, has started legal proceedings to have it recognised that the crime of “ethnocide” was committed on seven indigenous groups due to the severe detrimental impacts on their lives made by the building of the giant Belo Monte hydroelectric power station that will soon begin operating on the Xingu River in eastern Amazonia. The charges have been made against Brazil’s federal government and Norte Energia, the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Brazil’s government charged with ethnocide in building of Amazon damHow will Midwest farmers prepare for the impact of climate change?
Posted by Grist: Kate Yoder on December 23rd, 2015
Grist: You can bet the farm that climate change is happening — and that it will change the way we approach agriculture. For example, here’s the climate science forecast for Illinois 20 to 40 years from now: temperatures akin to today’s mid-South and rainfall patterns comparable to present-day East Texas. That may sound OK to you right now — all bundled up in blankets in the middle of winter — but you might feel differently when the summers start getting toastier. And according to a study recently published...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on How will Midwest farmers prepare for the impact of climate change?Congress agrees on microbeads ban. Wait, what?
Posted by Grist: Suzanne Jacobs on December 23rd, 2015
Grist: Here`s how environmental news stories usually play out: Corporations do something bad to the environment, and people say, "Hey, stop that!" But they don`t stop because they are making boatloads of money doing it, so people go to the government and say, "Hey, can you make them stop that?" But the government doesn`t do anything because it`s in the pocket of some big company. Or maybe it does do something, but it takes forever because it`s so busy arguing with itself, ignoring crumbling infrastructure,...
Puerto Rico, U.S. settle storm water issues
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 23rd, 2015
Reuters: Puerto Rico will spend $77 million to upgrade its water infrastructure in a settlement with the federal government, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Wednesday. Three of the U.S. territorial island's agencies reached the settlement affecting storm water systems in San Juan that are currently releasing, daily, an estimated 6 million gallons of untreated sewage into waterways in and around San Juan in violation of the Clean Water Act. "These structural and operational improvements to the...
EU doubles aid to drought-hit Papua New Guinea to tackle food, water shortages
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 23rd, 2015
Reuters: An El Niño-related drought and frost have triggered severe food and water shortages in Papua New Guinea's highlands, prompting the European Commission to more than double its assistance to the Pacific island nation. The warming of the Pacific Ocean due to the El Nino weather system is causing drought and other extreme weather, affecting millions of people across parts of the world. Prime Minister Peter O'Neill in August said El Niño may bring on the worst drought in 20 years in Papua New Guinea,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on EU doubles aid to drought-hit Papua New Guinea to tackle food, water shortagesSouthern Africa faces food shortages as El Nino drought worsens: FAO
Posted by Reuters: Ed Stoddard on December 23rd, 2015
Reuters: Southern Africa faces food shortages as drought, exacerbated by the El Nino weather pattern, delays planting and stunts crops across the region, the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has said in an alert. "The presence of a strong El Nino episode in 2015/16 raises serious concerns regarding the impact on food insecurity," the FAO said in the alert, issued late on Tuesday. Regional harvests last season were also badly affected by drought conditions, raising the specter of back-to-back...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Southern Africa faces food shortages as El Nino drought worsens: FAO