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Archive for February, 2010
Tajikistan risks calamity over climate change: Oxfam
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: Tajikistan faces potentially calamitous food and water shortages unless action is taken to mitigate the effects of climate change, including rapidly retreating glaciers, Oxfam warned on Wednesday. The British charity said the Central Asian country's glaciers in the Pamir Mountains are in retreat and one and a half million people were already suffering food insecurity after years of drought. "Entire swathes of the rural population of Tajikistan have already suffered greatly in ...
EU study plumps for cap & trade in ship carbon
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
Carbon Positive: Imposing an emissions cap and trade scheme is the best option for curbing carbon emissions from shipping in EU waters, a report for the European Commission has found. CE Delft's study "Technical support for European action to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from international maritime transport" was commissioned to give direction to EU plans to act on maritime emissions in the absence of any global moves. The lack of any outcome at the UN's Copenhagen climate conference in December has ...
Tajikistan threatened by climate change, says Oxfam
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
BBC: Tajikistan has done little to contribute to climate change, but is among the countries most adversely affected by it, the charity Oxfam says. Extreme weather conditions and melting glaciers pose a great threat to its food security and social stability. Its government recognises the threats but lacks the money and infrastructure to cope with such an overwhelming phenomenon, Oxfam's report adds. It is based on interviews conducted last autumn with ordinary ...
Tajikistan facing water shortages and climate extremes, report warns
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
Guardian: It has been occupied by the Russians, the Mongols, the Turks, the Arabs and the Uzbeks, the Chinese, as well as Genghis Khan. But the ancient, mountainous state of Tajikistan, which has been at the crossroads of Asian civilisations for over a thousand years, is in danger of being overwhelmed by water shortages, rising temperatures and climate extremes. A report released today by Oxfam details fast-rising temperatures, melting glaciers in the Pamir mountains, increased disease, ...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Tajikistan facing water shortages and climate extremes, report warnsYemen’s water crisis eclipses al Qaeda threat
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 17th, 2010
Reuters: Yemeni water trader Mohammed al-Tawwa runs his diesel pumps day and night, but gets less and less from his well in Sanaa, which experts say could become the world's first capital city to run dry. "My well is now 400 meters (1,300 feet) deep and I don't think I can drill any deeper here," said Tawwa, pointing to the meager flow into tanks that supply water trucks and companies. From dawn, dozens of people with yellow jerricans collect water from a special canister Tawwa has set ...
Decrease in fog threatens California’s s sequoias: study
Posted by Water Conserve: Water Conservation RSS Newsfeed on February 16th, 2010
Independent (UK): California's coastal fog has decreased significantly over the past 100 years, potentially endangering coast redwood trees dependent on cool, humid summers, according to a new study made public Monday. The study by University of California, Berkeley, scientists said it was unclear whether this phenomenon was part of a natural cycle or the result of human activity. But it warned the change could affect not only the redwoods, but the entire redwood ecosystem. "Since 1901, ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Decrease in fog threatens California’s s sequoias: studyBeyond the corn field: Balancing fuel, food and biodiversity
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2010
ScienceDaily: The development of alternative fuel will greatly benefit the U.S., say scientists in an Energy Foundation-funded report published February 16 by the Ecological Society of America (ESA), the nation's largest organization of ecological scientists. However, in order to effectively reap the social and economic benefits of biofuel production, U.S. policies need to address potential effects of land-use choices on our ecosystems. In the report, scientists Virginia Dale, Keith Kline, John ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Beyond the corn field: Balancing fuel, food and biodiversityGreenland: Fjords Contribute to Melting of Glaciers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2010
New York Times: Greenland`s glaciers are melting faster than they used to, contributing to the rise of sea levels worldwide. While warmer atmospheric temperatures thin all the glaciers from above, scientists have wondered if warmer waters are also melting the many glaciers that flow into the fjords. Two studies published in Nature Geoscience provide evidence that this is the case. In one study, Fiammetta Straneo of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and colleagues looked at water ...
Planting New Seeds for the Take-Off
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2010
Inter Press Service: A salty, crunchy salad herb known to gourmands as samphire could revolutionise agriculture in the Middle East by providing food, fodder and fuel without using a single drop of freshwater. Salicornia, a succulent plant that can grow in either fresh or salt water, has traditionally been seen as a source of food. However, with rising energy prices and increasing concern over global warming, the halophyte (salt- tolerant plant) is now prized for its other properties. According to ...
Kenya to tap Rift Valley’s geothermal gold mine
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 16th, 2010
Business Green: Long-standing plans to establish Kenya's Rift Valley as one of the world's largest providers of geothermal energy received a major boost last week, with the news of an ambitious plan by national utility giant the Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen). The $1.3bn (£830m) project, to develop 280MW of geothermal power by 2013, is expected to be backed by the World Bank and will more than double KenGen's geothermal capacity. The company told Reuters that the "scope of the ...