Archive for August 10th, 2010

Colombia coffee growers wary of rains, eye H2 target

Reuters: Colombia's main coffee harvest may produce 6 million 60-kg bags in the second half of 2010 but the intensity of rains will determine if it meets the target, coffee officials from three states said on Tuesday. The world's largest producer of high quality Arabica beans saw a dramatic fall in production to three-decade lows last year due to a drought and a tree renovation program, but bean players expect a recovery in 2010 to 10 million bags. Coffee producers are confident that ...

Dry B.C. summer puts fish stocks in jeopardy, government warns

Globe and Mail: British Columbia's dry summer is creating alarmingly low river levels throughout the province, a problem that could endanger fish populations in some regions, the provincial government warned Tuesday. The Ministry of Environment is encouraging British Columbians to conserve water and create drought-management plans to mitigate the record low water levels in streams across B.C. According to its website, the Peace, Liard and Skeena regions have been classified as Drought Level 3, ...

United Kingdom: Scottish gold mine in doubt

Guardian: Plans to mine more than £110m worth of gold in the Scottish Highlands have hit a serious setback after planners at Loch Lomond national park today said the application should be refused. With gold prices soaring, the mining company Scotgold wants to dig out 700kg of gold and 17 tonnes of silver a year over the next decade from an unworked mine called Cononish, which sits near Tyndrum, just inside the north-eastern boundary of the national park. The proposal has been ...

The Challenge of Traveling the Congo River

New York Times: The Congo River is a place of superlatives. It is the world's second-largest river basin (only the Amazon is bigger), draining an area the size of Europe. It is so immense that its source waters in the highlands of eastern Africa take more than six months to exit into the Atlantic Ocean. In his classic novella "Heart of Darkness," Joseph Conrad`s protagonist, Marlow, describes the river as an immense snake, "uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast ...

Recycling Land for Green Energy Ideas

New York Times: Thousands of acres of farmland here in the San Joaquin Valley have been removed from agricultural production, largely because the once fertile land is contaminated by salt buildup from years of irrigation. But large swaths of those dry fields could have a valuable new use in their future – making electricity. Farmers and officials at Westlands Water District, a public agency that supplies water to farms in the valley, have agreed to provide land for what would be one of the ...

Wildfire Pictures: Russia Burns, Moscow Chokes

National Geographic: About 111 miles (180 kilometers) southeast of Moscow, locals try to extinguish a forest fire near the village of Dolginino, Russia, last Wednesday. As of Tuesday, professional firefighters were combating 557 wildfires over a 670-square-mile (1,740-square-kilometer), Russia's Emergencies Ministry said, according to Reuters. The fires are stoked by an ongoing drought and the worst heat wave in Russian memory. Around Moscow, choked with fire-related smog, temperatures have hovered ...

Another symbol of the Arctic’s complex ecosystem finds itself on thin ice

ClimateWire: For generations, Yupik and Inupiat hunters have depended on the Pacific walrus. They ate the walrus' meat and whittled its bones into tools. Walrus skin covered their boats, and walrus intestines, stitched into raincoats, covered their backs. Today, the walrus is still an important part of the subsistence diet in villages along Alaska's Chukchi and Bering sea coasts, and Native Alaskans sell handcrafts made from walrus ivory. But as the Arctic warms, the landscape upon which both ...

Hampton Court mixed-use development: Flood plain under threat

Guardian: Name of project Hampton Court mixed-use development Describe the site currently, including details of protected or threatened habitat or species About 80% of the site is within the Thames flood plain. A previously undeveloped site opposite Hampton Court Palace. What development is proposed? A hotel, flats, a residential care home, an office building and an underground car park (on two levels) are proposed. The development includes and underground car ...

Climate Change Could Mean More Sewage In Great Lakes

Interlochen Public Radio: Climate change will exacerbate problems with raw sewage flowing into the Great Lakes, according to a new report written by the Healing Our Waters Great Lakes Coalition. An increase in heavy downpours of rain would cause overflows of sewage systems, the group says. "What we're doing today is we're calling on Congress to turn the tide on wastewater pollution by investing $2.7 billion dollars to create jobs, protect public health, restore the Great Lakes, uphold our quality of life, and ...

Russia: Amid heat and smoke, deaths double in Moscow

New York Times: The daily mortality rate here has nearly doubled in recent days, the city's chief health official said Monday, singling out the heat as the primary factor and not the culprit most people here suspected: the choking cloud of wildfire smoke. The acknowledgment at once confirmed a flurry of rumors that bodies were beginning to pile up in morgues and gave rise to a new one in which the authorities, possibly trying to ward off a panicked exodus, were engaging in a Soviet-style whitewash ...