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Archive for October 8th, 2010
Large-scale crop failures to increase under climate change, finds study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 8th, 2010
Asian News International: A new study has shown that large-scale crop failures like the one that caused the recent Russian wheat crisis are likely to become more common under climate change due to an increased frequency of extreme weather events. However, according to the research by the University of Leeds, the Met Office Hadley Centre and University of Exeter, improved farming and the development of new crops could mitigate the worst effects of these events on agriculture. The unpredictability of the ...
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An ‘Every Village,’ Awash in Misery
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 8th, 2010
NYT: Often the damaging environmental effects of industry don't feel real to faraway consumers. The carbon dioxide that spews into the air from power plants is invisible even to those who are close at hand. When the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster began last spring, few could see the impact a mile under water, conveyed only belatedly by cameras when BP decided to release the footage. But in an otherwise obscure corner of southern Hungary, polluting caustic red mud literally flooded ...
PERU: Jungle Residents Weigh Mega-Dam’s Promises and Pitfalls
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 8th, 2010
Inter Press Service: In southeastern Peru, a message is circulating that has left some dubious, and others hopeful: "The Inambari hydroelectric dam will end illegal mining and coca crops, and bring development and jobs." It is a polarised scenario. Some of the residents from the Puno region are planning a march to protest against the hydroelectric dam to be built in their community with Brazilian investment. "They lie to us. We don't want to lose our jungle," said Olga Cutipa, president of the Río ...
Anger in Hungary, fear downstream as toxic contamination spreads
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 8th, 2010
Independent: The Red Tide reached the Blue Danube yesterday, when the flood of crimson toxic sludge from a Hungarian industrial accident began contaminating Europe's second-longest river. Amid fears of a large-scale international pollution disaster, officials of several countries through which the Danube flows downstream of the pollution entry point, including Croatia, Serbia and Romania, were testing the river every few hours last night, while in Hungary itself emergency crews were trying to ...
Australian farmers to lose water to restore rivers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 8th, 2010
Reuters: Farmers would lose more than a third of irrigation water in Australia's major food bowl, the Murray-Darling, under a plan released on Friday to restore ailing rivers, posing a new headache for the Labor minority government. The move could see the value of cotton production cut by 25 percent, and farmers and irrigators have warned of farm closures, massive job losses and higher food prices if the plan by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority is adopted by the ...