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Archive for October 16th, 2010
Bangladesh: Lowest rainfall in last 15 years
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 16th, 2010
New Nation: The country this year witnessed the lowest rainfall in past 15 years with experts attributing the phenomenon to the global climatic change. Meteorologists said they recorded 47,447milimetres rainfall in June, July, August and September this year compared to 56,163 in the same period of the last year, 60,551 in 2008 while the quantum was 66,520 millimeter in 2007. "Less active monsoon this year is main reason for less rainfall during the four months, considered as monsoon," ...
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Chile Measures Its “Water Footprints”
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 16th, 2010
Inter Press Service: How many litres of water are needed to produce one kilogram of table grapes? The current effort to measure the "water footprint" of this and other Chilean exports could give us some answers by year's end. The water footprint is the total volume of freshwater used in the production of goods and services. It can be calculated for a specific product, an individual company or an entire country. This footprint, say experts, is an indicator of both potential and limits. "Perhaps the ...
Climate changes, and there goes the neighborhood
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 16th, 2010
ScienceNews: Rattlesnakes and voles could be facing real estate meltdowns of their own, as climate change forecloses habitats or shifts livable conditions into new regions at speeds as much as a thousand times faster than prehistoric averages. Even if global average temperatures increase by only 1.1 degrees Celsius by 2100, a level of warming considered virtually inevitable by climate scientists, 11 species of rattlesnakes across North America will have to cope with their ranges dislocating by 430 ...
Botswana: Okavango’s resurgent floods test disaster management
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 16th, 2010
Inter Press Service: Despite early warnings about higher-than-usual flooding of the Okavango Delta in 2010, homes, fields, latrines and boreholes in the delta were flooded. Beginning in May, gradually rising waters destroyed crops, disrupted the water supply and sanitation facilities, threatening public health with increased incidence of malaria and diarrhoea. The flooding marks a return to high water levels last seen thirty or forty years ago, and even with advance notice, local government's ...
Mekong thirst hard to quench
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 16th, 2010
Thanh Nien: Farmers and fishermen in the Mekong Delta have been hit hard by a poor rainy season – the river has sunk to a record low. Experts worry that these problems are the early symptoms of a coming crisis - one spurred by unsustainable development and climate change. The Asian Development Bank is holding a conference this week to discuss a dwindling fresh water supply on the continent and possible solutions to the potential crisis. Vietnamese scientists estimated that the ...
Plant scientists fight hunger through genetics
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 16th, 2010
Voice of America: The United Nations is observing World Food Day (Saturday, Oct. 16). Food prices have been climbing in recent months because of bad weather in several major agricultural regions. Experts predict there will be more extreme weather as climate changes, jeopardizing food supplies around the world. And that's in addition to the constant threats of pests, weeds, and disease. But scientists think they have a way to feed the ever growing human population. In a greenhouse here at the University ...
More toxic threats to eastern Europe
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 16th, 2010
Guardian: You contend that "stiffer European regulations and standards governing mining safety, industrial plant licensing and pollution are in force" in the former communist bloc countries and now members of the EU (Report, 13 October), yet since last week's Hungarian sludge disaster the offending company has been pumping out defensive statements that the red mud does not qualify as toxic material under EU regulations. And this is true – while, prior to its joining the EU in 2004, Hungary had ...
E.P.A. to Revoke Mining Permit
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 16th, 2010
New York Times: A top federal regulator has recommended revoking the permit for one of the nation's largest planned mountaintop removal mining projects, saying it would be devastating to miles of West Virginia streams and the plant and animal life they support. In a report submitted last month and made public on Friday, Shawn M. Garvin, the Environmental Protection Agency's regional administrator for the Mid-Atlantic, said that Arch Coal's proposed Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County should be stopped ...