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Archive for November, 2010
After eruption, ‘the trees are all dying’
Posted by Jakarta Post: Slamet Susanto on November 15th, 2010
Jakarta Post: Thick volcanic ash spewed by Mount Merapi has killed trees and created a virtual dead zone inside 20-kilometer danger zone surrounding the volcano. In Ngepos in Magelang, Central Java, volcanic ash continued to cover fallen trees along the village’s roads. Ash has also weakened the branches of thousands of coconut and salak pondoh (snake fruit) trees in the region, causing their fruits to decompose. More than 1,400 hectares of snake fruit plantations have been destroyed, according to reports....
Climate change worsens plight of Iraqi farmers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 15th, 2010
Reuters: Frequent dust storms and scarce rains are stifling Iraq’s efforts to revive a farming sector hit by decades of war, sanctions and isolation.
Wheat and rice production has suffered from a severe drought in the past two years, due in part to rising temperatures, along with a dearth of water in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
The UN Inter-Agency Information and Analysis Unit (IAU) says water levels in the two rivers -- Iraq's main water sources -- have dropped to less than a third of normal capacity....
United Kingdom: Record number of British beaches reach highest European standards
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 15th, 2010
Press Association: A record number of beaches and bathing spots in England and Wales reached the highest European standards for water quality this year, monitoring by the Environment Agency showed today.
Figures showed 86.2% of bathing waters met the higher "guideline" standards set down by the European Commission in 2010 – a rise from 80.2% last year and a huge increase from 1990 figures when less than a third of bathing sites made the grade.
Some 98% of beaches and inland swimming areas met the mandatory minimum...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on United Kingdom: Record number of British beaches reach highest European standardsChina’s ecological footprint continues to grow
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 15th, 2010
Agence France-Presse: The spread of consumerism among China's burgeoning middle class is behind the rapid growth of the Asian giant's environmental footprint, a conservation group said Monday.
Demand for construction, transport, goods and public services are the key factors behind ballooning carbon emissions, the World Wildlife Fund said in its annual "China Ecological Footprint" report.
"The growth in the carbon footprint is particularly associated with lifestyle changes in wealthier provinces," it said.
Carbon...
Q+A – Who’s winning the climate science vs sceptics battle?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 15th, 2010
Reuters: In the battle between climate change scientists and sceptics who question the connection between human activities and global warming, location matters.
While signs of a warming world has been truly global in 2010, from fast-melting Arctic ice to floods in Pakistan and fires in Russia, attitudes about whether this can be blamed on human-generated greenhouse gas emissions differ widely.
In China and the United States, the top two emitters of climate-warming carbon dioxide, residents aren't terribly...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Q+A – Who’s winning the climate science vs sceptics battle?China still living beyond its environmental means: WWF
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 15th, 2010
Reuters: China is living further and further beyond its environmental means as it tries to meet surging demand from its huge and increasingly urban population, a report by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) said.
The report said that overall changes in consumption patterns and the shift from rural to urban lifestyles were putting more pressure on China's already threadbare environment -- and the implications are global.
If the whole world consumed the same amount of resources as China did in 2007,...
Flood control planning awash in bureaucracy
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 14th, 2010
Bangkok Post: Flood control planning awash in bureaucracy
The first in a series of articles exploring the elusive long-term solutions for flood management in Thailand
With the country still drying out after this year's torrential rainfalls that left communities inundated in virtually every corner of the map, the various state agencies in charge of flood control are at odds on how to proceed. Each of these many agencies (see graphic) has its own regulations and mandates and each is eager to protect its own...
Climate change worsens plight of Iraqi farmers
Posted by Reuters: Khalid al-Ansary and Serena Chaudhry on November 14th, 2010
Reuters: Frequent dust storms and scarce rains are stifling Iraq's efforts to revive a farming sector hit by decades of war, sanctions and isolation.
Wheat and rice production has suffered from a severe drought in the past two years, due in part to rising temperatures, along with a dearth of water in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
The U.N. Inter-Agency Information and Analysis Unit (IAU) says water levels in the two rivers -- Iraq's main water sources -- have dropped to less than a third of normal...
Egypt: Sea level rise threatens Alexandria, Nile Delta
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 14th, 2010
Reuters: Twenty years ago, Taher Ibrahim raced his friends across Alexandria's beaches, now rising seas have swept over his favorite childhood playground.
Alexandria, with 4 million people, is Egypt's second-largest city, an industrial center and a port that handles four-fifths of national trade. It is also one of the Middle East's cities most at risk from rising sea levels due to global warming.
"There were beaches I used to go to in my lifetime, now those beaches are gone. Is that not proof enough?"...
Report predicts rising sea levels in lower Hudson Valley
Posted by PoughKeepsie Journal: None Given on November 14th, 2010
PoughKeepsie Journal: A new state environmental report predicts sea levels could rise more than four feet in some coastal areas of the state over the next 70 years, with dramatic implications for New York City, Long Island and the lower Hudson Valley.
The Hudson River is at sea level in New York City. Rising waters' effects will be felt far upstream, the report says.
"Sea level rise and coastal flooding from storm surges are already impacting and will increasingly affect New York's entire ocean and estuarine coastline...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Report predicts rising sea levels in lower Hudson Valley