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Archive for January 20th, 2011
The great water heist
Posted by Climate Central: Brendon Bosworth on January 20th, 2011
Climate Central: This snowman, comprised of clean snow, will melt much slower than one speckled with dust. Rust-colored dust blown toward the Colorado River Basin has been causing snow in the region to melt much earlier than it did in the 1850s. Credit: brettski/flickr
Picture two snowmen standing side by side beneath a spring sun. One is pristine white, the other has been coated with rusty brown dust. As the day wears on, a pool of water collects beneath the dusty snowman. He will dissolve long before the untarnished...
Posted in 
2010 hit by weather extremes: Pakistan to Russia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 20th, 2011
Reuters: Last year, in which extreme weather caused devastating floods in Pakistan and China and a heatwave in Russia, ranked number two or was tied for the warmest on record, according to agencies measuring world temperatures. The U.N. panel of climate change experts says that weather is likely to get more extreme in the 21st century, affecting everything from food to water supplies, because of a build-up of heat-trapping gases from human use of fossil fuels. Data from the British Met Office and the University...
Food Appeal for Sri Lankan Flood Victims
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 20th, 2011
New York Times: Record monsoon rains driven by an unusually strong La Niña weather pattern in the Pacific have caused devastating floods in Sri Lanka, killing dozens and driving more than 300,000 people from their homes in recent weeks, the United Nations said in an urgent appeal for relief funds on Wednesday.
Sri Lanka`s agriculture ministry reports that 21 percent of the country`s rice crop has been destroyed, raising fears of food shortages.
The floods are the worst natural disaster to hit the Sri Lanka...
There’s high ground to spare in the great deluge about climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 20th, 2011
Australian: Email Share Add to Digg Add to del.icio.us Add to Facebook Add to Kwoff Add to Myspace Add to Newsvine What are these?
KNOW-it-alls acknowledge the unknowable only to then claim to know it all.
Elizabeth Farrelly's comforting words for flood victims in yesterday's The Sydney Morning Herald:
BUT although causality is ultimately unknowable, the near certainty is that these cataclysms are, in both frequency and magnitude, anthropogenic. As Gaia's warning they offer the profoundest reason for...
United Kingdom: Flood defence spending: Where are the gaps?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 20th, 2011
Guardian: Once more unto the breach, dear friends, that is the government's cuts to flood and coastal defence spending. I need your help to reveal the impact the cuts will have on new defences because, as it stands, just weeks from the new financial year, no-one knows.
Below, I'll relate the farcical example of the funding for the proposed coastal defences in Felixstowe town and how the Prime Minister, David Cameron, appears to be more worried by flooding abroad than at home. But first let's consider the...
Green group accuses Apple of lax supplier oversight
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 20th, 2011
Reuters: iPhone maker Apple was criticized by Chinese green groups for lax corporate oversight of its suppliers in China, leading to poor environmental and work safety standards that poisoned dozens of factory workers. Apple, which announced blockbuster profits and a dazzling outlook for iPhone and iPad sales earlier this week, continues to be dogged by accusations of aggressive pricing and secretive supply chain management in Chinese factories where they now assemble most of their products. "We've found...
Apple targeted over China production standards
Posted by Agence France-Presse: Joan Feng on January 20th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: Chinese environmental groups on Thursday singled out Apple for failing to tackle concerns over pollution and the health of workers at plants making parts for trendy gadgets such as its iPhone.
In a new report, the groups said the US giant ranked last in a survey of how 29 multinational technology companies respond to inquiries about pollution and workplace health hazards at factories in their supply chain in China.
The study reflects over a year's work by more than 30 Chinese environmental...
Climate change could boost crops in US, China
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 20th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: A global population explosion combined with the steady effects of climate change are forecast to create a worldwide food shortage in the next 10 years, but the news is not all bad for some countries.
The United States, China, Ethiopia and parts of northern Europe are among the select few expected to be able to grow more crops as a result of changes in temperature and rainfall, according to a study released Tuesday.
However, those gains will not be enough to stave off an increase in world starvation...
State Planning Policy: incorporating climate change into flood estimates
Posted by Mondaq: Michael Walton and Nicole Whitby on January 20th, 2011
Mondaq: Introduction
Queensland is currently experiencing one of the wettest summers on record which, at the time of writing, shows no sign of relenting as the Bureau of Meteorology continues to issue flood warnings for heavy rain and flash flooding over much of northern and eastern Queensland.1
It is timely that the State government have sought to update State Planning Policy 1/03: Mitigating the Adverse Impacts of Flood, Bushfire and Landslide (the policy) and provide practical guidance...
Australia: QLD floods: don’t mention climate change (or the number of ‘tiny’ emissions from coal)
Posted by Crikey: None Given on January 20th, 2011
Crikey: Journalist Graham Readfearn writes: As the floods in Queensland and Victoria gushed through homes, businesses and streets leaving tragedy behind, all of that murky water and grime sent moral compasses and other measures of taste and decency spinning and cavorting in all directions.
What outrages you, or anyone else, depends on which way your moral, political or ideological compass tends to point. Talking about building dams or the role of climate change while people are suffering could enrage...