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Archive for May 5th, 2011
Climate Change Hinders Crop Yields, Study Finds
Posted by New York Times: 5/5/2011 3:21:22 Pm on May 5th, 2011
New York Times: Global warming is already cutting substantially into potential crop yields in some countries -- to such an extent that it may be a factor in the food price increases that have caused worldwide stress in recent years, researchers suggest in a new study.
Wheat yields in recent years were down by more than 10 percent in Russia and by a few percentage points each in India, France and China compared with what they probably would have been without rising temperatures, according to the study.
Corn...
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Shrinking Britain will force land to be abandoned to the sea
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2011
Guardian: Sizewell nuclear power station sits on the Suffolk coast, April 5, 2006. Photograph: Graham Barclay/Getty Images
Geologists take the long view, which can lead to some striking thoughts, and here is one: Britain is shrinking. As the waves crash onto the shores of this island, the rock is worn away or falls off in chunks, and, as the adage goes, they are not making land any more in Britain.
I spoke to Prof Rob Duck, at Dundee University, whose new book is called This Shrinking Land: Climate Change...
Heathland fires rage on across Britain
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2011
Independent: Hundreds of firefighters are continuing to battle heathland fires which have been burning in locations across the UK for several days.
Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service is still tackling heathland fires which broke out in the Swinley Forest area earlier in the week, while in Lancashire, crews continue to battle blazes in the West Pennine Moors.
Police investigating the Swinley Forest fire have arrested two youths on suspicion of arson.
A Thames Valley Police spokesman said they were...
Prince Charles urges US not to overtax Mother Nature
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2011
AFP: Prince Charles warned Wednesday at a US conference debating the future of food that unsustainable farming methods are overtaxing nature and pushing the global food system into crisis.
"In some cases, we are pushing Nature's life-support systems so far they are struggling to cope with what we ask of them," the heir to the British throne, who is a long-time advocate for sustainable food production, told some 700 people packed into a meeting hall at Georgetown University.
"Soils are being depleted,...
Green energy can wean off subsidies, gradually
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2011
Reuters: Government support for renewable energy must end gradually and in tandem with cuts in fossil fuel subsidies, say investors and lobbyists who complain bitterly about unpredictable chopping of incentives.
Most green energy sources still struggle to compete with fossil fuels except in favorable areas, for example for onshore wind in coastal areas of western Europe or in Texas.
Supporters accept low-carbon incentives will come to an end in line with the falling costs of green technologies, but...
Arctic warming could raise oceans 5 feet
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2011
United Press International: Arctic warming, occurring twice as fast as the global average, could raise sea levels more than 5 feet in 90 years, an official multinational study forecast.
The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program forecast -- for the international Arctic Council of eight arctic rim countries, including the United States -- predicted sea levels would rise 2.75 times more than the top figure of the landmark 2007 U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which forecast of 7 to 23 inches by the end of...
Report: Global warming hurting crop production, pushing prices higher
Posted by Washington Post: Brian Vastag and Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2011
Washington Post: Three decades of global warming crimped worldwide yields of corn by about 5.5 percent and wheat by about 3.8 percent compared with what would have been produced had world temperatures remained stable, the report says.
A burgeoning global population also needs more crops -- and more grain-fed beef -- which contributes to rising food prices much more than climate change, Lobell said. This week, the United Nations also projected that the global population will hit 7 billion in...
Skin-Deep Gains For Amazon Tribe
Posted by Wall Street Journal: JOHN LYONS on May 5th, 2011
Wall Street Journal: In a remote Amazon village a full day by canoe from the nearest road in western Brazil, Yawanawá Indians in grass skirts gather around a pile of urukum, a spiky fruit they use to make body paint, and pose for two photographers from the U.S. beauty firm Aveda.
The images will help Aveda, a unit of Estée Lauder, sell its popular Uruku line of lipsticks, eye shadows and facial bronzers that use the plant as coloring. The company can charge a premium for products that look good and, at the same time,...