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Archive for May 26th, 2011
Cereal farmers are praying for rain
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 26th, 2011
Guardian: Visitors shelter in a rain shower at the Chelsea Flower Show in London yesterday. While farmers experienced the driest spell since rainfall records began. Photograph: Luke Macgregor/Reuters
Records are tumbling across the east and south of the country for the driest spell since records began. Cambridge Botanical Gardens, for example, had the driest March (3mm) and April (1.7mm) since 1893, and had only recorded 3.5mm of rain in May until heavy showers yesterday. Cambridge's dire figures are typical...
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Is Climate Change Causing the Record-Breaking Tornadoes & Floods?
Posted by msnbc.com: None Given on May 26th, 2011
msnbc.com: Already this year, nearly 1,200 tornadoes have crisscrossed Tornado Alley, killing more than 500 people and leaving thousands more homeless. Meanwhile, twice as much rain fell in several states in the Ohio Valley this April than during any other April on record. It produced extreme floods in May, swelling the Mississippi River to a record depth of 60 feet.
Many people are wondering: Is climate change to blame for the extreme weather?
The tornadoes
Several studies have investigated the relationship...
Climate Change’s Role in the Flooding of the Mississippi –
Posted by Huffington Post: Rebecca Anderson on May 26th, 2011
Huffington Post: It seems like there's been a lot of crazy weather lately. Powerful tornadoes wreaking havoc across the Southeast, Texas in the worst drought in decades and now flooding along the Mississippi.
Global warming, right?
Um, actually, maybe so.
It's a standard first response whenever any climate scientist is asked if a particular weather event was caused by climate change: "You can't say any one storm happened because of climate change." And then they go on to talk about how climate change may...
Shareholders to Chevron: company showing ‘poor judgment’ in Ecuador oil spill case
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 26th, 2011
Mongabay: Shareholders to Chevron: company showing 'poor judgment' in Ecuador oil spill case
JAfter being found guilty in February of environmental harm and ordered to pay $8.6 billion in an Ecuador court of law, Chevron this week faced another trial: this time by shareholders in its Annual General Meeting in California. While Chevron has appealed the Ecuador case and a US court has put an injunction barring the enforcement of the ruling in the US, notable Chevron investors say the company has gone astray...
Re-engineering the Mississippi’s flood defences
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 26th, 2011
New Scientist: The levees and spillways have held back most of this year's floods "“ but how should they be adapted for an eroding coastline and a changing climate?
IT IS being called a spectacular success - but also a lost opportunity. With floodwaters rising to record levels along the Lower Mississippi river, the system of levees and spillways that protect the low-lying cities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans faced an unprecedented test.
In terms of protecting human life and preventing catastrophic property...
Tornadoes! Floods! Droughts! Scientists say it’s global warming
Posted by McClatchy: None Given on May 26th, 2011
McClatchy: The deadliest tornadoes in decades. Severe flooding on the Mississippi River. Drought in Texas, and heavy rains in Tennessee.
What's up with the weather?
Scientists say there are connections between many of the severe weather events of the past month and global warming.
"Basically, as we warm the world up, the atmosphere can hold more moisture in it," said Anne Jefferson, an assistant professor in the geography and Earth science department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte....
Global Food Production May Be Hurt as Climate Shifts, UN Forecaster Says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 26th, 2011
Bloomberg: Drought in China has affected 6.5 million hectares of farmland, the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said on its website on May 20. Global food output may be hurt as climate change brings more extreme weather over the next decade, with China likely set for harsher droughts and North America getting heavier rain, said the World Meteorological Organization.
“Extreme events will become more intense in the future, especially the heat waves and extreme precipitations,”...
Eastern India cools the risks from extreme heat
Posted by AlertNet: Manipadma Jena on May 26th, 2011
AlertNet: A boy cools off on a hot summer day in the waters of Dal Lake in Srinagar on May 19, 2011. As in most years since 1998, heat wave warnings have been issued for many parts of the east Indian state of Orissa. But the threat no longer disturbs 60-year old Rukuni Naik's rest.
The government of this Orissan city recently replaced Naik's mud and thatch home with one made of bricks and mortar. An electric connection and a ceiling fan are due to follow shortly.
"The municipality officer said there...
Global Food Output May Be Hurt as Climate Shifts, U.N. Warns
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 26th, 2011
Bloomberg: Global food output may be hurt as climate change brings more extreme weather over the next decade, with China likely set for harsher droughts and North America getting heavier rain, said the World Meteorological Organization.
"Extreme events will become more intense in the future, especially the heat waves and extreme precipitations,' Omar Baddour, a division chief at the United Nations' agency, said in a phone interview from Geneva. "That, combined with less rainfall in some regions like the...
Brazil does away with laws to protect large swathes of rainforest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 26th, 2011
Telegraph: The bill, which now goes to the Senate, was initially intended as a measure to rein in unfettered logging, and increase protections of Brazil's forested areas, which play an important role in reducing greenhouse gases.
But farm-based economic interests prevailed against environmentalists in reshaping the bill to ease restrictions that have been in place since 1965 and are credited with curbing deforestation.
"The Chamber of Deputies (on Tuesday) turned what was a forest protection law into...