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Archive for May, 2011
Brazil forest law again under fire
Posted by WWF: Luiz Fernandes on May 16th, 2011
WWF: On Wednesday, WWF-Brazil set up a huge inflatable model of a domestic water filter surrounded by banners calling for changes in the proposed amendment to the Forest Law and bearing slogans like “Taking care of forests means good water for town and country alike”. The action was designed to warn Brazilian society about the importance of the areas of permanent preservation and legal reserve for the conservation of biodiversity and water resources, both of which are of fundamental importance to agricultural...
Mississippi floods threaten New Orleans
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 15th, 2011
Guardian: Mississippi floodgate is opened to try and protect New Orleans. Residents in swampy areas of Louisiana's Cajun country are waiting for the rising waters of the Mississippi to engulf their homes, after army engineers opened a key floodgate in an attempt to save New Orleans from the river's worst flooding since 1927.
Units of the US Army Corps of Engineers opened up the first gate on a structure known as the Morganza spillway, sending about 10,000 cubic feet of water per second into the Atchafalaya...
Liberia hopes to revive greener logging industry
Posted by Reuters: Alphonso Toweh on May 15th, 2011
Reuters: Forested nations used to fear tough rules on logging would hurt their valuable timber industries, but for Liberia they could be a way of reviving its sector -- by giving it privileged access to European markets.
From 2012, any country that wants to export wood to the European Union will have to be able to prove it was not logged illegally, a regulation that has spurred a spate of deals with timber producing nations to better police their forests.
The latest to enter into such so-called Voluntary...
Climate change is a major challenge faced by rain-fed areas
Posted by Hindu: None Given on May 15th, 2011
Hindu: B. Venkateswaralu, Director, Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, speaking at a workshop in Coimbatore on Saturday.
Climate change is a major challenge faced by rainfed areas through long spells of drought and followed by heavy rains causing floods, according to the Director of Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), B. Venkateswaralu.
Speaking at the two-day national workshop on "Dryland Development and Maximising Crop Productivity" at Tamil Nadu Agricultural...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Climate change is a major challenge faced by rain-fed areasClimate Change Affects Animal Distribution
Posted by Earthtimes: None Given on May 15th, 2011
Earthtimes: A report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences claims that 200 million years ago, mammals and reptiles lived in separate habitats on the supercontinent known as Pangaea, largely due to rainfall distribution.
With few land barriers such as mountains, Pangaea was a huge land mass that allowed animals the freedom to roam wherever they choose. However, a team of scientists at Brown University have established that early mammals confined themselves to one area of the continent while...
Ministers call emergency summit as drought looms
Posted by Independent: Matt Chorley and Tom Moseley on May 14th, 2011
Independent: Ministers are to hold an emergency drought summit in an attempt to avert a crisis caused by one of the driest springs on record.
A battle plan will be devised tomorrow, as Britain faces the prospect of hosepipe bans, food price rises and more forest fires sweeping the country. April had just 24 per cent of the average rainfall for the month, while several areas experienced the driest March for nearly 50 years.
Firefighters have already been working "to the point of exhaustion" to tackle forest...
Old levee breaches in Mississippi as main levee holds
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 14th, 2011
Reuters: The Mississippi River at Vicksburg crept to within inches of its 1927 record on Saturday, as residents anxiously watched flood waters invade their historic city.
"I've lived here all my life," said Peter Pikul, a resident, looking at water that had gone past the first floor of the old Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Station, now a museum. "I've seen this water up and down but I've never seen it as high as it is right now."
In some Vicksburg neighborhoods, only the tops of houses could...
Climate change to create a dustier Southwest
Posted by Salt Lake Tribune: Judy Fahys on May 14th, 2011
Salt Lake Tribune: A warmer Southwest might very well mean a dustier Southwest.
That’s the conclusion of a new study by researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of California-Los Angeles that has far-reaching implications for all of Utah, where healthy range is vital to livestock, wildlife and recreation, as well as air quality and water supplies.
Seth Munson, a USGS ecologist and the study’s lead author, noted that looking at how climate change might affect wind erosion in arid landscapes...
Louisiana braces as flood spillway opens
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 14th, 2011
Reuters: Army engineers on Saturday opened a key spillway to allow the swollen Mississippi River to flood thousands of homes and crops but spare New Orleans and Louisiana's capital Baton Rouge.
The Army Corps of Engineers opened one of the 125 floodgates at the Morganza Spillway 45 miles northwest of Baton Rouge shortly after 3 p.m. CDT, sending a flume of water onto nearby fields.
The move, last taken in 1973, will channel floodwaters toward homes, farms, a wildlife refuge and a small oil refinery...
The Mississippi: A River That Will Not Be Tamed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 14th, 2011
National Public Radio: In the summer of 1993, when many people in the Midwest were searching for higher ground, Isabel Wilkerson packed her bags and headed for the Mississippi River. She was there to cover the floods for The New York Times and would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting.
In one piece, she described the river as a "rowdy uncle who gives freely in good times and breaks the furniture in bad and pretends not to notice after the damage has been done."
Eighteen years later, that rowdy uncle is...