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Archive for May, 2011
La. Spillway Opens To Divert Mississippi River
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 14th, 2011
National Public Radio: The Army Corps of Engineers began opening Louisiana's Morganza spillway on Saturday in an attempt to spare New Orleans and Baton Rouge from massive flooding. That move will send almost a third of the water in the Mississippi River spilling out into massive swaths of Cajun country in the next few days. Host Guy Raz gets the latest from NPR's Greg Allen, who's at the spillway.
From NPR News, this is WEEKENDS on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Guy Raz.
Our cover story today, saving New Orleans and...
Water shortages threaten the American West lifestyle
Posted by Miller Mccune: Arnie Cooper on May 14th, 2011
Miller Mccune: While not every dire prediction has come true, amid swimming pools and thirsty crops, the hard truth remains that the American West cannot maintain its spendthrift ways of using fresh water.
The view overlooking Phoenix includes patches of green and long stretches of housing. Some say the area's current practices in water use and management are unsustainable.
The next time you fly into a parched, western sprawl such as Phoenix, glance down at the amorphous blots of green and the splattering...
Why Mississippi floods were expected
Posted by Nature: Richard A. Lovett on May 14th, 2011
Nature: Why Mississippi floods were expected
A combination of bad weather, ocean conditions and land development conspired to produce high waters.
Floodwater engulfs a farm after the Army Corps of Engineers blew a massive hole in a levee at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers near Wyatt, Missouri, to divert water from the town of Cairo, Illinois.
Last year, it was Pakistan and Russia. This spring, all talk of disasters attributable to freak weather conditions turns eyes to the United...
Native groups sue over polar bear critical habitat
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 14th, 2011
Associated Press: Alaska Native groups worried about losing tax revenues and royalties from oil development filed a lawsuit Friday challenging the federal government's designation of critical habitat for threatened polar bears on the state's oil-rich North Slope.
The Arctic Slope Regional Corp., North Slope Borough, Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope and other groups took issue with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to designate more than 187,000 square miles -- an area larger than California --...
Allergy seasons growing longer, more challenging
Posted by Associated Press: Carolyn Thompson on May 14th, 2011
Associated Press: In Focus: Allergy seasons growing longer, more challenging
Warmer temperatures and climate change are partly to blame for the misery of millions this spring.
There may be a whiff of truth to claims by allergy sufferers who sniffle that this season is, well, a bigger headache than years past.
Flowers bloom on a tree in Akron, N.Y., in this image from earlier this month. Allergy specialists around the country say this season is or has been especially difficult for sufferers.
And now, more...
Coming to a cornfield near you
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 14th, 2011
Scientific American: DROUGHT-RESISTANT CORN: Monsanto is seeking approval of the first strain of corn that tolerates drought. Climate change has yet to diminish crop yields in the U.S. corn belt but scientists expect drought to become more common due to global warming in coming years. That could impact everything from the price of food to the price of fuel planet-wide. As a result, for the last several years agribusiness giants like Monsanto, Pioneer and Syngenta have been pursuing genetic modification to enable the...
Manitoba floods farms to avoid “catastrophic” breach
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 14th, 2011
Reuters: Manitoba opened its dike on the swollen Assiniboine River on Saturday, starting a slow creep of water across rich farmland to avert a potentially catastrophic, unplanned breach in the Canadian province.
Opening the dike will, over days, flood at least 225 square kilometers (55,600 acres) as well as 150 homes while taking the pressure off strained dikes.
The release will be initially "very gradual," a government spokesperson said, and is intended to fill fields and ditches behind roads with...
Aid scant in Somalia’s “worst drought in 20 years”
Posted by AlertNet: Katy Migiro on May 14th, 2011
AlertNet: A Somali refugee carries water at the Dagahaley camp in Dadaab, near the Kenya-Somalia border, April 3, 2011. Hunger in Somalia is likely to worsen as "one of the worst droughts in recent memory' intensifies and humanitarian funding is scant, aid agencies said on Friday.
"This drought is so serious, worse than others in recent years, that even the camels in some communities are dying,' said Geno Teofilo of Oxfam Novib, one of the 31 agencies issuing Friday's statement.
"Some of them (Somalis)...
Climate change and the flood this time
Posted by Lincoln Journal Star: Bill McKibben on May 14th, 2011
Lincoln Journal Star: Last week, at a place called Bird's Point, just below the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers, the Army Corps of Engineers was busy mining a huge levee with explosives.
The work was made dangerous by outbreaks of lightning, but eventually the charges were in place and corps Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh gave the order: A 2-mile-wide hole was blasted in the earthen levee, and a wall of water greater than the flow over Niagara Falls inundated 130,000 acres of prime Missouri farmland.
The...
Blackpool uneasy at prospect of ‘fracking’ boom on its coastline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 13th, 2011
Independent: The allure of Blackpool rock and the rejuvenating effects of its sand and water once made it a magnet for the toiling classes as they took a break from the drudgery of the Lancashire cotton mills.
Today, as the resort battles to cope with the allure of cheap flights to Spain, those three elements are once again attracting outsiders to this part of the English coast in search of a fourth: gas.
Cuadrilla Resources, a British company specialising in the development of shale gas wells, has been...
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