RSS Feed
Archive for June 9th, 2011
Can Brazil meet deforestation, climate goals and still grow its cattle industry?
Posted by Mongabay: Karimeh Moukaddem on June 9th, 2011
Mongabay: Despite environmentalists' efforts to combat "rainforest beef" in the 1980s, pasture expansion for cattle is still the primary cause of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, says a new report produced by Brighter Green.
While Brazil's investments in agribusiness have made it an agricultural powerhouse--the country is now the world’s third-largest exporter of farm commodities after the US and the European Union--unfortunately, two of the Brazil’s key products, cattle and soy, are still driving...
Posted in 
Rockies snow decline bad sign for water supply
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 9th, 2011
Reuters: Snowpack declines in the Rocky Mountains over the last 30 years are more significant than during any other period in past centuries and foreshadow a strain on summer water supplies for more than 70 million people across the Western United States, a U.S. government study said.
Despite this year's record snowpacks in the Rockies and resulting floods, declines over the three decades have shown a an unusual pattern compared to reconstructions of snowpacks going back 1,000 years, according to the Geological...
1,000-Year Record Shows Unusual Snowpack Declines — Study
Posted by ClimateWire: Laura Petersen on June 9th, 2011
ClimateWire: While record-sized snowpack and attendant flooding in the Rocky Mountains have made headlines this spring, the long-term trend for snowpack levels in the Rockies tells quite a different story, according to climate scientists.
Snowpack has in fact been declining in recent decades, and a new U.S. Geological Survey-led study shows the decrease since the 1980s is more significant than at any other time in the past 1,000 years.
Numerous studies have documented snowpack decline over the past 50 to...
Ethanol No Longer Third Rail of Iowa Republican Politics
Posted by Yahoo!: Mark Whittington on June 9th, 2011
Yahoo!: Recent pronouncements by declared Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty favoring an end to ethanol subsidies and undeclared possible candidate Sarah Palin to end all energy subsides have been seen as evidence of political courage.
It has been a truism for a long time that ethanol subsidies are the third rail of politics in corn state Iowa, where the first national caucus is to be held. That is certainly the calculation of Mitt Romney, another declared candidate, who has recently announced...
Warming to Blame for Water Crisis in U.S. West?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 9th, 2011
National Geographic: Much of the U.S. West's water supply is under threat as rapidly warming temperatures melt more snowpack annually than is created by precipitation, a new government study suggests.
Each spring, melted snow and ice from the Rocky Mountains recharge up to 80 percent of the Columbia, Missouri, and Colorado River Basins.
Together, these basins form the primary water source for nearly 70 million people in an area plagued by droughts--ncluding Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake City. ee...
Wildfire in Arizona: A glimpse of what climate change could bring
Posted by Alaska Dispatch: Pete Spotts on June 9th, 2011
Alaska Dispatch: A wildfire in Arizona that has blackened an area half the size of Rhode Island, prompted the evacuation of some 2,000 people in its path, and is threatening long-distance power lines that serve New Mexico and Texas, is the latest poster child for what some scientists see as a long-term trend toward larger, longer-lived wildfires in the American West.
And as researchers explore the causes, climate change appears to be an important contributor.
Nor is Arizona, which is battling three major blazes,...
Monster wildfire in Arizona: A glimpse of what climate change could bring
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 9th, 2011
Christian Science Monitor: A wildfire in Arizona that has blackened an area half the size of Rhode Island, prompted the evacuation of some 2,000 people in its path, and is threatening long-distance power lines that serve New Mexico and Texas, is the latest poster child for what some scientists see as a long-term trend toward larger, longer-lived wildfires in the American West.
Fighting wildfires in Texas with a rain of prayer Biggest question for Texans facing wildfires: Flee or fight? Texas wildfire chief: Wildfires still...
EPA Declassifies Confidential Information on Possibly Dangerous Chemicals
Posted by Yahoo!: Rachel Bogart on June 9th, 2011
Yahoo!: According to a press release, the EPA has removed industry confidentiality claims for over 150 chemicals as a part of an effort to get more information to Americans about what is in the products they use every day or are used in the construction of buildings, including homes.
Until Wednesday, manufacturers and companies have been able to keep information about the chemicals they use in their products out of the hands of the public. These products include building materials like fire retardants,...
Time to get our climate-change priorities straight and go solar
Posted by Tucson Citizen: Dr. Barbara Warren on June 9th, 2011
Tucson Citizen: Arizona is burning. We are amidst a severe drought, a climate growing hotter and our water resources are shrinking. Without adequate rainfall, forests will become tinderboxes and fires will rage. Was this expected? Yes! Climate scientists have been warning us for years that this is the future for the Southwest with the scenario of climate change.
And yet many of us we still behave as if there is nothing happening out there on our planet and in our own environment. We have been told how to make...
Farmers face water shortage as climate changes: FAO
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 9th, 2011
Reuters: Farmers, governments and regulators should take preventive action to improve water management, because climate change will tighten water supplies for agriculture, the United Nations' food agency said.
Climate change will bringing higher temperatures and more frequent droughts, reducing water availability especially in water-scarce regions, while melting glaciers will eventually cut water supplies in major producing areas, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday.
"Both the...