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Archive for June 9th, 2011
Thousands of fish dead after Thames sewerage overflow
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 9th, 2011
Guardian: A satellite view of the Thames. Thousands of fish are dead after sewage overflowed into the river. Pollution teams on Thursday were still clearing up the Thames in west London four days after 450,000 tonnes of raw household and industrial sewage overflowed into the river. The incident, which occurred after nearly 30mm of rain fell in a few hours on Sunday, killed tens of thousands of fish and left condoms, faeces and other pollution on riverbanks.
There are fears that a similar incident could...
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France sets out aid package for drought-hit farms
Posted by Reuters: Emmanuel Jarry on June 9th, 2011
Reuters: France will spend between 500 million and 1 billion euros ($730 million-$1.5 billion) to help farmers affected by a spring drought that has parched fields and shrunk the supply of animal fodder, the government said on Thursday. The support would include exemptions from land tax worth about 300 million euros and 200 million euros in compensation from an agriculture disaster fund, President Nicolas Sarkozy said during a visit to a drought-hit part of western France.
The authorities would also offer...
Dwindling of Colorado River linked to climate change, energy production
Posted by Colorado Independent: David O. Williams on June 9th, 2011
Colorado Independent: The Colorado River cuts through a mesa. Dwindling of Colorado River linked to climate change, energy production
Hard to imagine in a year when snowpack up until recently has been more than 200 percent of normal in the Colorado River Basin and its major tributaries on the state’s Western Slope, but the long-term prognosis for the river that provides water to more than 30 million people in the Desert Southwest is not good.
A new interim report released this week by the federal government, Colorado...
Extreme heat the new norm
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 9th, 2011
Discovery: The hottest summer day you remember from childhood could be the norm in a few decades; in fact it looks like the heat has already been cranked up.
"When scientists talk about global warming causing more heat waves, people often ask if that means that the hottest temperatures will become 'the new normal,'" said Noah Diffenbaugh, an assistant professor of environmental Earth system science at Stanford, in a press release.
"That got us thinking –- at what point can we expect the coolest seasonal...
Record-breaking heat grips much of eastern US
Posted by Associated Press: Brett Zongker on June 9th, 2011
Associated Press: The mercury climbed into the 90s across half the country Wednesday in a record-breaking blast of August-like heat, forcing schools with no air conditioning to let kids go home early and cities to open cooling centers. And scientists say we had better get used to it.
A new study from Stanford University predicts that global climate change will lead permanently to unusually hot summers by the middle of the century.
Temperatures in the 90s were recorded across much of the South, the East and the...
States ponder plans and budgets for a future in which ‘normal’ is different
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 9th, 2011
ClimateWire: In the last five years or so, weather changes have taken a toll on Michigan's roads.
Heavy rains have overpowered drains, causing water to spill onto the road and wash whole sections away. The post-winter thaw starts earlier than it used to. That causes more cracks in the pavement than usual, shortening a road's life.
These weather changes can't be directly linked to climate change. Nevertheless, the bulk of climate science suggests that similar events will become more frequent and severe in...
Need to protect millions displaced by environmental disasters
Posted by IPS: Rosebell Kagumire on June 9th, 2011
IPS: Heavy rainfall means that over 500,000 people living in mountainous areas in Uganda need to be relocated as they live in areas at risk to landslides.
In 2010 over 300 people died on the slopes of Mount Elgon, eastern Uganda after days of heavy rains led to landslides on the mountain. Thousands more were displaced. This week the Uganda Red Cross Society warned that more landslides are looming in the Elgon area, placing thousands more at risk and in need of relocation.
The displacement of people...
Climate change ‘will cut water for farmers’: UN
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 9th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: The UN food agency on Thursday warned climate change will restrict the availability of water for farming in decades to come, including in the Mediterranean region, and urged governments to take action.
A report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said climate change will reduce river runoff and aquifer recharges, adding that the loss of glaciers "will eventually impact the amount of surface water available."
The report said that in Asia "large areas of irrigated land that rely on...
Climate Change Will Spur Droughts, Cut Food Output, FAO Says in Report
Posted by Bloomberg: Tony C. Dreibus on June 9th, 2011
Bloomberg: Climate change will cause more droughts and reduce food production, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization said.
Water levels in rivers and aquifers will decline in semi- arid regions of the Americas, Australia and southern Africa, which are already dry, the Rome-based FAO said in a report today. In Asia, crop-growing areas that rely on snowmelt and mountain glaciers for water will also be affected, it said.
Drought already threatens crops in China and France, helping to push...
Bangladesh laying constitutional groundwork to seek climate damages
Posted by AlertNet: Ali Sanwar on June 9th, 2011
AlertNet: Manira, 8, and her grandmother Amena Khatun prepare lunch in front of their house, flooded by the high tide in Gabura, in Bangladesh's Satkhira district on May 13, 2010. Bangladesh looks likely to be the first country to include in its constitution a provision for redressing damage resulting from climate change.
The country's parliament is expected to approve a report by its committee for constitutional reforms that would insert an obligation for the government to act on climate change into Article...