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Archive for June 10th, 2011
What’s to Be Done About Food Supply?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 10th, 2011
New York Times: World Food Supply: What`s To Be Done?
Somali children wait for rations in the courtyard of a food distribution center in Mogadishu.
In a long article on Sunday and a string of posts on the Green blog this week, The Times has given readers a large body of reporting and analysis on the global food situation, including the risk to the food supply from climate change. I would like to end that run of coverage by pointing concerned readers toward the best thinking out there that tries to answer this...
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100 years of UK rainfall: when was it this dry before?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 10th, 2011
Guardian: East Anglia is now officially classed as in drought by DEFRA. Today James Meikle wrote about what this means for the farmers of East Anglia and others affected by dry weather.
It's useful to know the last time the weather was this dry, for clues about what we can expect. We ask: when has the weather been drier?
The Met Office produces some very nice visualisations of UK rainfall history, showing rainfall anomalies - which is the difference from the average rainfall.
The Met Office also publishes...
Study of 800-year-old tree rings backs global warming
Posted by Seattle Times: Craig Welch on June 10th, 2011
Seattle Times: Study of 800-year-old tree rings backs global warming
The decline in recent decades of the mountain snows that feed the West's major rivers is virtually unprecedented for most of the past millennium, according to new research published today.
Heavy runoff making river trips difficult, dangerous Science
Surging Columbia River: Don't let this year fool you
This year, the Columbia River is swollen with massive runoff from mountain snowpacks, making for wild and sometimes perilous conditions...
Animals and plants ‘may not be able to evolve their way out of threat posed by climate change.’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 10th, 2011
Daily Mail: Animals and plants 'may not be able to evolve their way out of threat posed by climate change'
Animals and plants may not be able to evolve their way out of the threat posed by climate change, scientists warned today.
A team from the University of California Davis studied a tiny seashore animal over multiple generations to see if it could adapt to rising temperatures.
They found the tide pool copepod Tigriopus californicus, which is found from Alaska to Baja California, showed little ability...
Best of both worlds: Geothermal energy that sucks CO2 from the atmosphere
Posted by Fast Company: Kit Eaton on June 10th, 2011
Fast Company: Clean power from the Earth used to use a lot of water. But a new discovery means that water can be replaced with CO2, which gets left in the ground and doesn't alter the climate.
Work by scientists at the University of Minnesota could result in a new way to capture heat from underground geothermal sources, which lets us generate clean electrical energy for our own uses while simultaneously disposing of some of the CO2 that's responsible for global warming. Though it sounds implausibly positive,...
Climate change to reduce water availability, FAO warns
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 10th, 2011
Xinhua: Climate change will make water less available to produce food crops in years to come, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a report issued Thursday.
River runoff and aquifer recharges will decrease in the Mediterranean, the Americas, Australia and southern Africa, it said.
Areas in Asia which depend on the melting of ice and mountain glaciers will also be affected, while areas with a lot of fluvial deltas are threatened by reduced water flow, increased salinity...
Scientists race to avoid climate change harvest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 10th, 2011
Reuters: Charlie Bragg gazes across his lush fields where fat lambs are grazing, his reservoirs filled with water, and issues a sigh of relief. Things are normal this year and that's a bit unusual of late.
His 7,000-acre farm near the Australian town of Cootamundra is testament to the plight facing farmers around the globe: increasingly wilder weather is making food production more unpredictable. It's the new normal they must prepare for.
Bragg's farm in New South Wales state has been in the family...
England sees driest May in a century
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 10th, 2011
Guardian: The River Derwent was bone dry at Seathwaite on 3 May 2011. England has had its driest May in a century.
England suffered its driest spring in a century last month, leaving fields parched and many rivers at record lows, the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) said on Friday, as government officials met experts and utilities to discuss the drought conditions prevailing in many parts of the country.
But Scotland, by contrast, had its wettest spring on record for the three-month period of March,...
Water for agriculture dwindles with climate change
Posted by Western Farm Press: None Given on June 10th, 2011
Western Farm Press: Climate change will have major impacts on the availability of water for growing food and on crop productivity in the decades to come, warns a new FAO report. More About:
Climate change will have major impacts on the availability of water for growing food and on crop productivity in the decades to come, warns a new FAO report.
Climate Change, Water, and Food Security is a comprehensive survey of existing scientific knowledge on the anticipated consequences of climate change for water use in...
Caroline Spelman says take a shower rather than a bath as drought declared in East Anglia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 10th, 2011
Telegraph: The driest spring in 100 years has forced the Environment Agency (EA) to declare that parts of eastern England are officially in drought.
This means that farmers may be forced to stop taking water from rivers and businesses like food processors and breweries could be asked to limit their water use or share resources.
Mrs Spelman insisted that a hosepipe ban in the area was not yet necessary as reservoirs remain quite full, but she urged households to cut down on water use.
For example people...