RSS Feed
Archive for June 18th, 2011
China raises flood alert to top level, 555,000 evacuated
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 18th, 2011
Reuters: China has mobilized troops to help with flood relief and raised its disaster alert to the highest level after days of downpours forced the evacuation of more than half a million people in central and southern provinces.
The official China Daily said more than 555,000 people had been evacuated in seven provinces and a municipality after rains in recently drought-stricken areas caused floods and mudslides in the Yangtze River basin.
Central authorities have raised the disaster alert to the highest...
Posted in 
As Crops Are Killed, House Forbids USDA From Preparing For Climate Disasters
Posted by Think Progress: None Given on June 18th, 2011
Think Progress: Flooded farmland in Tennessee
In a disturbing trend of attacking the government’s ability to prepare for climate risks, the House passed an amendment to the fiscal 2012 agriculture spending bill that would prohibit the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from implementing new regulations on climate change adaptation. This amendment puts the nation at increased risk of food disruptions, forest fires and huge economic losses.
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), who introduced the amendment, bizarrely...
Fukushima halts water decontamination
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 18th, 2011
Associated Press: Fukushima workers detected a sharp radiation increase in the system's caesium-absorbing component. Officials at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant suspended an operation to clean contaminated water hours after it had begun because of a rapid rise in radiation.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), which operates the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, is investigating the cause and could not say when the clean-up will resume, company spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said.
Fresh water is being pumped...
African Agriculture and Food Supply at Risk
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 18th, 2011
Inter Press Service: Climate change and global warming are likely to have dramatically negative effects on African agriculture and food supply by reducing river runoffs and water recharge, especially in semi-arid zones such as Southern Africa, two new reports say.
Both studies were released while thousands of delegates from around the world gathered during Jun. 6- 17 in the German city of Bonn to take part in the new United Nations (UN) Climate Change conference. New research supports the need for a revamped international...
Japan’s TEPCO suspends cleanup at Fukushima plant
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 18th, 2011
Reuters: The operator of Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, said on Saturday it had suspended an operation to clean up radioactive water only hours after it had begun as radiation levels rose faster than expected.
"The level of radiation at a machine to absorb cesium has risen faster than our initial projections," said a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The plan had got underway on Friday after being delayed by a series of glitches.
Officials had said earlier this week that large...