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Archive for September 8th, 2011
Imagining a Blur of Fracking Activity
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 8th, 2011
New York Times: As I reported in Thursday`s Times, the complete environmental document detailing how horizontal hydraulic fracturing could affect upstate communities where most of this natural gas drilling would take place is out for public review. It may take days for New York State residents to sift through it.
The York State Department of Environmental Conservation will accept feedback from the public until Dec. 12 on both its proposed rules to govern hydrofracking and the environmental assessment of its effects....
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Mexico: Traditional Maize Can Cope with Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 8th, 2011
Inter Press Service: Maize, Mexico's staple food as well as a symbol, has the potential to adapt to climate change and mitigate its effects without any need for genetically modified seeds, according to agricultural scientists.
Mexico has at least 59 landraces (traditional, locally-adapted strains that are rich in biodiversity) and 209 varieties of corn. White maize is the most commonly eaten variety, while yellow maize is used for animal feed or processed into cornflakes, starch and other products.
Maize is thought...
Texas wildfires: Is drought the new climate?
Posted by LA Times: Julie Cart on September 8th, 2011
LA Times: The litany of misery playing out in Texas is tough to watch but less difficult to predict.
Well before the contagion of wildfires was sparked this week, the state had been experiencing a weather catastrophe. Texas has seen its driest consecutive months since record-keeping began in 1895. Parts of the state have had no measurable rain in nearly a year. The drought, warn officials from the National Weather Service, may continue into next year.
A brutal heat wave has tormented residents, with...
Prince Charles warns of human extinction
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 8th, 2011
Telegraph: In his first speech as the new President of the Worldwide Wildlife Fund (WWF) UK, Prince Charles suggested 'surviving ourselves' should be a priority.
Referring to himself as "an endangered species', he warned that the world is already in the "sixth extinction event', with species dying out at a much faster rate than at any time since the death of most of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Despite campaigning for years on global warming, he said climate change was not the only problem but...
Gore Plans 24 Hours of ‘Climate Reality’
Posted by Discovery News: Kieran Mulvaney on September 8th, 2011
Discovery News: The last time former US Vice President Al Gore discussed the climate change issue with Discovery News, the Copenhagen treaty discussions were in full swing, and Gore expressed at the time that "I choose to be optimistic" about their outcome.
That was a shade under two years ago, and since then, for those concerned that human activities are changing the planet's climate, the outlook seems bleaker. The Copenhagen process failed to produce the global agreement for which supporters had hoped, and...
Saving Ancient Walnut Forests In the Valleys of Central Asia
Posted by Yale Environment 360: Mike Ives on September 8th, 2011
Yale Environment 360: Kyrgyzstan's fertile and densely populated Fergana Valley is home to some of the largest intact stands of walnut trees on Earth. Its so-called walnut-fruit forests -- which contain 300 species of plants and trees, including ancestral strains of apples, plums, and pears -- cover roughly 30,000 hectares, splashing green onto an otherwise dry-and-dusty Central Asian landscape. Driving beside a riverbed on the valley's floor, you might momentarily mistake nearby walnut forests for the olive groves of...
Solar weather stations alert Kenyan farmers to drought
Posted by AlertNet: David Njagi on September 8th, 2011
AlertNet: Kenya's drought crisis is boosting demand among poor farming communities for solar-powered weather stations that can help them cope with increasingly erratic weather.
From corporate-led crop insurance schemes to government investment in early warning systems, solar energy is being tapped as an affordable and green power source for devices that capture valuable weather and climate data in rural locations.
Ann Bwisa, a farmer in Tuuti village, near the western town of Kakamega, is benefiting...
Weather disasters keep costing U.S. billions this year
Posted by Reuters: Mary Wisniewski on September 8th, 2011
Reuters: Blizzards. Tornadoes. Floods. Record heat and drought, followed by wildfires.
The first eight months of 2011 have brought strange and destructive weather to the United States.
From the blizzard that dumped almost two feet of snow on Chicago, to killer tornadoes and heat waves in the south, to record flooding, to wildfires that have burned more than 1,000 homes in Texas in the last few days, Mother Nature has been in a vile and costly mood.
Climate experts point to global warming, meteorologists...
Rain due in S.Somalia, unlikely to end drought
Posted by AlertNet: Megan Rowling on September 8th, 2011
AlertNet: Famine-hit southern Somalia may experience a return to normal or above-normal rainfall conditions in the next rainy season, which runs from September through December, according to the latest Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook.
The forecast is issued on a quarterly basis after a meeting organised by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development's Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and other partners.
Somalia and large parts of...
Sustainable development world’s top issue: UN chief
Posted by Agence France-Presse: Krystle Wright on September 8th, 2011
Agence France-Presse: United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon singled out sustainable development as the top issue facing the planet with the world's seven billionth person expected to be born next month.
Key to this was climate change, and he said time was running out with the population set to explode this century.
"Next month, the seven billionth citizen of our world will be born," the UN secretary general said during a speech at Sydney University on Thursday.
"For that child, and for all of us, we must keep working...