RSS Feed
Archive for September 28th, 2011
Egypt inches towards far-reaching food subsidy reform
Posted by Reuters: Maha El Dahan on September 28th, 2011
Reuters: Egypt, once the breadbasket of the ancient Roman empire and now the world's biggest wheat importer, is paying a hefty price to keep its citizens fed with cheap loaves and other foodstuffs.
The $5.5 billion which it spends each year on food subsidies, mostly on wheat, is a burden that it can ill afford as the economy falters and the budget deficit balloons after the uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February.
But the financial pressure is not the only cost of the subsidy system;...
Posted in 
United States: Scientists predict dramatic temperature increases at Yellowstone
Posted by KECI: Jess Antonio on September 28th, 2011
KECI: Researchers from the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition predict rising temperatures in Yellowstone National Park by as much as ten degrees over the next sixty years. But not everyone is buying into the science.
Scott Christensen, the Climate Change Program Director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition says Montana is experiencing the warmest decade on record and the driest since the 13th century.
"If the science is on track then the trend looks like it's...
Appalachia faces steep coal decline
Posted by Associated Press: Dylan Lovan on September 28th, 2011
Associated Press: When business screeched to a halt at Jerry Howard's eastern Kentucky mine engineering company two years ago, he decided to call it quits after four decades in the coal industry.
"We were sort of forced out," Howard says of the former company, Walturn, where he was part owner.
Business owners like Howard, politicians and miners in the hilly coalfields of Central Appalachia blame the industry decline on tougher regulation from the Obama administration. They aren't as ready to talk about something...
India: Facing Climate Change With Flower Power
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 28th, 2011
Inter Press Service: Gazalla Amin’s office on the outskirts of this city, capital of Jammu & Kashmir state, is redolent with the fragrance of lavender wafting up from heaps of the dried flowers in a corner bowl.
There is nothing fancy or feminine about the fragrance in her office. In her late forties Amin, a medical doctor by training, has broken into Kashmir’s male-dominated farming sector.
Amin is now leading frustrated farmers out of the conundrum of climatic uncertainties, lost crops, debt and poverty and setting...
New groups protest at shale gas
Posted by BBC: James Melley on September 28th, 2011
BBC: An increasing number of groups are being set up in the UK to oppose local plans to drill for shale gas.
The process, which is often called fracking, is controversial, with claims that it harms the environment.
Several groups of campaigners recently took part in a camp to protest against drilling in Lancashire, whilst a separate group marched against proposals in Cowbridge in South Wales.
But what is inspiring people that have not been involved in environment campaigns to start protesting...
Another Victim of Climate Change
Posted by Environment News Service: Zafar Iqba on September 28th, 2011
Environment News Service: Environmentalists are blaming climate change for the unprecedented massive monsoon rains in Pakistan, which so far this year have affected eight million people, claiming 350 lives and damaging 1.3 million homes. Over the past month, the country's southern region has received the highest monsoon rains ever recorded, local metrological experts confirm. In August, the southern parts of the country received 270 percent above-normal monsoon rains. And in September, the monsoons rains were 1,170 percent...
Carbon-Credits System Tarnished by WikiLeaks Revelation
Posted by Scientific American: Quirin Schiermeier on September 28th, 2011
Scientific American: As the world gears up for the next round of United Nations climate-change negotiations in Durban, South Africa, in November, evidence has emerged that a cornerstone of the existing global climate agreement, the international greenhouse-gas emissions-trading system, is seriously flawed. Critics have long questioned the usefulness of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which was established under the Kyoto Protocol. It allows rich countries to offset some of their carbon emissions by investing...