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Archive for September, 2011
Deforestation reduces rainfall in Africa
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 19th, 2011
Physorg: Deforestation in the rainforests of West Africa reduces rainfall over the rest of the forest, according to new University of Leeds research published in Geophysical Research Letters.
The study shows that changing land use from forest to crop land reduces rainfall over neighbouring trees by around 50% due to changes in the surface temperature which affects the formation of rain clouds.
The authors say the findings have important implications for future decisions about land management in this...
Rains ease Argentina farmland dryness, but more needed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 19th, 2011
Reuters: Weekend rains brought much-needed moisture to farming areas in Argentina, but growers in the corn belt urgently need more rainfall in order to press on with plantings, a weather forecaster said on Monday.
If severe dryness persists, many farmers could shelve plans to seed corn and sow soy instead when the planting season for the oilseed starts in October.
"There were rains over the weekend, and a good amount of water in central and southeastern areas of Buenos Aires province. But it rained...
Analysis: Super weeds pose growing threat to U.S. crops
Posted by Reuters: Carey Gillam on September 19th, 2011
Reuters: Farmer Mark Nelson bends down and yanks a four-foot-tall weed from his northeast Kansas soybean field. The "waterhemp" towers above his beans, sucking up the soil moisture and nutrients his beans need to grow well and reducing the ultimate yield. As he crumples the flowering end of the weed in his hand, Nelson grimaces.
"When we harvest this field, these waterhemp seeds will spread all over kingdom come," he said.
Nelson's struggle to control crop-choking weeds is being repeated all over America's...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Analysis: Super weeds pose growing threat to U.S. cropsConverting rainforest to cropland in Africa reduces rainfall
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on September 19th, 2011
Mongabay: Converting West African rainforests into cropland reduces rainforest in adjacent forest areas, reports research published in Geophysical Research Letters.
The study, based on a computer model used to simulate rainfall under different land-use conditions, found that cutting down tropical forests in West Africa reduces precipitation over neighboring forest areas by about 50 percent due to increased temperatures over cropland areas. Higher temperatures affect the formation of rain clouds.
"Rainfall...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Converting rainforest to cropland in Africa reduces rainfallPakistan: Flood Relief by Caste, Creed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 19th, 2011
Inter Press Service: With just the clothes on their backs, Moora Sanafdhano, 68, and his family of nine waded through waist-deep flood waters swirling through their village of Allah Ditto Leghari, saving themselves in the nick of time.
"We heard that the water rose up to nine feet," says Sanafdhano, as the others nod in agreement. But, the lives of these mostly low-caste Hindus, considered the most marginalised group in Pakistan, are far from being out of danger.
They are being turned out of makeshift camps set...
What if population forecast is wrong?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 19th, 2011
Yale Environment 360: In a mere half-century, the number of people on the planet has soared from 3 billion to 7 billion, placing us squarely in the midst of the most rapid expansion of world population in our 50,000-year history -- and placing ever-growing pressure on the Earth and its resources.
But that is the past. What of the future? Leading demographers, including those at the United Nations and the U.S. Census Bureau, are projecting that world population will peak at 9.5 billion to 10 billion later this century...
Times Atlas makes ‘absurd’ claims about shrinking of Greenland ice sheet
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 19th, 2011
Telegraph: The latest edition of the Times Atlas of the World claimed15 per cent of Greenland's former ice-covered land has turned "ice-free" in the last 12 years.
But scientists from the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University say the figures are wrong, and that the ice has melted by less than one per cent during that time.
Professor Liz Morris, a senior associate at the institute, said a "serious error' had been made.
She said the cartographers appeared to have muddled satellite data...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Times Atlas makes ‘absurd’ claims about shrinking of Greenland ice sheetBritain sees ‘two autumns’ as trees turn at different times
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 19th, 2011
Telegraph: Traditionally the season of "mists and mellow fruitfulness' falls in late September as trees begin to turn gold and shed foliage.
But this year many species lost their leaves early due to one of the warmest and driest springs on record.
The Royal Horticultural Society recorded leaves turning yellow on hazelnut, acer and laburnum at the beginning of August.
Horse chestnuts, or conker trees, lost their leaves early due to the leaf miner moth, from Turkey, that has been spreading across the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Britain sees ‘two autumns’ as trees turn at different timesIn Ancient Pines, a Startling Shift in Tree Rings
Posted by New York times: Max Bearak on September 19th, 2011
New York times: Some bristlecone pines on Wheeler Peak in Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada. The renowned bristlecone Prometheus was felled there in 1964.
Nearly 50 years have passed since a glaciologist by the name of Donald R. Currey got his tree-borer stuck in a remote Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) about 10,750 feet up in the little-visited Humboldt National Forest of eastern Nevada. It would have been an unremarkable inconvenience had it not led to the death of what was shortly thereafter...
Some Pakistani flood victims refuse to flee
Posted by Reuters: Rebecca Conway on September 19th, 2011
Reuters: Rehmat Soomro and her family are threatened by flood waters ravaging southern Pakistan, and could face starvation and disease if they don't leave their village.
But unlike others, they refuse to move to a relief camp because they don't want to mix with other castes.
"We don't want to live with families of another caste," said the 40-year-old widow, standing in front of her small brick house, as waters crept up.
In Pakistan, caste divisions are so deep that some would rather put their lives...