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Archive for October 24th, 2011
Bangkok floodwaters threaten central districts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 24th, 2011
Associated Press: The governor of Bangkok has warned residents to prepare for floodwaters to reach further into the city from suburban areas.
Sukhumbhand Paribatra said the flood had moved faster than anticipated and was expected to reach the Don Muang area of the Thai capital, where Bangkok's second airport is located. The airport is being used as headquarters for the flood relief effort and as a shelter for evacuees.
On Monday, water flooded roads near the airport, though one lane was still passable. Thai...
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United States: 2 Fisheries Collapsed Unnoticed, Study Says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 24th, 2011
New York Times: Two popular Southern California fisheries have collapsed right under the noses of management agencies that had inadequate data, a new study suggests.
In an article in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, the authors say the population of barred sand bass and kelp bass began to shrink in the early 1980s amid regional changes in ocean conditions, including warmer temperatures.
But since then, a combination of environmental factors and fishing in seasonal spawning areas appears...
Thais tense as floods set to swamp more of capital
Posted by Reuters: Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat and Martin Petty on October 24th, 2011
Reuters: More districts of Thailand's capital were on high alert on Monday with floods bearing down from northern Bangkok as authorities raced to pump water toward the sea and defend the business district.
Hundreds of people were evacuated over the weekend as water in residential areas of the northern Lak Si and Don Muang suburbs reached levels as high as two meters (six feet), testing flood defenses and spilling out of swollen canals and rivers.
Thailand's worst flooding in five decades has killed...
East Africa: Stop Lake Victoria Pollution – Experts
Posted by Monitor: Mudangha Kolyangha on October 24th, 2011
Monitor: An official from the Parliamentary Forum on Climate Change has warned that the persistent pollution of Lake Victoria with impunity will complicate the national development planning.
According to Mr John Arimpa Kigyagi, the vice chairperson of the Parliamentary Forum on Climate Change, the continued pollution of the lake will lead to increase in water tariffs due to rising costs of treating water from L. Victoria.
"It is not surprising that the water body is considering increasing water tariffs...
Cuts Threaten to Close Center for Crop Safety in South Texas
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 24th, 2011
New York Times: Within 80 miles of Weslaco, there are nine bridges linking the United States and Mexico. Tons of agricultural products move between the countries each day: vegetables from Mexico and cantaloupes from Central America arrive in Texas while beef and grains are sent to Mexican markets and beyond.
The Kika de la Garza Subtropical Agricultural Research Center, where researchers work to ensure the safety of products that cross the bridges, is in the middle of it all. Now, as Congress considers closing...
Precious Waters: To Get Water to Cities, California Farmers Paid Not to Plant
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 24th, 2011
New York Times: Three generations of Al Kalin’s family have worked their 2,000 acres of carrots and sugar beets, wheat and alfalfa for almost a century in the Imperial Valley, a scorching swath of Southern California desert that was unfit for farming until water from the Colorado River was diverted here in 1901.
But now Mr. Kalin and his brother enjoy a choice that their parents and grandparents never had. They can continue to farm all their land, or they can stop farming some of it and earn more than $500 an...
Crop scientists now fret about heat not just water
Posted by Reuters: Christine Stebbins on October 24th, 2011
Reuters: Crop scientists in the United States, the world's largest food exporter, are pondering an odd question: could the danger of global warming really be the heat?
For years, as scientists have assembled data on climate change and pointed with concern at melting glaciers and other visible changes in the life-giving water cycle, the impact on seasonal rains and irrigation has worried crop watchers most.
What would breadbaskets like the U.S. Midwest, the Central Asian steppes, the north China Plain...