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Archive for January 26th, 2012
Thailand: Even worse flood crisis this year unless government is decisive
Posted by Nation: None Given on January 26th, 2012
Nation: Water experts yesterday urged the government to be decisive about flood-prevention measures in order to prevent a repeat of last year's severe flooding, as the La Nina phenomenon is expected to bring early rains and more storms this year.
They expressed concern that a lack of clear decisions from the government would leave the flood-prevention efforts in disarray.
Seree Supharatid, director of Rangsit University's Centre on Climate Change and Disaster, warned that due to the La Nina climatic...
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Food security: Dampened prospects
Posted by Financial Times: None Given on January 26th, 2012
Financial Times: Bangladeshi women farmers in rainbow-bright saris survey their flooded rice paddies with dismay: the rains have drowned the tender seedlings and, with them, their livelihoods. Climate change, ill-judged policies, protectionism, urbanisation and plain greed have all conspired to reignite Malthusian prophesies of a growing world population unable to feed itself. Come 2050, the UN predicts earth will be home to another 2bn people; in order to feed us all, production needs to increase by an estimated...
Obama to propose tax credit for natgas trucks
Posted by Reuters: Caren Bohan on January 26th, 2012
Reuters: President Barack Obama pitched a plan on Thursday to boost U.S. use of natural gas and open more land for offshore drilling during a campaign-style tour aimed at bolstering confidence in his economic stewardship.
At a stop in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Democratic president sought to counter Republican criticisms of his energy policies as he proposed tax incentives for companies to buy natural gas trucks, which would help build demand for abundant domestic supplies of the fuel.
Republicans have...
How climate change, urbanization are changing disaster aid
Posted by Reuters: Katie Nguyen and Megan Rowling on January 26th, 2012
Reuters: Picture this: a terrible drought forces you to abandon your meager plot of farmland, so you migrate to a city where the jobs are, only to end up living in a slum regularly submerged by floods.
It's a scenario that's going to become more and more familiar in coming years as climate change and rapid urbanization play an ever-greater role in shaping humanitarian crises, according to an AlertNet poll of the world's biggest aid organizations.
To adapt to the new reality, aid agencies will need to...
River pollution triggers water panic buying in China
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2012
Reuters: Residents of a town in southern China have been rushing to buy bottled water after excessive levels of carcinogenic cadmium were found in a river source of drinking water, state media said on Thursday in the latest health scare to hit the country.
Pollution of waterways by toxic run-offs from factories and farms is a pressing issue in China, prompting the authorities to call for policy tightening to cut heavy metal pollution, though the problem shows no sign of going away.
Cadmium levels at...
Climate change ‘may cost billions’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2012
Press Association: The costs to the UK of flooding could rise to billions of pounds a year in the coming decades, according to the first national assessment of the risks of climate change.
The UK will also face threats including water shortages, more droughts and diseases such as red band needle blight which could hit the timber industry in the next century, the assessment conducted for the Government showed.
However, the changing climate will bring some opportunities to the UK, including the chance to grow new...
World’s giant trees are dying off rapidly, studies show
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2012
Guardian: The biggest trees in the world, known as the true ecological kings of the jungle, are dying off rapidly as roads, farms and settlements fragment forests and they come under prolonged attack from severe droughts and new pests and diseases.
Long-term studies in Amazonia, Africa and central America show that while these botanical behemoths may have adapted successfully to centuries of storms, pests and short-term climatic extremes, they are counterintuitively more vulnerable than other trees to today's...
New biodiversity map of Andes shows species in dire need of protection
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2012
ScienceDaily: The Andes-Amazon basin of Peru and Bolivia is one of the most biologically rich and rapidly changing areas of the world. A new study published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Ecology has used information collected over the last 100 years by explorers and from satellite images which reveals detailed patterns of species and ecosystems that occur only in this region. Worryingly, the study also finds that many of these unique species and ecosystems are lacking vital national level protection....
Nanomaterials’ Effects on Health and Environment Unclear, Panel Says
Posted by New York Times: Cornelia Dean on January 26th, 2012
New York Times: Tiny substances called nanomaterials have moved into the marketplace over the last decade, in products as varied as cosmetics, clothing and paint. But not enough is known about their potential health and environmental risks, which should be studied further, an expert panel of the National Academy of Sciences said on Wednesday. Nanoscale forms of substances like silver, carbon, zinc and aluminum have many useful properties. Nano zinc oxide sunscreen goes on smoothly, for example, and nano carbon...
Flooding is biggest climate risk to UK
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 26th, 2012
Reuters: Flooding will be Britain's biggest climate risk this century, with damage set to cost as much as 12 billion pounds ($18 billion) a year by the 2080s if nothing is done to adapt to extreme weather, a report said on Thursday.
British summers are forecast to get hotter, while winters will get milder and wetter.
New government-funded research has identified the top 100 effects of climate change and their expected impact on Britain and magnitude over this century.
The "Climate Change Risk Assessment"...