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Archive for February, 2012
Hosepipe bans likely as UK gripped by drought
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on February 24th, 2012
Guardian: The worst drought to grip the UK in more than 30 years is already killing wildlife, threatening farmers' livelihoods, and is likely to lead to widespread hosepipe bans – even before spring has begun.
Fish populations have been dying in Hampshire, according to the Environment Agency, owing to the low river flow that has left them stranded, while boats have been banned from areas on the Grand Union Canal where the level has had to be lowered. In the east of England, domestic boreholes supplying...
France, Netherlands key to EU oil sands decision
Posted by Globe and Mail: Shawn Mccarthy on February 24th, 2012
Globe and Mail: Ottawa has been lobbying the Europeans for two years for fundamental changes to an EU proposal to label oil sands as being more carbon-intensive than other crude sources -- a tag that would effectively ban oil sands crude, and threaten to snowball to other regions. Britain had clearly indicated it was in Canada's camp, but on Thursday, France and the Netherlands helped derail the proposed regulation by abstaining on the vote, which needed a majority of total votes to pass.
All three countries...
Feds move Aspen into warmer climate zone
Posted by Aspen Daily News: Andrew Travers on February 24th, 2012
Aspen Daily News: Federal agriculture officials recently released new national climate designations for the United States, confirming for Aspen what you may have already noticed: winter is getting warmer around here.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) this month released revised zones for “plant hardiness.” It’s the first update since 1990. The zones are effectively used to guide farmers and gardeners on what plants can survive in each area. It’s scientifically based on the average minimum winter temperature...
North America could be hit with decades-long ‘megadrought’: Scientist
Posted by Leader Post: Emma Graney on February 24th, 2012
Leader Post: When a drought hit North America in the 1930s, creating a giant dust bowl and crippling agriculture from Saskatchewan to Oklahoma, it entered history as the Dirty Thirties.
But University of Regina paleoclimatologist Jeannine-Marie St. Jacques says that decade-long drought is nowhere near as bad as it can get.
St. Jacques and her colleagues have been studying tree ring data and, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Vancouver over the weekend, she explained...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on North America could be hit with decades-long ‘megadrought’: ScientistBug season already? Warm winter may draw them out
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 24th, 2012
USA Today: One of the USA's warmest winters in years could lead to a bug bonanza over the next few weeks, as beetles, ants, termites, wasps and other insects come out much earlier than average.
"Even things like mosquitoes might come out earlier," says Rutgers entomologist George Hamilton, who says the pests typically don't appear until late April.
In some places, the onslaught has already begun: "We're seeing insects out there that we don't usually see this time of year," says Missy Henriksen of the...
Drought conditions in England ‘set to widen’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 24th, 2012
BBC: Ongoing dry weather over the spring and summer threatens to place more areas of England in a state of drought, the Environment Agency (EA) has warned.
It singled out parts of western, central and south western England and parts of south east Yorkshire.
The agency said time was running out for rain to restore groundwater levels before the new growing season begins.
Earlier this week the South East joined most of East Anglia in a state of official drought.
In parts of south-east England...
CO2 focus should be fossil fuels, not just tar sands
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 24th, 2012
Reuters: Discriminating against tar sands in the name of curbing carbon emissions makes sense, but is also a distraction from a bigger question about how much fossil fuel humankind can safely burn.
A calculation of the carbon dioxide emissions embedded in global crude oil reserves shows that burning these would pump out more CO2 than many scientists and world leaders have deemed safe to the climate, after including additional emissions from deforestation and burning coal and gas.
Simply maintaining...
Ivory Coast: Illicit Timber Trade Exposes the North to Drought
Posted by Inter Press Service: Fulgence Zamblé on February 24th, 2012
Inter Press Service: Environmental groups in Côte d'Ivoire say the illegal logging and sale of wood from the African gum tree is exposing the north of the country to the encroaching desert. The NGOs are calling on the authorities to take firmer action against the illicit timber traders – who allegedly include government officials.
The warning comes as a scandal centring on the seizure of 30 containers of wood sized at two of the country's ports rocks the Ministry of Water and Forestry.
It centres on the seizure...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Ivory Coast: Illicit Timber Trade Exposes the North to DroughtDrought spreads across England as soil moisture in Anglia reaches record low
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 24th, 2012
Telegraph: Earlier this week the the South East joined most of East Anglia in a state of drought. The soil moisture deficit recorded for East Anglia of 51mm is the driest recorded for this time of year and could mean a very poor harvest for the "bed basket of Britain".
Now the Environment Agency say areas of central and south west England and south east Yorkshire are at risk because of dry weather and extremely low groundwater levels.
There is very little time left for groundwater levels to be restored...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Drought spreads across England as soil moisture in Anglia reaches record lowWisconsin Consider Hunting of Sandhill Crane
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 24th, 2012
New York Times: In Wisconsin, a place where word of dwindling numbers of sandhill cranes set off elaborate conservation efforts decades ago, the birds — elegant, prehistoric-looking creatures that bugle hauntingly — are once more at the center of discussion among state leaders. This time, a member of the State Assembly wants to allow cranes to be hunted. For some among the scores of volunteers who wake up before dawn on a chilly spring day each year to watch the skies for cranes as part of an Annual Midwest Crane...