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Archive for July 13th, 2012
India has least eco impact but feels guilty: study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2012
Agence France-Presse: Indian consumers feel the most guilty about their environmental impact even though they have a smaller average footprint than consumers in wealthy countries, a survey said Thursday.
The 17-nation study by the Washington-based National Geographic Society found a "major disconnect" as consumers in rich nations had the least sustainable lifestyles but also felt the least guilty about their impact.
The " Greendex" found that Indians had the most sustainable behavior, followed by Chinese and Brazilians....
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Indigenous knowledge ‘invaluable’ for Andean adaptation
Posted by indigenous knowledge | food: Emily Kirkland on July 13th, 2012
indigenous knowledge | food: In Eastern Africa, severe drought is causing massive famines. In the United States, temperature records are soaring due to one of the warmest winters in decades. From pine beetle infestations in the Rockies to thinning ice in the Arctic, the impacts of climate change are inescapable.
Adapting to these changes is not an easy task. In addition to using modern science and engineering, we will need to draw on indigenous peoples' traditional knowledge. This knowledge is an invaluable and often overlooked...
Thanks to North Dakota, US waste of natural gas grows rapidly
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2012
Christian Science Monitor: The United States is flaring so much natural gas into the atmosphere - burning it as oil-field waste rather than extracting energy from it in power plants - that it now leads the world in the growth rate at which it is trashing that energy source.
Evidence of the trend can be seen flickering in the night across western North Dakota, where new oil drilling in the Bakken shale formation there has helped propel a surge in US flaring since 2007. As is often the case, many companies find it cheaper...
Drought threatens to darken Obama reelection prospects
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2012
Christian Science Monitor: More than 1,000 US counties – many of them in the grain capitals of the Midwest – have applied for federal disaster relief, meaning they’ve had drought conditions for more than eight weeks. Moreover, 61 percent of the US is now considered drought-stricken, the highest percentage in the 12-year history of the US Drought Monitor.
Drought or no drought, the US will still produce about a third of the world’s corn and will see its third-largest corn crop ever. Moreover, a drought prognosis by Iowa...
Climate could kill you, Outback towns are told
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 13th, 2012
Independent: Climate change could transform the Australian outback, wiping dozens of small towns off the map, according to a new report commissioned by the federal government.
With many rural towns struggling to survive, climate change – expected to make much of inland Australia hotter and drier – could be the final straw, warns the report by the government's National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility.
Not only will the changes affect quality of life, with summer temperatures becoming insufferable,...
Retired U.S. military brass wage political battle for biofuels
Posted by Reuters: Roberta Rampton on July 13th, 2012
Reuters: A coalition of retired U.S. military officers defended the Pentagon's plans to boost the use of more expensive biofuels, telling senators and their staff on Thursday that reduced dependence on oil from the Middle East would ultimately reduce costs and improve national security.
The U.S. veterans were fighting efforts by some Republicans to stop the purchase of expensive biofuels and spending on biofuel refineries at a time when defense budgets face massive cuts.
"A small investment in biofuels...
Erratic rainfall in Sri Lanka hitting rice crop, power production
Posted by AlertNet: Amantha Perera on July 13th, 2012
AlertNet: When it is full, the Parakarama Samudaraya irrigation tank in Sri Lanka's North Central province is an impressive sight. With its waters gently lapping the shores, this ancient reservoir --which covers more than 20 sq km (8 sq miles) - lives up to its name, which means the Parakarama sea.
But these days, it might as well be renamed the Parakarama puddle. The failure of seasonal rains has caused water levels to drop so badly that by the first week of July the reservoir was at less than 8 percent...