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Archive for July, 2012
Connecticut farmers adapt to climate change
Posted by New Haven Register: Mercy Quaye on July 23rd, 2012
New Haven Register: April showers usually bring May flowers, but this year, the flowers came early. Strange weather across the state and country has many farmers adapting to a severely changing climate.
In Madison, a family of farmers pulls out a vegetable stand to the side of the road daily. Though Cole Farms had corn spouting up to two weeks early, they've managed to navigate the weather with some success.
"Everything is ahead of schedule this year,' said Dan Cole, co-owner. "We've adapted to it by planting...
United States: 43% of state’s corn crop in poor to very poor condition
Posted by Journal Sentinel: Joe Taschler on July 23rd, 2012
Journal Sentinel: Close to half the corn crop in Wisconsin and other corn-producing states is in poor to very poor condition, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday, as one of the nation's worst-ever droughts continues to turn the growing season into a nightmare for many.
In Wisconsin, 43% of the corn crop is in very poor to poor condition, the report said. About a third of the state's corn - 31% - is considered to be in good or excellent condition by the USDA, and 26% of the state's corn crop is in fair...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on United States: 43% of state’s corn crop in poor to very poor conditionUS Drought Could Trigger Repeat of Global Food Crisis, Experts Warn
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 23rd, 2012
Guardian: America's drought threatens a recurrence of the 2008 global food crisis, when soaring prices set off riots and unrest to parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, food experts warn.
Corn prices reached an all-time high on Friday, as the drought expanded across America, trading at $8.24 a bushel on the Chicago exchange. Soybeans were also trading at record levels.
The US department of agriculture meanwhile predicted there would be less corn coming onto global markets over the next...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on US Drought Could Trigger Repeat of Global Food Crisis, Experts WarnOil and gas infrastructure poisoning Texas with 30,000 tons of toxic chemicals a year
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on July 22nd, 2012
Environment News Service: Flares, leaking pipelines and tanks emitted 92,000 tons of toxic chemicals into the air during accidents, break-downs and maintenance at Texas oil and gas facilities, refineries and petrochemical plants over the past three years, finds a report released today by the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project, EIP.
Based on data from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, a state agency, the EIP report shows that, in addition to the emissions from normal operations, more than 42,000 tons...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Oil and gas infrastructure poisoning Texas with 30,000 tons of toxic chemicals a yearClimate science: the gathering storm
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 22nd, 2012
Guardian: After the driest winter on record, Sir David Attenborough wouldn't be the only Briton to blame the wettest English summer ever on global climate change, on some inexorable shift in the planetary machinery that upsets all reasonable expectation. There is a connection, although no single meteorological episode in any locality could ever be directly linked to global warming: this flood or that cyclone might have happened anyway. Even the increasing frequency worldwide of climate-related disasters, along...
United Nations project to revive Zambia’s forest
Posted by Zambia Daily Mail: Doreen Nawa on July 22nd, 2012
Zambia Daily Mail: MONITORING forestry losses in Zambia and the effects that the loss has on the environment can be a challenge because of lack of technical know-how.
Following the effects that deforestation has on the environment in relation to climate change, the situation in Zambia is rather a hopeless case for the lack of expertise in monitoring and managing forestry countrywide.
Environmental advocates say that forests play a critical role in mitigating climate change through the confiscation and storage...
America’s corn farmers high and dry as hope withers with their harvest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 22nd, 2012
Guardian: The worst drought in a generation is hitting farmers across America's corn belt far harder than government projections and forcing them to a heart-breaking decision: harvest what's left of their shrivelled acres or abandon their entire crop.
For Mike Buis, pictured, who farms in west-central Indiana, the most he could hope for, his best-case scenario, was saving one-third of his crop.
"I'd be tickled to death if it would make 50 bushels (1.5 tonnes), if we don't have rain," he said. Most of...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on America’s corn farmers high and dry as hope withers with their harvestDrastic changes in weather spelled doom for American corn crop
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 22nd, 2012
Guardian: The heat wave that lit up a vast swathe of the mid-west could not have come at a worse time for this year's corn.
Or delivered more of a shock to farmers. All signs had been pointing to a bumper crop this year.
A mild winter, a balmy spring – most farmers elected to plant some of their fields a few weeks earlier than usual. Mike Buis, who farms in west-central Indiana, put some of his corn in on 9 April.
Some farmers didn't even hold on that long, planting as early as March.
By 1 June,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Drastic changes in weather spelled doom for American corn cropBeijing battered by rainstorms
Posted by Shanghai Daily: None Given on July 22nd, 2012
Shanghai Daily: STORMS that lashed large swathes of northern and southwestern China from Friday night through yesterday have killed at least 14 people, authorities said.
And heavy rains are forecast to continue in China's northern regions and some southern parts over the next three days.
In Beijing, rainstorms and gales that started around 10am yesterday have left at least four people dead and six others injured, police and medical workers said.
Roofs at a construction site in the city's suburban Tongzhou...
Risk of drilling for natural gas is too high
Posted by Denver Post: Allen Best on July 22nd, 2012
Denver Post: Like Josh Fox, the maker of the semi-documentary film "Gasland," I am an owner of natural gas in the Marcellus shale of Pennsylvania. My newfound wealth was reported to me one evening last year as I prepared to go to a Denver Nuggets game.
A third or fourth cousin from Kansas called to tell me about our common ancestor, Solomon Hinerman. He had farmed briefly in Pennsylvania's Green County more than a century ago, and a gas company -- I believe it was Chesapeake Energy -- wanted to lease our mineral...