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Archive for July, 2012
FAO launches project to boost food security in Egypt
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2012
SciDev.Net: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is leading a US$3 million project to boost food and nutrition security for women and youth in Egypt, through increased food production, nutrition education, and governmental capacity building.
The four-year project, announced last month (18 June), is funded by the Italian government and will be implemented in collaboration with Egypt's Ministry of Agriculture.
Moujahed Achouri, the Egyptian FAO representative, told SciDev.Net: "The programme is...
Brazil cripples illegal gold mining operations in indigenous territory
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2012
Mongabay: Brazilian police have arrested 26 people and confiscated gold and aircraft in a coordinated effort to tackle illegal gold-mining in the Yanomami Indigenous Reserve, reports the BBC. Along with illegal miners the year-long investigation also arrested complicit airplane pilots, engineers, and business people in a bid to undercut the trade's funders and infrastructure.
"There was a risk of genocide due to the pressure from the miners. We already have information about confrontations between Indians...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Brazil cripples illegal gold mining operations in indigenous territoryLogging firm to pay record $122.5M over wildfire
Posted by MSNBC: None Given on July 18th, 2012
MSNBC: Logging company Sierra Pacific Industries agreed to pay the United States $122.5 million in damages to settle a lawsuit over a 2007 wildfire that was among the most devastating in California history, the Department of Justice said on Tuesday.
The settlement is the largest ever received by the United States for damages caused by a wildfire, the so-called Moonlight Fire that charred 65,000 acres in September 2007.
The blaze was sparked by employees of the logging company and a contractor who...
Climate change reshaping our world
Posted by Evansville Courier-Press: Brian Howey on July 18th, 2012
Evansville Courier-Press: The silence on the lakes this Fourth of July was eerie. Nary a rocket's red glare or mortar exploding in air.
Accuweather measured the degree of heat: 101 on July 1, 98 on July 2, 95 on July 3, 101 on the holiday, followed by 103, 104 and 106. Driving between Columbus and Edinburgh a week earlier I watched the thermometer on my Ford Escape flicker between 107 and 108.
Evansville set heat records on nine consecutive days. Indianapolis had the second driest June on record. Bloomberg BusinessWeek...
Drought disaster: Food prices set to skyrocket
Posted by Examiner: None Given on July 18th, 2012
Examiner: As climate change continues to rear its ugly head with record drought conditions in 26 states across the U.S., food prices are on the rise with no end in sight. As heat waves, record temperatures and devastating fires continue to wreak havoc, the future for crops look bleak, despite the fact that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has declared over 1,000 U.S. counties natural disaster zones.
With the declaration of the natural disaster zones, qualified farmers will be able to receive...
Keystone XL: Fears, suspicions join landowners at negotiating table
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2012
Greenwire: When Byron Steskal first saw it on the land where he was born nearly six decades ago -- land that his parents bought for $5.15 an acre -- he recalled writing down a statement on Post-it notes before calling the sheriff's office.
It was still standing, just inside the fence that marks Steskal's family property, during his trip home with a reporter on a recent summer afternoon. Scribbled on the bright pink surveying stake were two letters, "T.C.," that he couldn't help but read as a message.
With...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Keystone XL: Fears, suspicions join landowners at negotiating tableLakes Harmed From Global Warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 18th, 2012
redOrbit: As average temperatures across the globe have ticked up, toxic blood-red algae are thriving in central European lakes--according to a new study out of the University of Zurich.
In a report published in Nature Climate Change, Swiss researchers assert that the warmest winters the country has seen in the past 40 years hampered the seasonal die-off of Burgundy blood-red algae, a photosynthetic bacterium that has bloomed en masse recently.
The microorganisms’ metabolism results in the accumulation...
Punishing drought in Midwest shows no sign of abating
Posted by Reuters: Ernest Scheyder on July 18th, 2012
Reuters: Broiling heat blanketed much of the Midwest again on Tuesday, exacerbating the region's worst drought in more than 50 years and devastating corn, soy and other vital crops.
Across the country's agricultural heartland, elected officials met with farmers and ranchers affected by the growing disaster promising government relief.
In Missouri, Governor Jay Nixon announced on Tuesday that all 114 counties in the state have been designated as natural disaster areas due to the drought, making farmers...
Not so fast on blaming global warming
Posted by Washington Post: Editorial on July 17th, 2012
Washington Post: CAN YOU BLAME the scorching weather on climate change? Not really. Or at least not yet.
In a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report released last week, researchers attempted to determine how much they could attribute six extreme weather events last year to human-caused global warming. Even now, months on, some experts worry that drawing conclusions is precipitous. Figuring out what caused a flood in Thailand or a drought in Texas is hard. Doing it quickly is harder.
Scientists...
So, How Hot Was It?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 17th, 2012
New York Times: It was so hot last week, a twin-unit nuclear plant in northeastern Illinois had to get special permission to continue operating after the temperature of the water in its cooling pond rose to 102 degrees.
It was the second such request from the plant, Braidwood, which opened 26 years ago. When it was new, the plant had permission to run as long as the temperature of its cooling water pond, a 2,500-acre lake in a former strip mine, remained below 98 degrees; in 2000 it got permission to raise the...