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Archive for August, 2012
As Climate Changes, Urban Planners Help Cities Adapt
Posted by WBUR: Bob Oakes and George Hicks on August 23rd, 2012
WBUR: Despite the ongoing national political dissension over climate change, Boston and Cambridge, among other cities around the world, are searching for ways to cope with its effects.
A recent survey finds that "79 percent of cities worldwide report that in the past five years they perceived changes in temperature, precipitation, sea level, or natural hazards that they attribute to climate change."
JoAnn Carmin, co-author of the study, is Associate Professor of Environmental Policy and Planning...
UN calls for policies to counter drought threats worldwide
Posted by Press Trust of India: Yoshita Singh on August 23rd, 2012
Press Trust of India: As farmers from Africa to India struggle with insufficient rainfall, the United Nations has sought consolidated efforts to combat climate change threat and counter its effects on global food security.
"Climate change is projected to increase the frequency, intensity, and duration of droughts, with impacts on many sectors, in particular food, water, and energy," warned World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.
"We need to move away from a piecemeal, crisis-driven...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on UN calls for policies to counter drought threats worldwideBangladesh farmers caught in vicious cycle of flood and debt
Posted by Guardian: Syed Zain Al-Mahmood on August 23rd, 2012
Guardian: Seven-year-old Mili Begum knows her classroom like the back of her hand. She should, because she's been living in it for the past six weeks. The flood waters that surged through her village in the Sunamganj district of north-east Bangladesh have receded, but her family is one of many struggling to cope after losing both home and belongings.
The monsoon floods killed more than 100 people and displaced an estimated 600,000 in June and July, mainly in the north-east and south-east of the country....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Bangladesh farmers caught in vicious cycle of flood and debtOur Changing Forests: An 88-Year Time Lapse
Posted by National Public Radio: Andrew Prince on August 23rd, 2012
National Public Radio: Intense forest fires have been raging across the western United States this summer. So far this year, nearly 43,000 wildfires have torched almost 7 million acres of land.
As NPR Science correspondent Christopher Joyce and photographer David Gilkey report from Arizona and New Mexico this week, the forests of the American Southwest have become so overgrown that they're essentially tinderboxes just waiting for a spark.
This "tree epidemic" stems from Forest Service policy dating back to the early...
No-till could help maintain crop yields despite climate change
Posted by Phys.Org: None Given on August 23rd, 2012
Phys.Org: Reducing tillage for some Central Great Plains crops could help conserve water and reduce losses caused by climate change, according to studies at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Research leader Laj Ahuja and others at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Agricultural Systems Research Unit at Fort Collins, Colo., superimposed climate projections onto 15 to 17 years of field data to see how future crop yields might be affected. ARS is USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency,...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on No-till could help maintain crop yields despite climate changeClimate change denial doesn’t hold water
Posted by Delmarva Now: None Given on August 23rd, 2012
Delmarva Now: People who live inland on the Delmarva Peninsula may still argue that sea level isn't rising or that global warming isn't happening. But they're either in denial or not paying attention. Those who live along the various shorelines of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia are watching as it unfolds. Scientists tell us not only is sea level rising, in part because of polar glacial melt, but Delmarva is slowly sinking at the same time. Islands in the Chesapeake Bay and other bodies of water that surround...
China may start building rare earths stockpile in Sept -report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 23rd, 2012
Reuters: China, the world's largest producer and consumer of rare earths, may start building an 18,000-tonne strategic stockpile of the elements in September, the Economic Information Daily newspaper said on Thursday.
Though it has just 23 percent of global reserves, China accounts for more than 90 percent of the world's supplies of rare earths. It has trimmed its export quotas in recent years, angering trade partners who say the curbs are unfair.
"Given the fluctuation of the market and falling rare...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on China may start building rare earths stockpile in Sept -reportCalifornia declares emergency as wildfire advances on town
Posted by Reuters: Mary Slosson on August 23rd, 2012
Reuters: California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in three Northern California counties on Wednesday after a wildfire that has already destroyed 64 homes advanced with 75-foot flames on a tiny community at the doorstep of a national park.
Firefighters scrambled to head off the so-called Ponderosa Fire, which had scorched 24,000 acres, before it reached the outskirts of Mineral, a community of less than 200 people just south of Lassen National Volcanic Park.
Authorities issued an...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on California declares emergency as wildfire advances on townIs Climate Change To Blame For This Year’s West Nile Outbreak?
Posted by Scientific American: Christie Wilcox on August 23rd, 2012
Scientific American: According to the Centers for Disease Control, there have been over 1100 reported cases of West Nile virus disease in the US this year, including 42 deaths. If these numbers seem high, they are -- in fact, it`s the highest number of reported cases since West Nile was first detected in the US in 1999, and West Nile season has just begun. Given that the peak of West Nile epidemics generally occurs in mid August, and it takes a few weeks for people to fall ill, the CDC expects that number to rise dramatically....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Is Climate Change To Blame For This Year’s West Nile Outbreak?GM rice ‘thrives in poor soils’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 22nd, 2012
BBC: A gene from wild Indian rice plants can significantly raise the yield of common varieties in nutrient-poor soils.
Scientists from the International Rice Research Institute (Irri) identified a gene that helps uptake of phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium, and transferred it into commercial strains.
Their yield was about 60% above normal in phosphorus-poor soils, the team reports in the journal Nature.
Large swathes of Asia have soil that is phosporus-deficient.
The gene came from a variety...