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Archive for August, 2012
Wall Street’s Frightening and Predatory Land Grab in Africa
Posted by Color Lines: http://colorlines.com/assets_c/2012/08/wall_street_africa2-thumb-640xauto-6577.j on August 15th, 2012
Color Lines: Wall Street is at again.
The nation`s financial sector is on a crusade to dominate an irreplaceable African resource that the world increasingly needs: massive tracts of open land available for large scale industrial farming. The pace of land purchases is flying so furiously that it is now commonly referred to as "a land grab."
It`s the latest phase in Wall Street`s never-ending quest for profits at-any-cost, but this time the focus of finance`s predatory gaze is the world`s poorest region....
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Wall Street’s Frightening and Predatory Land Grab in AfricaEmergency well drilling brings relief to farmers stricken by drought
Posted by NBC News: Thanh Truong on August 14th, 2012
NBC News: There's a desperate search for water under way throughout Missouri where 95 percent of the state is enduring extreme levels of drought. In the rural area of Truxton, farmer Rusty Lee estimates he'll likely lose 40 percent of his crops.
See our full drought coverage here. And on Wednesday, Aug. 15, watch NBC News, CNBC, MSNBC, The Weather Channel and Telemundo for daylong, network-wide coverage of the drought.
We walked through his withering fields where rows of yellow squash lay shriveled under...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Emergency well drilling brings relief to farmers stricken by droughtHeat Shuts Down a Coastal Reactor
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 13th, 2012
New York Times: A reactor at the Millstone nuclear plant in Waterford, Conn., has shut down because of something that its 1960s designers never anticipated: the water in Long Island Sound was too warm to cool it.
Under the reactor`s safety rules, the cooling water can be no higher than 75 degrees. On Sunday afternoon, the water`s temperature soared to 76.7 degrees, prompting the operator, Dominion Power, to order the shutdown of the 880-megawatt reactor.
“Temperatures this summer are the warmest we’ve had...
Stressed Aquifers Around the Globe
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 13th, 2012
New York Times: As the worst drought in decades continues to afflict the Midwest and the Great Plains, it is straining a precious commodity far beneath the earth’s surface: groundwater.
Take, for instance, the Ogallala aquifer, which underlies eight states from Nebraska to Texas. The aquifer helps irrigate fields of corn, soybeans and wheat, notes Mark Svoboda, a climatologist at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln who maintains the U.S. Drought Monitor.
In a summer like this, even farmers who draw from...
Shifting Climate Makes Frogs More Vulnerable to Disease, Study Says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 13th, 2012
Yale Environment 360: Increasingly unpredictable swings in the weather are making frogs more vulnerable to the deadly chytrid fungus, according to a new study. In a series of tests, scientists at Oakland University in Michigan exposed Cuban treefrogs living under a variety of conditions in laboratory incubators to chytridiomycosis, a highly infectious fungal disease that has decimated amphibian species globally. The scientists found that frogs that were exposed to unpredictable temperature changes were more susceptible...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Shifting Climate Makes Frogs More Vulnerable to Disease, Study SaysDiversifying crops to cope with climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 13th, 2012
IRIN: Lemons and sweet bamboo may not be associated with frontline efforts to adapt to climate change in most parts of the world, but in Kioutaloun village in northern Laos, rice farmers hit by landslides, land erosion and severe flooding are looking to different crops.
"When the farmer starts planting upland rice he needs rain for fast growth. If there is no rain within a month, then it`s not good," said Ki Her, head of Kioutaloun village, where mostly the Hmong ethnic group live.
Khamphone Mounlamai,...
In Iowa, Obama to announce measures to soothe drought pain
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 13th, 2012
Reuters: President Barack Obama will announce on Monday that the Department of Agriculture intends to buy up to $170 million of pork, lamb, chicken and catfish to help support farmers suffering from the drought, a White House official said. The food purchases will go toward "food nutrition assistance" programs, like food banks. During a visit to Iowa, a political swing state that the Democrat hopes to win in the Nov. 6 election, Obama will press Congress to pass a farm bill with short-term relief measures...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on In Iowa, Obama to announce measures to soothe drought painReturn of the Dust Bowl
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 11th, 2012
Independent: The jam jar sitting on John Vannatta's kitchen table appears to be filled with coffee, until he shows you the label on the lid. The preserve inside is history, saved from a time when black blizzards filled the sky, turning day into night; a time when Americans starved. "Pure 1930s Blow Dirt," it reads. It might also say: don't forget, lest it happens again.
Not that Mr Vannatta, 92 – or his neighbour Huston Hanes – needs reminding. Both retired farmers, they are members of a very small club indeed:...
US cuts crop forecast amid severe drought
Posted by NBC News: None Given on August 10th, 2012
NBC News: Federal forecasters are predicting record prices for corn and soybeans, raising fears of a new world food crisis as the worst U.S. drought in half a century continues to punish key farm states.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday said production of U.S. corn and soybeans is expected to be down 17 percent from its forecast last month of nearly 13 billion bushels, and 13 percent lower than last year. It was the second month in a row when the USDA has cut its production estimate.
Corn...
Ecological Internet: In the Struggle for Global Ecological Sustainability for the Long-Haul
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on August 7th, 2012
** UPDATE: Small Is Beautiful - 2012 Mid-Year Fundraiser - $20,800 donated from 222 donors, $4,200 yet to go. We really must raise at least half - $2K - if we are to have necessary funding for the rest of year: http://bit.ly/EI2012mid
Dear EI friends and fellow Earth lovers,
Ecological Internet and Dr. Glen Barry will be taking the remainder of August as a vacation. On the urging of our supporters, we have been encouraged to think of the sustainability of our own selves as well, and this is the third year we will be taking time to rest at the end of August.
Ecological Internet and predecessors have been providing a consistent biocentric, deep ecology message on the Internet for over two decades. We have pioneered the use of the Internet to achieve environmental conservation, and have participated in hundreds of on-the-ground victories, while raising awareness of profoundly important matters of global ecological sustainability.
Our 2012 mid-year fund-raiser is drawing to a close. We fell some $4,000 short of our goal, yet are generally pleased with the outcome. It would help these efforts TREMENDOUSLY if we could raise at least $2,000 more to take us to the year-end fund-raiser. Please donate what you ...
Posted in Uncategorized Comments Off on Ecological Internet: In the Struggle for Global Ecological Sustainability for the Long-Haul