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Archive for August, 2012
Drought worsens in midwest and threatens next year’s corn crop
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 2nd, 2012
Guardian: The worst drought in 50 years has intensified across the US midwest, not only condemning this year's corn crop but threatening the prospects for next year's too, new figures showed on Thursday.
The political fallout intensified as well, with growing pressure for the Obama administration to end its support for corn ethanol.
Critics say diverting food to fuel for corn ethanol production risks a global food crisis, tightening supplies and driving up prices. Nearly a third of Congress members signed...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Drought worsens in midwest and threatens next year’s corn cropExtreme weather from climate change increases urgency of pollution reductions
Posted by The Hill: Daniel J. Weiss on August 2nd, 2012
The Hill: The warnings about climate change have grown to a deafening roar. This summer we are experiencing deadly heat waves and costly drought. The recent heat led to at least 55 fatalities. The New York Times describes the widespread drought.
The drought that has settled over more than half of the continental United States this summer is the most widespread in more than half a century. And it is likely to grow worse.
The government has declared one-third of the nation’s counties…to be federal disaster...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Extreme weather from climate change increases urgency of pollution reductionsPlanet’s Carbon Storing Capacity Keeping Pace with Human Emissions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 2nd, 2012
Yale Environment 360: A new study finds that earth’s oceans and lands continue to absorb more than half of the human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, suggesting that the planet has not yet reached its carbon-storage capacity even as emissions continue to escalate. Writing in the journal Nature, a team of U.S. scientists calculate that the world’s natural systems -- including seas, forests, and soils -- have absorbed about 55 percent of the roughly 350 billion tons of greenhouse gases emitted during the last 50 years....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Planet’s Carbon Storing Capacity Keeping Pace with Human EmissionsU.S. Midwest and central Plains bake as drought intensifies
Posted by Reuters: Karl Plume on August 2nd, 2012
Reuters: The worst U.S. drought in 56 years intensified over the past week as above-normal temperatures and scant rainfall parched corn and soybean crops across the Midwest and central Plains, a report from climate experts said on Thursday.
The drought became more severe in the southern United States as well, just a year removed from a record-breaking dry spell that ruined crops and wilted grazing pastures across Texas and Oklahoma enough to force an unprecedented northward migration of cattle.
Nearly...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on U.S. Midwest and central Plains bake as drought intensifiesEarth absorbing more carbon, even as CO2 emissions rise
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 2nd, 2012
ScienceDaily: Despite sharp increases in carbon dioxide emissions by humans in recent decades that are warming the planet, Earth's vegetation and oceans continue to soak up about half of them, according to a surprising new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.
The study, led by CU-Boulder postdoctoral researcher Ashley Ballantyne, looked at global CO2 emissions reports from the past 50 years and compared them with rising levels of CO2 in Earth's atmosphere during that time, primarily because of fossil...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Earth absorbing more carbon, even as CO2 emissions riseEnbridge insists pipe safety regimen is working
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 2nd, 2012
Reuters: Enbridge Inc insisted on Thursday its quick response to a U.S. oil pipeline leak last week showed that safety improvements implemented after a devastating 2010 spill in Michigan were working, despite sharp criticism from regulators.
Enbridge, which reported a 7 percent increase in adjusted second-quarter profit, said it was still uncertain when it could reopen the line.
The Canadian pipeline company is under growing pressure from the public, its oil-shipping customers and now investors to show...
Study: Dispersants used in Gulf oil spill could damage marine food web
Posted by MSNBC: Kari Huus on August 2nd, 2012
MSNBC: During the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which dumped nearly 5 million barrels of crude into the water, responders applied some 1.8 million gallons of chemical dispersant to break up the oil slick.
The chemicals, which were sprayed on the surface and pumped near the gushing pipe on the ocean floor, largely prevented the slick from saturating delicate coastal marshes, but they had their own environmental impact that scientists are only now beginning to understand.
A...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Study: Dispersants used in Gulf oil spill could damage marine food webExtreme weather and climate change: Caution required but not reckless statements
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 2nd, 2012
Washington Post: In the wake of punishing heat waves, historic droughts, extensive flooding and extraordinary melt activity on Greenland, many are asking if we are seeing long-predicted results of climate change, caused primarily by man-made heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions. Recent studies on extreme events found in an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society suggest that such events may not be attributable to weather variability alone....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Extreme weather and climate change: Caution required but not reckless statementsWomen ‘are the foot soldiers of climate change adaptation’ – expert
Posted by AlertNet: Amantha Perera on August 2nd, 2012
AlertNet: In 2006, when the Asian Development Bank (ADB) decided to launch a multi-million dollar rural water project in eastern and north central regions of Sri Lanka, there was one overriding requirement -- women would be placed in key positions.
As a result, experts say, the $263 million program, aimed at providing drinking water to over 900,000 people by 2011, has been a particular success.
In the village of Talpothta, in the rural north-central Polonnaruwa District, the village women's association...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Women ‘are the foot soldiers of climate change adaptation’ – expertDrought-Stricken Farmers Pay the Price for Failed Climate Bill
Posted by Huffington Post: Donald Carr on August 2nd, 2012
Huffington Post: In the face of crippling drought across the Corn Belt, Congress is considering funding a disaster aid package with cuts to climate friendly conservation programs.
Even as extreme drought wreaks havoc on crops and communities across the Midwest, government officials are now confident that they can link recent bouts of extreme weather to man-made climate change. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration underscored that point in early July when it released research conducted by 378 scientists...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Drought-Stricken Farmers Pay the Price for Failed Climate Bill