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Archive for September, 2012
Species loss, climate change linked
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 28th, 2012
United Press International: Species loss and reduced biodiversity make nature more sensitive to climate change, Swedish researchers say.
This is especially true for species that sustain important functions such as water purification and crop pollination in a changing environment, they said.
Scientists at the University of Gothenberg say high biodiversity acts as an insurance policy as it increases the likelihood at least some species will be sufficiently resilient to sustain those important functions.
Experiments with...
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Action on climate change crucial to water and food security, Ban stresses at UN event
Posted by UN: None Given on September 28th, 2012
UN: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called again for urgent and concrete action on climate change, as high-level officials gathered at the United Nations to discuss the growing global concern over the impacts of the phenomenon on food and water security.
"Action on climate change remains a major piece of unfinished business," Mr. Ban told an event hosted by Qatar on the sidelines of the General Debate of the 67th session of the General Assembly.
Last December, Member States agreed to reach...
North India, Himalayas to be worst hit by climate change: Report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 28th, 2012
Times of India: Northern parts of the country and the Himalayan region will be the worst hit by climate change in India and warming will be greater over land than sea, according to a latest report.
"In the 2020s, the projected warming is of the order of 0.5-1.5 degree Celsius , by the 2050s, 3 degree celsius and by the 2080s, around 4 degree Celsius. Warming will be greater over land than sea and it is projected over northern parts of the Indian landmass and over the Himalayas," says a joint India-UK report on...
UK shale gas is more lead balloon than silver bullet
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 28th, 2012
Guardian: With the UK government expected to give the go-ahead for shale gas exploitation "soon", it's a good time to re-enter the smoke and mirrors world of fracking.
There are plenty of people bubbling with excitement at the prospect of the drilling beginning. They argue that shale gas has been the biggest cause of carbon dioxide emission cuts in the US recently, thanks to the replacement of coal. It's cheap too, they say, again pointing again to the US, and there's a vast amount under our feet here in...
Our survival depends on fighting climate change
Posted by High Country News: Tom Bell on September 28th, 2012
High Country News: I am 88 and have seen a lot of change over the decades, but I do not think anyone living now has ever faced a more serious threat to life than the threat of global climate change. As President Obama said recently, “More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They’re a threat to our children’s future.”
I come from a far different time. Born in a coal-mining town, I was raised on a ranch five miles out of Lander, Wyo., just two miles from where my mother was born, in 1901. I went to one-room...
Changing Calif. climate a threat to crops
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 28th, 2012
San Francisco Chronicle: Farmers have always been gamblers, long accustomed to betting on the probabilities of the weather. But for the Napa Valley, where temperatures have been ideal for the wine industry, shifts in the Earth's climate could be a game-changer.
"They're used to rolling the dice every year," said Stuart Weiss, a conservation biologist and chief scientist at the Creekside Center for Earth Observation in Menlo Park, which assists growers and municipalities dealing with the disruptions caused by the changing...
We Are Causing Our Crazy Weather – So What Now?
Posted by AltertNet: None Given on September 28th, 2012
AltertNet: Have you ever been drenched by heavy rain or sweltered in searing heat and wondered whether it might have been exacerbated by climate change? Until recently, the answer from scientists might have been: 'today's weather was consistent with the kind of extremes that we can expect in the future, but we can't link individual weather events to climate change'. This picture is changing rapidly though, with climate scientists much more willing to tie weather events to climate change; an exercise known...
RAINFOREST ALERT! Tell Liberia: Industrial Primary Rainforest Logging is Corrupt, Ecocidal, and Must End
Posted by Water Conservation Blog on September 28th, 2012
By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal
TAKE ACTION!
New logging contracts have been issued across 40% of Liberia's primary rainforests [search] in only two years of resumed industrial logging. A full one quarter of Liberias total landmass half of its best primary rainforests were granted using secretive and illegal logging permits. Malaysian logging giant Samling, who has a long history of illegal logging from Cambodia to Guyana to Papua New Guinea, is a major beneficiary. Such major corruption after years of logging fueled war, $30 million in international subsidies for "sustainable" rainforest logging, and a resumption of logging only since 2010 shows clearly that Liberia's rainforest logging remains irredeemably corrupt and inevitably ecologically devastating. What if the $30 million invested in resuming "sustainable logging" had been used instead to find ways for local communities to benefit from standing old forests? For local peoples and the biosphere, it is time to ban primary forest logging in Liberia and globally.
Report shows climate change behind the current drought and summer wild fires
Posted by Examiner: None Given on September 27th, 2012
Examiner: Tuesday the House Committee on Natural Resources and Energy Minority staff released a new report which concludes the current drought and last summer’s wildfires are in part due to climate change.
This is the second of a three-part series on that Report. The first article reported evidence that our nation is getting warmer. In this article, we examine excerpts from the Report that connect the current drought and last summers wildfires to global warming.
Drought
“As of early September, 64%...
Despite Record Drought, Farmers Expect Banner Year
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2012
National Public Radio: After one of the driest summers on record, recent rains have helped in some parts of the country. But overall, the drought has still intensified. The latest tracking classifies more than a fifth of the contiguous United States in "extreme or exceptional" drought, the worst ratings.
In some parts of the Lower Midwest, water-starved crops have collapsed, but the farmers have not. Farmers across the country are surviving, and many are even thriving. This year, despite the dismal season, farmers stand...