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Archive for October 15th, 2012
Food price crisis: What crisis?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 15th, 2012
BBC: Without water, crops cannot grow and the world cannot eat. And this year, there hasn't been enough of it.
The US has seen its worst drought in more than 50 years, vast swathes of Russia have been left parched by lack of rain, India has had a dry monsoon, while rainfall in South America early in the year fell well below expectations.
As a direct result, harvests of many crops have been decimated, forcing the price of some cereals back up towards levels last seen four years ago, a time when high...
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A Record Lack of Rain in Drought-Stricken Nebraska
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on October 15th, 2012
Climate Central: The 2012 drought has already set a slew of records, and is destined to go down in history as one of the worst droughts since the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s. The drought is not having the same impacts in every state, with recent improvements taking place in the lower Mississippi River Valley, parts of the Midwest, and the East. However, in the Plains and Upper Midwest, along with the West in general, the situation looks bleak. Nebraska, for example, was experiencing "exceptional" drought conditions,...
No Indian Point + No Fracking = More Coal Burning?
Posted by New York Times: Andrew C. Revkin on October 15th, 2012
New York Times: The science writer John Horgan (who`s also a friend and Hudson Valley neighbor) has written a piece for Scientific American laying out the tradeoffs that face New York State, and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, if campaigners succeed in shutting the Indian Point nuclear plant and preventing gas drilling using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Even if energy conservation were pursued more aggressively in the state (a perennial opportunity), scratching off New York natural gas and nuclear power would clearly...
Tracking a Worrisome ‘Dead Zone’
Posted by New York Times: Rachel Nuwer on October 15th, 2012
New York Times: For over a quarter-century, the marine ecologist Nancy Rabalais, the executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, has worked to understand and to spread awareness of the so-called dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Shrimpers trawling the Gulf of Mexico first began noticing a decline in their catch rates in the 1950's. By the time Dr. Rabalais entered the scene in 1985, fishermen and scientists knew that marine life there was suffering recurring, devastating bouts of death by...
Warming climate sends US corn belt north
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 15th, 2012
Bloomberg: Joe Waldman is saying goodbye to corn after yet another hot and dry summer convinced the Kansas farmer that rainfall won`t be there when he needs it anymore.
"I finally just said uncle," said Waldman, 52, surveying his stunted crop about 100 miles north of Dodge City. Instead, he will expand sorghum, which requires less rain, let some fields remain fallow and restrict corn to irrigated fields.
While farmers nationwide planted the most corn this year since 1937, growers in Kansas sowed the fewest...
Lummi fishers and non-Indians essemble fleet in opposition to coal terminal plan
Posted by InterContinental Cry: Terri Hansen on October 15th, 2012
InterContinental Cry: A fleet of boats piloted by Native and non-Native fishers gathered today in the waters off Xwe’chi’eXen (Cherry Point, Wash.) to stand with the Lummi Nation in opposition to the proposed Gateway Pacific coal terminal at Xwe’chi’eXen.
“We have to say ‘no’ to the coal terminal project,” said Cliff Cultee, Chairman of the Lummi Nation. “It is our Xw’ xalh Xechnging (sacred duty) to preserve and protect all of Xwe’chi’eXen.”
A ceremony of thankfulness, remembrance and unity was held on the beach...
Cities can get greener by 2030 as new urban areas built -UN
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 15th, 2012
Reuters: The world's urban areas will more than double in size by 2030, presenting an opportunity to build greener and healthier cities, a U.N. study showed on Monday.
Simple planning measures such as more parks, trees or roof gardens could make cities less polluted and help protect plants and animals, especially in emerging nations led by China and India where city growth will be fastest, it said.
"Rich biodiversity can exist in cities and is extremely critical to people's health and well-being," wrote...
September tied global heat record: U.S. government scientists
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 15th, 2012
Reuters: Last month tied for the warmest September in the global modern record, scientists at the U.S. government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported on Monday. This September tied with the same month in 2005 for the record. The land-and-sea global average temperature was 60.21 F (15.67 C), or 1.21 F (.67 C) above the 20th century average. In addition to being hottest since 1880, the month was the 36th consecutive September and 331st consecutive month with a global temperature above...
NOAA: Around World, September Tied Record For Warmest Temperatures
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 15th, 2012
National Public Radio: This chart offers another perspective on just how warm it was around the world last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says.
The agency has been keeping records since 1880 and the "average combined global land and ocean surface temperature for September 2012 tied with 2005 as the warmest September on record."
According to NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, "the average global temperature across land and ocean surfaces during September was 0.67°C (1.21°F) above the...
Britain cannot rely on world food supplies
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 15th, 2012
Guardian: To describe Britain's attitude to food security over the past couple of decades as cavalier is a serious understatement it. In the grand new globalised world you didn't have to grow apples because you could ship them from New Zealand or South Africa. You didn't have to worry about peas or beans , they came from Peru or Kenya. Chicken from Thailand; fish from wherever the latest ocean-hoovering operation was destroying future stocks – no cause for alarm there. All you needed was a fistful of pounds,...