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Archive for October 15th, 2012
Heavy rains raise concerns for Ivory Coast cocoa
Posted by Reuters: Loucoumane Coulibaly on October 15th, 2012
Reuters: Heavy rainfall across most of Ivory Coast's principal cocoa growing regions last week could hinder proper drying of beans and risks damaging flowers and young pods, farmers and analysts said on Monday. Harvesting of the main crop in Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, officially opened earlier this month under a widespread reform of the sector that is being closely watched by traders. Earlier concerns that fungal disease caused by over a month of cool, overcast conditions could harm output...
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Corn Belt Shifts North With Climate as Kansas Crop Dies
Posted by Bloomberg: Alan Bjerga 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...
: 50+ Rally in Support of Keystone XL Tree Sitters, 3 Arrested
Posted by EcoWatch: Tar Sands Blockade on October 15th, 2012
EcoWatch: Following a weekend of nonviolent civil disobedience training in North Texas by Tar Sands Blockade, dozens of protesters and supporters are rallying today at the site of the largest and longest tree sit in Texas history to stage the largest walk-on site protest and civil disobedience in the history of Keystone XL pipeline construction. Several individuals are defending the tree sitters and the trees by locking themselves to construction equipment being used in proximity to the forest blockade. Solidarity...
New Report Confirms Fracking is Reckless
Posted by Frack Action: None Given on October 15th, 2012
Frack Action: A new report1 on shale resources and hydraulic fracturing from the Government Accountability Office (GAO)--an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress--concludes that fracking poses serious risks to health and the environment. The report, which reviewed studies from state agencies overseeing fracking as well as scientific reports, found that the extent of the risks has not yet been fully quantified and that there are many unanswered questions and a lack of scientific data....
What Is the Future of King Coal in China?
Posted by World Resources Institute: Ailun Yang on October 15th, 2012
World Resources Institute: When it comes to coal consumption, no other nation comes close to China. The country reigns as the world’s largest coal user, burning almost half of the global total each year. About 70 percent of China’s total energy consumption and nearly 80 percent of its electricity production come from coal, and its recent shift from being a historical net coal exporter to the world’s largest net coal importer took only three years.
China’s great thirst for coal is undeniably troubling from a sustainable...
Fracking’s Dark Side Gets Darker
Posted by Natural Resources Defense Council: Peter Lehner on October 15th, 2012
Natural Resources Defense Council: Fracking for oil in North Dakota is so lucrative that when natural gas bubbles up alongside the oil, most oil companies simply view it as waste. It`s cheaper, in the short term, to burn the gas than it is to build the infrastructure to pipe and sell it--so they burn it. Across the North Dakota prairie, natural gas flares light up the night sky like huge torches. Every day, they burn off enough gas to heat half a million homes.
The risks and challenges of extracting natural gas, and fracking, in...
Globalisation of floods: The start of a hundred years of change in Nigeria
Posted by Vanguard: Dele Sobowale on October 15th, 2012
Vanguard: “Climate change is more threatening than people realize”- Dr Kim, CNN, October 12, 2012.
Another climatologist has gone further by stating that climate change and the advent of perennial floods are already reshaping civilization as we know it and very few countries will emerge intact from the impact of climate change. Nigeria is no exception. Countries with long coastal regions and many rivers, which hitherto had benefitted from water provided by rivers, seas and oceans will be the hardest hit....
Drought demands wiser water decisions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on October 15th, 2012
Daily Climate: Midway through October, almost 64 percent of the contiguous United States remains in some form of drought, as the nation's most widespread drought since 1956 continues to threaten drinking water supplies, crops and livestock.
A stunning 90 percent of the West is abnormally dry, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, with large areas of extreme drought in Colorado and Wyoming. Moderate to severe drought now stretches from Montana, south to Arizona, New Mexico and California.
The summer's epic...
River Runners: The Latest Victims of Climate Change
Posted by Outside: Mary Catherine O'Connor on October 15th, 2012
Outside: For the contiguous United States, the first nine months of 2012 were the warmest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. As of October 2, 64 percent of the United States was in the middle of a drought. Wyoming and Colorado experienced the warmest summer on record, while Wyoming and Nevada saw the driest summer on record. In western and central regions of the country, wildfires burned a record-breaking 3.6 million acres in August.
In other words, it was a cruel...
Green Crude: The Quest to Unlock Algae’s Energy Potential
Posted by Yale Environment 360: Marc Gunther on October 15th, 2012
Yale Environment 360: Tiny Columbus, New Mexico (population, 1,678) is hot, flat and uncrowded -- an ideal place to launch a new green revolution in agriculture. That, in essence, is what a well-funded startup company called Sapphire Energy wants to do: It is turning a 300-acre expanse of desert scrub into the world’s largest algae farm designed to produce crude oil. Sapphire began making oil there in May, and its goal is to produce about 100 barrels a day, or 1.5 million gallons a year, of oil, once construction of the...