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Archive for November 19th, 2012
Uganda: Pollution – Expert Warns on Land Use
Posted by East African Business Week: Flavia Nassaka on November 19th, 2012
East African Business Week: Statistics show that agriculture and food production emit 29% of the global greenhouse gases. According to Mr. Richard Mugisha an advocacy official at Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Uganda, global warming will change more than just the climate. "It's going to have a great impact on humanity's relationship with food. Climate change mitigation and adaptation are critical priorities as farmers have to change their practices in relation with the new climate," he told East African...
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As Sea Ice Declines, Winter Shifts in Northern Alaska
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on November 19th, 2012
Climate Central: The consequences of the record loss of Arctic sea ice this past summer are becoming clear to the 4,000 or so residents of Barrow, Alaska, who have seen a much milder and snowier-than-average start to their typically long and bitterly cold winter season.
As is typical for this time of year, much of Alaska has already been plunged into winter conditions, with temperatures below 0°F in some locations. Yet Barrow, which from its perch on Alaska's North Slope is the country's northernmost town, has...
BP fined $4.5 billion for Gulf of Mexico oil spill, but company may spend more buying its own stocks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 19th, 2012
Mongabay: Last week the U.S. federal government fined BP $4.5 billion for the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010, which killed 11 workers and leaked nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The oil giant also plead guilt to 12 felonies and two misdemeanors. However, even this fine-the largest in U.S. history-failed to dampen shareholder support of BP: stocks actually rose one percent following the announcement. Meanwhile, according to the Sunday Times, BP plans to spend $5.9 billion (over a...
Californians can now fill up on algae-based biodiesel
Posted by MSNBC: None Given on November 19th, 2012
MSNBC: Scientists around the world have been looking for ways to replace petroleum with alternatives that could prove, cleaner, renewable and, if possible, cheaper.
No, you can’t simply pump the green scum that forms on your swimming pool into your gas tank, but motorists in the San Francisco area now can fill up on a new biofuel derived from algae.
There are plenty of proponents searching for ways to replace petroleum with renewable fuels, though some alternatives, such as corn-based ethanol, have...
Water storage efforts reverse migration in Pakistan
Posted by AlertNet: Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio on November 19th, 2012
AlertNet: A year ago, Aslam Bibi and her family left their village and moved to a nearby town, desperate to find a way to eke out a living in the face of failing rainfall that made subsistence impossible.
But after a few months, Bibi returned, drawn back home by news of newly constructed reservoirs that have begun soaking the parched farmlands in her area and replenishing underground aquifers.
Water is now supplied to Bibi's village of Ghool from a nearby reservoir and mini dam. Stored rainwater is funnelled...
World Water Day
Posted by BusinessGreen: None Given on November 19th, 2012
BusinessGreen: World Water Day will take place on 22 March 2013, this year taking the theme of cooperation and reflecting the United Nation's decision to make 2013 the International Year of Water Cooperation. The UN wants to raise awareness of increasing water stress as well as the opportunities for governments, businesses and organisations to work together to improve water management The year is also designed to build momentum created at last year's UN Rio+20 Earth summit, specifically to create new targets...
Climate change threatens population of Earth’s largest sea turtle
Posted by Mongabay: Jessica Shugart on November 19th, 2012
Mongabay: A drier, hotter climate in Central America could wipe out the population of leatherback sea turtles from the eastern Pacific Ocean by the year 2100, according to a grim projection published on July 1 in Nature Climate Change. Already critically endangered from fisheries by-catch and historic egg poaching, leatherbacks can hardly accommodate another human-related threat. Yet scientists still hold out hope for interventions that could save the turtles.
Leatherbacks (Dermochelys coriacea)--the largest...
A Global Treaty on Rivers: Key to True Water Security
Posted by Yale Environment 360: Fred Pearce on November 19th, 2012
Yale Environment 360: Is peace about to break out on the world’s rivers?
It is amazing that until now there has been no global agreement on sharing international rivers. From the Mekong to the Jordan and the Niger to the Euphrates, there has been nothing to stop upstream countries from building giant dams that cut off all flows downstream. Yet in the coming weeks we could have two such treaties.
First, the continuing bad news: Belligerent countries are still exerting their hydrological muscle. Just this month, Laos...
Dust Bowl lesson: We can heal ecological disaster
Posted by Christian Science Monitor: Laurent Belsie on November 19th, 2012
Christian Science Monitor: On the face of it, the two disasters have little in common. One is wet; the other is dry. They're eight decades apart. The superstorm knocked out power for weeks; the Dust Bowl knocked out livelihoods over a decade and caused massive migrations.
The troubling link is that the Dust Bowl's dryness was made worse by human practices and Sandy's flooding was made worse by rising oceans, probably linked to human-induced climate change.
One can take that two ways. Pessimists can say it's a bad omen...
Climate change: It’s even worse than we thought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 19th, 2012
New Scientist: Five years ago, the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change painted a gloomy picture of our planet's future. As climate scientists gather evidence for the next report, due in 2014, Michael Le Page gives seven reasons why things are looking even grimmer
ARCTIC WARMING
The thick sea ice in the Arctic Ocean was not expected to melt until the end of the century. If current trends continue, summer ice could be gone in a decade or two
EXTREME WEATHER
We knew global warming...