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Archive for November 20th, 2012
What Climate Change Will Mean for the California Desert
Posted by KCET: Chris Clarke on November 20th, 2012
KCET: A report released this month by the World Bank bears some upsetting news: without a redoubled commitment to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, the world will very likely warm by an average of 3-4° Celsius by the end of this century. (That's 5.5-7°Fahrenheit.) For parts of the California desert that already regularly experience long stretches of daytime temperatures exceeding 100°, considering a boost of seven more degrees Fahrenheit is daunting indeed. But what would a 4°C increase in global...
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Historic Colorado River Agreement Signed Today Between U.S. and Mexico
Posted by EcoWatch: Pacific Institute on November 20th, 2012
EcoWatch: At the historic Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, California, the U.S. and Mexican commissioners of a binational agency that manages water crossing the border signed Minute 319, an amendment to the 1944 treaty that allocates Colorado River water to Mexico. This new agreement, for the first time ever, guarantees that some water will flow in the usually-dry Colorado River channel that marks the boundary between Baja California and Arizona.
“We’ve been working for more than 15 years to get water back...
Climate Change Is Already Worsening Droughts In Many Ways – Nature Gets It Wrong–And Right
Posted by ThinkProgress: Joe Romm on November 20th, 2012
ThinkProgress: Trenberth slams new Nature article on drought: "The conclusions of the paper are likely wrong."
A flawed new article in Nature has a title that sums up its controversial conclusion, “Little change in global drought over the past 60 years.”
I generally judge an article at odds with the broad literature in two ways. How well does it cite and respond to the literature? What do the other leading experts in the field say? This new article comes up short in both areas.
Kevin Trenberth, former...
U.S.-Mexico Reach Accord On Sharing Colorado River Water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 20th, 2012
Yale Environment 360: The U.S. and Mexico have reached an agreement on how to share water from the Colorado River, a five-year deal crafted to help both nations prepare for future droughts. Under the agreement, regional water agencies in California, Arizona, and Nevada will purchase nearly 100,000 acre-feet of water from Mexico’s share of the river, enough to cover 200,000 households for a year. In return, Mexico will receive $10 million to repair damage along hundreds of miles of irrigation canals caused by a 2010 earthquake...
Tree intercropping ‘could save Africa’s soils’
Posted by SciDevNet: Maina Waruru on November 20th, 2012
SciDevNet: Scientists have reported in Nature that the agroforestry approach of planting nutrient-fixing trees with food crops could help replenish Africa's poor quality soils, tackling one of the biggest threats to food security on the continent. Planting certain perennial trees together with food crops can more than double yields for maize and millet, which are among Sub-Saharan Africa's staple foods, scientists say. According to the comment article, 'Agriculture: plant perennials to save Africa's soils',...
Use of Secret Chemicals Runs Rampant in Fracking Industry, New Analysis Shows
Posted by EcoWatch: Matthew McFeeley, Natural Resources Defense Council on November 20th, 2012
EcoWatch: A recent investigation by EnergyWire found that when companies provide information on the chemicals they use to frack wells, most of the time they keep at least one chemical secret. Sixty-five percent of disclosures made by oil and gas companies leave out information about one or more fracking chemicals that the company claims to be confidential, according to the EnergyWire article.
Many of the chemicals that fracking companies admit to using are toxic, carcinogenic, combustible or all of the...
Some N.J. beaches now 50 percent smaller
Posted by MSNBC: None Given on November 20th, 2012
MSNBC: The average New Jersey beach is 30 to 40 feet narrower after Superstorm Sandy, according to a survey that is sure to intensify a long-running debate on whether federal dollars should be used to replenish stretches of sand that only a fraction of U.S. taxpayers use.
Some of New Jersey's famous beaches lost half their sand when Sandy slammed ashore in late October.
The shore town of Mantoloking, one of the hardest-hit communities, lost 150 feet of beach, said Stewart Farrell, director of Stockton...
Corn a sign of Brazil’s growing clout
Posted by Guardian: Howard Schneider on November 20th, 2012
Guardian: As US cornfields withered in drought conditions last summer, Brazil's once empty Cerrado region produced a bumper crop of the grain, helping feed livestock on US farms and ease a drought-related spike in prices.
US imports of Brazilian corn were small by world standards. But they are rising fast, and they mark just one element of the increasingly complex and sometimes contentious relations between the world's agricultural superpower and its fast-growing competitor amid shifts in the global economy....
Farmers look to changes to work with climate: CSIRO
Posted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Lisa Herbert on November 20th, 2012
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Could growing two crops in the same paddock at the same time be one of the answers to helping farmers adapt to climate change?
It's one idea being thrown around as researchers look at ways to help farmers manage climate variability.
CSIRO researcher and agronomist Michael Robertson is exploring what people on the land think of climate change and says farmers are sceptical, but not for obvious reasons.
"It's unforutante the debate around climate change is centred around branding people either...
Earth is moving towards a 4.0 C temperature rise, climate scientists warn
Posted by Daily Mail: Dinesh C Sharma on November 20th, 2012
Daily Mail: The disastrous effects of global warming - rising sea levels, extreme heat waves, crop failures and rise in health burden - could unfold faster than predicted as the world is moving towards a 4°C rise in global temperature, a new report from the World Bank has warned.
Climate scientists have projected that a 2°C rise in global temperatures above the pre-industrial levels could lead to widespread harmful effects of global warming.
Since countries are not doing anything to reduce greenhouse gas...