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Archive for November 24th, 2012
Australia: Growing food in the desert: is this the solution to the world’s food crisis?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 24th, 2012
Guardian: The scrubby desert outside Port Augusta, three hours from Adelaide, is not the kind of countryside you see in Australian tourist brochures. The backdrop to an area of coal-fired power stations, lead smelting and mining, the coastal landscape is spiked with saltbush that can live on a trickle of brackish seawater seeping up through the arid soil. Poisonous king brown snakes, redback spiders, the odd kangaroo and emu are seen occasionally, flies constantly. When the local landowners who graze a few...
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Fracking the Great Lakes
Posted by EcoWatch: Lois Gibbs on November 24th, 2012
EcoWatch: The Great Lakes hold 20 percent of the world’s fresh surface water. The good news is that legacy contaminants are decreasing more quickly than previously reported in three of the Great Lakes, but have stayed virtually the same in two other lakes, according to new research. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the pesticide DDT and other banned compounds dropped about 50 percent in fish in Lakes Michigan, Ontario and Huron from 1999 through 2009, although there were no significant changes in Lakes Superior...
Rain pours down on saturated Britain
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 24th, 2012
Guardian: The misery continued for thousands of householders and travellers as torrential rain once again pounded down on parts of the UK this weekend. More wet weather is on the way, but the Met Office says it may be replaced by a fresh hazard – ice and snow – later in the week.
Up to 60mm of rain is expected, much of it falling on ground already flooded after days of atrocious weather across southern England, the Midlands and Wales. Alerts were in place at notorious flood-risk hotspots including Tewkesbury...
Scientists say freakish weather could become the norm due to global warming
Posted by Daily News: Ben Chapman on November 24th, 2012
Daily News: The U.S. was blasted by monster storms and scorched by record heat waves in 2012 -- freakish weather that could become commonplace because of global warming, scientists warn.
But climate activists hope the destructive weather could have a side benefit of forcing President Obama off the bench when it comes to the issue of climate change.
American political leaders will have a chance to strike a new note on the issue when UN climate talks resume Monday with a two-week conference in Qatar.
“There...
200 flood warnings as Britain braces itself for more heavy rain
Posted by Telegraph: Robert Mendick on November 24th, 2012
Telegraph: Areas the country already left waterlogged by heavy rain earlier in the week were warned they faced the risk of further flooding over the weekend.
The Environment Agency said surface water and flooding were likely over the weekend in south west, central and north west England and Wales.
In all 44 flood warnings were issued by the Environment Agency and another 155 flood alerts.
The agency said river flooding is likely with the possibility of significant disruption, particularly across Devon,...
Sweden: Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Drained Wetlands Equal To Industrial Sources
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 24th, 2012
RedOrbit: Greenhouse gas emissions originating from drained wetlands are roughly equal to that given off by industrial factories, a team of Swedish researchers claim in a new study.
Experts from the University of Gothenburg and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) were commissioned by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency to analyze and compile a report about the amount of greenhouse gases given off by forests and agricultural fields on areas that once had been wetlands.
They discovered...
Children cite ‘pollution’ as greatest environmental concern
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 24th, 2012
Environmental News Network: A comprehensive survey of youngsters from around the world has discovered the biggest concern they have about the environment they live in is pollution. The global poll of more than 6,000 children in 47 countries found that, although almost one in three 10-to-12-year-olds had personally experienced such catastrophes as drought, flood or fires, their most pressing ecological concern is not natural disasters but the growing threat of pollution. More than one in four children (29%) cited various forms...
Rising Seas, Vanishing Coastlines
Posted by New York Times: Benjamin Strauss and Robert Kopp on November 24th, 2012
New York Times: THE oceans have risen and fallen throughout Earth's history, following the planet's natural temperature cycles. Twenty thousand years ago, what is now New York City was at the edge of a giant ice sheet, and the sea was roughly 400 feet lower. But as the last ice age thawed, the sea rose to where it is today.
Now we are in a new warming phase, and the oceans are rising again after thousands of years of stability. As scientists who study sea level change and storm surge, we fear that Hurricane Sandy...
UK on flood alert with heavy rain forecast for weekend
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 24th, 2012
Guardian: Flooding across the UK is set to worsen this weekend with "substantial" heavy rainfall forecast in the next 24 hours.
The Environment Agency (EA) has 52 flood warnings and 159 less serious flood alerts in place with England, Wales and Scotland expected to see one inch of rain fall on Saturday and winds of up to 60mph.
The agency said nearly 300 properties had already flooded across the UK since Tuesday. On Thursday night a man died when he became trapped in his 4x4 after it became wedged under...