RSS Feed
Archive for January 10th, 2013
Throwing our food away: Up to 50% of the food produced worldwide is wasted
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2013
Mongabay: A new report titled “Global food, waste not, want not” published by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers has found that 30 to 50 percent of all food produced in the world never reaches a stomach. The authors of the study warn that these figures are quite conservative. The large amounts of land, energy, fertilizers and water that are wasted in the food production have not been accounted for. In developing countries this waste is mostly due to inefficient harvesting methods, poor storage and transportation...
Posted in 
Groups collect cases of comments on NY gas regs
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2013
Associated Press: As Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration nears completion of regulations that could lift a 4 1/2-year-old ban on shale gas drilling in New York, opposition groups have ramped up efforts to persuade the governor to say no to fracking. Environmental, health and community groups opposed to shale gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," say they collected more than 200,000 comments during an intense 30-day effort featuring online coaching and comment-writing workshops at churches, community...
Climate change causing headaches for winemakers
Posted by Bloomberg: John Mariani on January 10th, 2013
Bloomberg: Terraced vineyards meander along the Douro River in Portugal. The hillsides allow Port producers to plant in higher or lower elevations depending on weather. (Fladgate Partnership Vinhos S.A)To paraphrase Shakespeare, in the vineyards of the world, something worrisome this way comes. Over the last decade, global warming has started affecting those narrow zones best suited for growing wine grapes.
Warmer temperatures are a mixed blessing for winemakers. In colder climates like Bordeaux and Burgundy,...
Rain to help raise Mississippi River, ease shipper woes
Posted by Reuters: Karl Plume on January 10th, 2013
Reuters: A storm moving up the Mississippi River valley will help replenish the river, low in parts from drought, and ease concerns that shipping could be halted along a shallow stretch from St. Louis to Cairo, Illinois.
Shipping groups had warned as recently as last week of an effective closure of the river along that busy stretch, through which billions of dollars of grain, coal, fertilizer and other commodities flow every year.
Rain and the brisk pace of efforts to remove underwater rock could help...
Aussie Heatwave Nears 122°F; Severe Fire Threat Declared
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2013
Guardian: Australia is bracing for more potentially dangerous fires, with temperatures on Friday predicted to soar close to 50°C, or 122°F, in the center of the continent and up to 46°C (115°F) in parts of heavily populated New South Wales.
The return of the scorching heat follows two days of relative cool, during which fire crews tackled more than 100 blazes still burning in New South Wales and Victoria, and built containment lines for more outbreaks.
"We are entering a very challenging fire weather...
Drought-damaged states face poor outlook as dry weather persists
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2013
Guardian: A persistent drought held its grip on America's bread basket on Thursday, with no sign of relief for the four main wheat-growing states.
The poor outlook for winter wheat, which accounts for about 70% of the US crop, has raised fears about further food prices shocks, after widespread failure of last year's corn and soybean crops.
Conditions in Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas, which produce about a third of the country's wheat crop, remained unchanged – virtually the worst on record, according...
Climate change: see for yourself in documentary
Posted by Montreal Gazette: Monique Beaudin on January 10th, 2013
Montreal Gazette: Seven years ago, American photographer James Balog travelled to the Arctic to take pictures of glaciers for National Geographic magazine.
Seeing water running off the massive ice sheets and giant chunks of ice breaking off and floating in the ocean inspired Balog, at the time a climate-change skeptic, to undertake the Extreme Ice Survey, installing dozens of cameras at glaciers in the Arctic to document the changes he was seeing.
The cameras take images every half-hour in daylight, year round....
World Bank to strengthen focus on climate change
Posted by The Hill: Zack Colman on January 10th, 2013
The Hill: The World Bank’s chief told Bloomberg in an interview published Thursday that he hopes to elevate the international development institution’s climate change role. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, who took office in July, said the lender’s November climate change report already has had an effect on its 188 member countries. "The response was quite surprising," Kim told Bloomberg. "It was as if ‘we’ve heard this all from the environmental groups, but my goodness, if the World Bank tells us this...
Drought Still Threatens Mississippi River
Posted by Discovery News: Tim Wall on January 10th, 2013
Discovery News: A new year has started, but last year's drought is still afflicting the United States. The latest map from the U.S. Drought Monitor shows nearly 73 percent of the contiguous U.S. is still in drought. Rain has slaked the thirst of parts of the Northeast and Southeast, but dry conditions expanded in other regions. The southern Mississippi Valley recently received rainy relief as a belated Christmas present, but the northern stretches of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and their headwaters remained...
The Pipeline President: Obama’s Keystone XL
Posted by EcoWatch: Tom Weis on January 10th, 2013
EcoWatch: Last spring, President Obama made a special trip on Air Force One to the “Pipeline Crossroads of the World” to call for fast-track approval of the southern (OK-TX) leg of TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
Note to President Obama: You approved it. You own it.
By now, most people following the Keystone XL saga know that last spring, President Obama made a special trip on Air Force One to the “Pipeline Crossroads of the World” to call for fast-track approval of the southern (OK-TX)...