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Archive for January 10th, 2013
A Bit of Relief on Food Prices
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2013
New York Times: World food prices ended the year with a slight decline, and for 2012 as a whole they were 7 percent below prices of 2011, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reported on Thursday.
Food prices have been one of the most troubling aspects of the international economic situation for several years now, so this is a spot of good news. But prices, driven by rising demand in developing countries and supply constraints that include climate change, remain well above levels of the...
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The genetically modified ‘Frankenfish’ salmon soon in a plate near you
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2013
Mongabay: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has partially approved the AquAdvantage Salmon, a genetically engineered salmon that grows twice as fast as normal. The FDA states that the GM salmon is “safe and unlikely to harm the health of the consumers or the environment”.
The AquaAdvantage salmon has been developed by AquaBounty a biotech company based in Waltham, Massachusetts. Their GM salmons have an added growth hormone from the Pacific Chinook salmon and a promoter gene from an ocean pout...
Kenya tackles climate threats to wildlife, tourism
Posted by AlertNet: Isaiah Esipisu on January 10th, 2013
AlertNet: Climate shifts are forcing Kenyan experts to take drastic action to preserve the stunning scenery and wildlife that have drawn millions of tourists to the east African country, bringing vital revenue and providing thousands of jobs.
From collecting rainwater in national parks to providing animals with hay in hard times and preventing alien species of vegetation from taking over grassland, Kenyans have joined regional and global projects to grapple with the changes, which are having deep and rapid...
Up to half of world’s food goes to waste, report says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2013
Reuters: Up to half of all the food produced worldwide ends up going to waste due to poor harvesting, storage and transport methods as well as irresponsible retailer and consumer behavior, a report said on Thursday.
The world produces about four billion metric tons of food a year but 1.2 to 2 billion metric tons is not eaten, the study by the London-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers said.
"This level of wastage is a tragedy that cannot continue if we are to succeed in the challenge of sustainably...
Warmer Winters Threaten Smaller Ski Areas
Posted by Daily Climate: Lindsey Konkel on January 10th, 2013
Daily Climate: The scene is something no ski resort operator wants to see early in the season: Sunlight glaring off the sloppy snow pooling like dirty mashed potatoes at the base of the high-speed six-person chairlift.
The thermometer at Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort in western Massachusetts reads 59 degrees Fahrenheit on this mid-November day, and Brian Fairbank, president and CEO of Jiminy Peak, is convinced the remaining snow will keep.
A northern exposure, aggressive snowmaking during the prior week's...
Australia races to control fires as new heat wave looms
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2013
BBC: Fire crews are tackling dozens of bushfires in south-east Australia, as forecasters predict another spell of hot weather for the weekend.
More than 100 separate fires are burning in New South Wales. Some 3,000 sq km of land has been razed.
One of the fires is encroaching on a disused army range littered with unexploded bombs, though fire crews are confident they can tackle the blaze.
Dozens of homes have been destroyed, but no-one is believed to have died.
Wildfires plague Australia most...
Epic heat, wildfires are scorching Australian landscape
Posted by Environment Health: Andrew Freedman on January 10th, 2013
Environment Health: An exceptional heat wave and associated spate of wildfires have scorched the Australian landscape during the past two weeks, with Monday ranking as Australia's hottest day on record. According to the Associated Press and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), the national average temperature on Monday was a sizzling 104.6°F. That eclipsed the previous mark of 104.3°F set in 1972.
Temperatures were so hot this week that BOM meteorologists had to add two new colors to their weather maps, with...
Perfect global storm developing warns World Economic Forum
Posted by Royal Gazette: Marcia Breen on January 10th, 2013
Royal Gazette: A major systemic financial failure. Extreme weather patterns. A water supply crisis. Food shortages. Weapons of mass destruction. Stark income disparity. Cyber attacks. Those are just a few of the major risks to the global economy this year, according to a report released this week by the World Economic Forum.
With nations already coping with rising economic strains while staring in face of increasing environmental concerns, the WEF report says the world could soon find itself in the eye of "the...
Australia: Weather watchers look to red-hot outback town to predict temperatures
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2013
Sydney Morning Herald: IT'S perhaps no accident the tiny outback town of Meekatharra is an early warning site for the Bureau of Meteorology's weather watchers as they plot what's ahead for Australia's great summer of heat.
Believed to mean "place of little water" in the local indigenous language, Meekatharra has been a place of little relief when it comes to scorching temperatures.
On Tuesday, the town in the mid-west region of Western Australia hit 47.1 degrees, smashing its previous maximum temperature by 1.4 degrees...
Australia’s wildfires visible from space
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 10th, 2013
Daily Climate: The face of climate change comes in many shapes these days: A roller coaster sitting in the surf, post-Hurricane Sandy. A farmer tilling in a drought-stressed crop, for a total loss. The latest image comes from space, via NASA: the largely uninhabited Outback of Western Australia at night, lit up like Europe by scores of wildfires. The composite image, NASA notes, was generated from a series of satellite images taken over 22 days in April and October 2012. The fires were not all burning at once....