Archive for March 16th, 2013

UK farmers face disaster as ‘perfect storm’ strikes

Guardian: British agriculture is facing a wider crisis than the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak of 2001, with around 90% of farmers affected, according to the Prince's Countryside Fund. The charity, established by the Prince of Wales in 2010, is co-ordinating welfare efforts for families in dire need. "This crisis is unique because it's so broad," said Tor Harris, the fund's director. "There have been others in the past but they have affected particular groups, such as livestock farmers. This affects upland...

Britain’s farming crisis: ‘People don’t realise how tough everything is’

Guardian: A few hours before I arrived at Kit Dean's dairy farm on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, near where North Yorkshire smudges into Cumbria, he took a call from his animal feed supplier. "I had to put them off again," he says. The bill, running into thousands of pounds, will have to remain unpaid. "They've put a stop on the account," says his wife, Jane, bluntly. "I don't know how we're going to afford to buy the feed we need through the winter." We are at the table in their handsome,...

Nepal: Call for interdisciplinary strategies to combat climate change impacts

Republica: A regional workshop on ´climate change impacts in Asian mountains´ has stressed for a pressing need to unite varied disciplines and foster strategies in order to lessen the impact of climate change on Asia´s mountainous countries. The 3-day workshop organized by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and International Center for Integrated Mountain development (ICIMOD) in the capital this week concluded that there is a need to better harness...

Wildfires rage in Colorado as fears grow over continued drought

Reuters: Two wind-driven wildfires erupted in northern Colorado on Friday, prompting the evacuation of about 50 residents and signaling an early start to the wildfire season in the parched Rocky Mountain west. The larger of the two blazes that prompted the evacuations, the Soldier Canyon Fire, has charred about 800 acres near Lory State Park, Poudre Fire Authority Captain Patrick Love told Reuters. "We've been experiencing strong, erratic winds from the north all afternoon," Love said. Along with...

Human climate change big factor in Somali famine

Associated Press: Global warming may have contributed to low rain levels in Somalia in 2011 where tens of thousands died in a famine, research by British climate scientists suggests. Scientists with Britain's weather service studied weather patterns in East Africa in 2010 and 2011 and found that yearly precipitation known as the short rains failed in late 2010 because of the natural effects of the weather pattern La Nina. But the lack of the long rains in early 2011 was an effect of "the systematic warming due...

Global warming detailed in new temperature records

Washington Post: SCIENTISTS HAVE a good sense of what the Earth's climate has been like over the past handful of centuries. But what about many thousands of years back? In a recent article in the journal Science, researchers at Oregon State University and Harvard explained how they used marine fossils to piece together a rough temperature record going back 11,300 years to the most recent ice age. That record indicates that the Earth warmed as it emerged from the ice age, followed by a long-term cooling trend....

Arctic melting stacked weather deck in favor of Superstorm Sandy

ClimateWire: A number of unusual atmospheric phenomena combined to form the massive "Frankenstorm" that was Superstorm Sandy. While many have said global warming fueled the storm's strength, it is unclear exactly how it played a role. But scientists are starting to see evidence that warm weather in the Arctic led to conditions that made the hurricane so incredibly powerful. An article in the March issue of Oceanography, authored by scientists from Cornell and Rutgers universities, points to 2012's unprecedented...

ALERT! Massive Chinese Dam Threatens Cambodia’s Cardamom Rainforests

By Ecological Internet's Rainforest Portal TAKE ACTION! The Areng Valley's rainforests in the Cardamom Mountains [search] of south-west Cambodia is threatened with flooding by a Chinese hydropower dam. This biodiversity gem - home of the Siamese crocodile and indigenous Khmer Daeum - is to be destroyed for a relatively small amount of electricity. Standing large, connected, and ecologically intact old-growth forests are required for local and global ecological sustainability and well-being.

Recent Supreme Court Decision May Affect Environmental Standing

Environmental News Network: A recent decision by the United States Supreme Court has raised questions about the scope of plaintiffs' standing to bring suit in federal court, a critical issue for environmental litigants. Federal courts have long recognized that certain types of environmental harms can form the basis of standing under Article III of the United States Constitution, which requires plaintiffs to establish an "actual or imminent" injury that is "fairly traceable" to the challenged conduct and "likely to be redressed"...

Updated maps: Ohio shale prospects trending west

Associated Press: Updated studies show Ohio's oil-rich shale deposits may extend further west than earlier believed. Revised maps produced by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources show promising shale prospects in Hancock, Hardin, Wyandot and Seneca counties in the region between Mansfield and Lima. State geologists posted the revised maps on the agency website after reviewing information from 100 new locations. The new maps support earlier indications that eastern Ohio - including Stark, Carroll and Tuscarawas...