RSS Feed
Archive for May 10th, 2013
British trees to be placed in seed bank to protect against disease and pests
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2013
Telegraph: The UK National Tree Seed Project will collect seeds from a priority list of 50 of the most vulnerable trees and shrubs, including ash, common box plants and English oak. Scientists leading the £100,000 project will conduct genetic testing on the plants to build up the first detailed picture of the different populations of trees that exist across Britain. Samples from each population will then be placed into protective storage facility at the Royal Botanic Garden's Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst...
Posted in 
Marshall Islands faces acute water shortage
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2013
Associated Press: About 6,000 people who live on the remote Marshall Islands in the Pacific are facing an acute shortage of fresh water as a severe drought worsens.
A state of disaster was declared in the north. Australia announced it would provide AU$100,000 (£65,335) for emergency desalination units. The US has also donated several reverse-osmosis machines, which convert salt water into fresh water.
There is no end in sight to the drought, with fine weather forecast for at least the next 10 days. The drought...
They myth of energy independence
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2013
Time: Michael Levi is my favorite energy wonk -- and not just because we both had to endure waiting for hours in the cold outside the 2009 United Nations climate-change conference in Copenhagen. (Though he got in first.)
Levi, the senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations, is a smart, pragmatic observer of the energy wars -- and he's an excellent blogger. He knows how to cut through specious arguments on both sides of the energy-and-climate debate while keeping...
Amazon clearance for agriculture is ‘economic own goal’ for Brazil
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 10th, 2013
Guardian: Brazil is at risk of scoring an economic own goal if it continues clearing Amazon forest for herding and soya production, according to a new study that has potential implications for global food security.
In recent decades, the conversion of vast tracts of the Amazon into pastures and farm fields has boosted the national economy and played a major role in meeting rising world demand for beef and grain, particularly soyabeans – for which Brazil overtook the US this year as the number one supplier....
In parched Southwest, anxious wait for summer rains
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on May 10th, 2013
Climate Central: On the thirsty rangelands of Arizona and New Mexico, which have been mired in an on-again, off-again drought since 1999, ranchers and water managers are hoping for an unusually wet summer monsoon season that will help make up for this winter's lackluster snowpack. Reservoirs have been depleted to near-record lows, and the major rivers and tributaries are running at barely a trickle, making the summer rainfall season crucial to avert potentially severe water shortages, at least temporarily.
However,...