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Archive for July 3rd, 2013
U.S. drought expands for 3rd straight week-US drought monitor
Posted by Reuters: Christine Stebbins on July 3rd, 2013
Reuters: Drought conditions expanded in the contiguous United States over the past week given persistent heat and dryness in the southern Plains, while the eastern half of the country is out of drought amid steady rains, according to a weekly drought report.
The U.S. Drought Monitor, issued by state and federal experts on Wednesday, said drought areas in the "moderate to exceptional" categories grew to 44.06 percent, from 43.84 a week ago.
"This is the third straight week of the drought expanding,"...
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Incident Meteorologists Are on Front Lines of Wildfires
Posted by Climate Central: Andrew Freedman on July 3rd, 2013
Climate Central: On Monday night, Jim Wallmann drove north from broiling Phoenix toward a bustling command post for the Yarnell Hill fire near Prescott, Ariz. The blaze had killed 19 of the 20-member crew of elite "Hotshots" a day earlier in the worst loss of firefighters in a single wildfire in 80 years. With erratic weather conditions viewed as the primary suspect behind the tragedy, Wallman had been called to the blaze specifically to prevent a repeat incident by keeping firefighters informed of changing weather...
How Australian campaigners target fossil fuel companies and their backers
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Wagg on July 3rd, 2013
Guardian: A hoax media release, announcing a big Australian coal mine had lost critical funding, kicked off a busy year for anti-fossil fuel campaigners – and a challenging one for the companies that extract energy and their financial backers.
Shares in Whitehaven Coal, developer of the controversial Maules Creek mine in New South Wales, plunged 9% in just two minutes after the spoof circulated the market – slicing A$314m from its market capitalisation and A$67m from the stake of its biggest shareholder,...
Wild foods: a food security strategy that’s hard to swallow?
Posted by Guardian: Caspar van Vark on July 3rd, 2013
Guardian: A recent FAO conference on Forests for Food Security highlighted the importance of wild foods for the food and nutrition security of millions of people. Often overlooked in food security strategies, these resources are both vital and under threat, and development actors have a valuable role to play in safeguarding them.
Wild foods – including fruits, nuts, leaves, mushrooms, roots, animals and eggs – are important as part of coping strategies during times of food insecurity, but they are also...
Biofuel crop mix ‘not favourable for environment’
Posted by Guardian: Rayhan Uddin on July 3rd, 2013
Guardian: The current mix of crops used for energy are "not favourable to the environment", according to a report published on Wednesday by the European Environment Agency. It said that the environmental benefits of such bioenergy vary significantly depending on the source of crops. When sourced from agricultural residues or waste, bioenergy is more efficient than fossil fuels both in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and the impact on ecosystems. But growing crops for energy has knock-on environmental impacts...
Nature Studies: In the turmoil of Jerusalem who would have suspected this tiny oasis?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on July 3rd, 2013
Independent: The Jerusalem Bird Observatory is by no means easy to find: it is down an anonymous lane behind the car park of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. It is a tiny urban oasis – basically just a pond, surrounded by olives and tamarisk trees – yet it has recorded more than 200 bird species in the 20 years of its existence.
The reason is that Jerusalem is bang in the middle of one of the world’s great bird-migration routes, the Great Rift Valley, that mammoth trench which starts in Syria and ends...
Pesticide Altering Genes in Honey Bees
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on July 3rd, 2013
Nature World News: According to a new study, the neonicotinoid pesticide can alter gene activity in honey bees.
Neonicotinoid pesticides are a class of pesticides that are taken up by the plant and expressed via nectar. Previous research conducted on the chemical neonicotinoids had found that it causes population decline in bumble bee colonies. Bees in Europe recently won against the pesticide after the EU decided to impose a two-year ban on the pesticide in Europe from April, 2013. A ban, that some people say,...
Labour unveils plan to promote food-growing culture in Britain
Posted by Guardian: Fiona Harvey, on July 3rd, 2013
Guardian: The UK should have fruit trees blossoming around housing estates, schools with access to vegetable gardens and council allotments for growing fresh vegetables, Labour said on Wednesday while setting out its strategy for the future of food policy. The vision of ways to bring food-growing to the masses was accompanied by measures on reforming food-safety regulations and supporting more jobs in farming.
Mary Creagh, shadow environment secretary, recalled the measures taken by the post-war Labour...
UN: 2001-2010 decade shows faster warming trend
Posted by Associated Press: John Heilprin on July 3rd, 2013
Associated Press: Global warming accelerated since the 1970s and broke more countries' temperature records than ever before in the first decade of the new millennium, U.N. climate experts said Wednesday.
A new analysis from the World Meteorological Organization says average land and ocean surface temperatures from 2001 to 2010 rose above the previous decade, and were almost a half-degree Celsius above the 1961-1990 global average.
The decade ending in 2010 was an unprecedented era of climate extremes, the agency...
The looming water crisis
Posted by Saturday Evening Post: Barry Yeoman on July 3rd, 2013
Saturday Evening Post: Kylan Frye steers her Subaru station wagon along the slushy roadways of the Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area at the edge of Utah’s Great Salt Lake. It’s a February afternoon, gray and cold, and a layer of snow covers the wetlands that spread for miles around us. The Wasatch Range rises ruggedly in the background, but otherwise it feels like we’re driving through a barren white sea, indistinguishable from the pale sky if not for the occasional dots of sagebrush, sedge, and cottonwood. The...