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Archive for August 31st, 2013
Fighting Pest, Farmers Find Strange Ally: A Drought
Posted by New York Times: Elizabeth Koh on August 31st, 2013
New York Times: Texas’ drought has left crops parched across the state, but the lack of water could have unintended benefits for South Texas farmers in one of the state’s longest-running agricultural battles. For the past two decades, the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation has conducted a program to eliminate the ubiquitous beetle, which punctures cotton pods to lay eggs that destroy the plant’s yield. By setting pheromone traps to detect weevils, spraying chemicals to eliminate them and changing farming...
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National Park Service director gets firsthand look at the Rim fire
Posted by LA Times: Tony Barboza on August 31st, 2013
LA Times: As the Rim fire has burned into Yosemite National Park and into the record books, it has been watched around the world. From Washington, D.C., National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis said he monitored the blaze's progress daily as flames threatened Sierra Nevada communities, ancient sequoia groves and the reservoir that holds San Francisco's water supply.
On Saturday, he went to see the blaze firsthand.
"This is a gnarly fire," Jarvis told firefighters at a morning briefing. "It's got high...
Californian Rim fire heads towards Yosemite’s famed sequoia trees
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 31st, 2013
Reuters: A massive wildfire that has charred the northwestern edge of California's Yosemite national park is heading towards two groves of the park's famed sequoia trees, the national park service director, Jonathan Jarvis, said as firefighters battled the blaze on Saturday.
The so-called Rim fire, which now has an overall footprint that exceeds the area of Dallas, has burned about 6% of Yosemite's wilder backcountry but the vast majority of the park was still unaffected, Jarvis said. The sequoias are...
Water hazard: How the UN plans to provide clean drinking water for everyone in Rwanda
Posted by Independent: Martin Hickman on August 31st, 2013
Independent: A winding path sweeps down past the banana trees to the swamp. Yves, aged 13, follows the path, fills a plastic jerry can, and carries the liquid cargo home on his head, despite knowing it will make him and his family ill. Fortunately the shallow pools do not attract crocodiles, but the water must be collected before the hippos gather at dusk.
Yves and his parents live in a cement-covered mud-brick hut in Bugesera District, southern Rwanda, where they grow beans, cassava and sweet potatoes, and...