RSS Feed
Archive for May 22nd, 2014
West Antarctic ice collapse ‘could drown Middle East and Asia crops’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 22nd, 2014
Guardian: The collapse underway of a large part of the Antarctica ice sheet could devastate global food supply, drowning vast areas of crop lands across the Middle East and Asia, according to new research.
The report, Advancing Global Food Supply in the Face of a Changing Climate, urges the Obama Administration to step up research funding– especially in developing countries – to help make up a projected gap in future food supply.
It also warns America's corn belt could face yield declines of more than...
Posted in 
Deforestation: Carving up the Amazon
Posted by Nature: Barbara Fraser on May 22nd, 2014
Nature: Next to a newly paved highway in the Peruvian Amazon, a discreet white-on-green sign urges travellers to protect the surrounding ecosystem. “Let's care for the environment, let's conserve the forest,” it reads. But the appeal comes too late for this spot in the region known as Madre de Dios. Before the route was paved a few years ago, tall trees lined the roadside, but the forest edge here now lies about half a kilometre away, beyond a jumble of underbrush and freshly cut trees where a cattle pasture...
Doubt Lingers Years After Sandy for New York
Posted by Huffington Post: Amy Lieberman on May 22nd, 2014
Huffington Post: Edith Harris was cornered in her living room, inside her brick house, deep in Canarsie, Brooklyn. Volunteers in green t-shirts swarmed around her. They banged away at new appliances in the bathrooms, studied the interior supports that held up her fragile basement walls. They scurried past one another in the narrow hallway while Harris applied a fresh coat of maroon lipstick and pink eye shadow, looking back and forth from her pocket mirror to the daytime shows that flashed on the mounted television....
Dust Bowl Days: Will We Cut Carbon Pollution Fast Enough To Prevent Permanent Droughts?
Posted by ThinkProgress: None Given on May 22nd, 2014
ThinkProgress: Large parts of the Southwest are drier than they were during the 1930s Dust Bowl. And the latest science says unrestricted carbon pollution will make this a near-permanent situation post-2050 in a growing portion of this country and around the world - for a thousand years or more! Earlier this month, the U.S. Drought Monitor warned that "devastatingly dry, dusty, windy conditions on the southern Great Plains fueled concerns of a 'New Dust Bowl`.” The epicenter of the 1930s Dust Bowl was where Kansas,...
Mixed reactions after U.S. drastically cuts Monterey Shale outlook
Posted by LA Times: Shan Li, Diana Marcum on May 22nd, 2014
LA Times: Kim Owens, daughter of an oil rig supervisor who once worked on a fracking crew, now pours drinks for oil workers every day as a bartender at the Foxy Lady in this tiny town 18 miles northwest of Bakersfield.
To Owens and many others in Kern County, petroleum is the economic lifeline that provides jobs, fills the hotels and keeps the restaurants open.
That's why she was bristling Wednesday at new federal findings that dramatically slashed the estimated amount of oil able to be pulled out of...
California first step toward curtailing water rights
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 22nd, 2014
Reuters: Some farmers and community water districts in drought-hit California could soon face limits on their ability to use water from strained streams that flow into the Sacramento River.
The California Water Resources Control Board adopted regulations on Wednesday to limit water use during summer months, the driest season and the time of year when farmers are most likely to need water to irrigate their crops.
"Due to severe drought conditions, immediate action is needed," said Dan Schultz, acting...