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Archive for August 27th, 2014
Australia: Drought and floods: what’s coming next?
Posted by Mail: None Given on August 27th, 2014
Mail: The devastating floods in Queensland may be subsiding, but the weather pattern that caused it is not over - and Sydney could be in the firing line.
Sydney's last major floods were in 1986 and 1988, said the Bureau of Meteorology. In the Liverpool region in 1986, water levels for the Georges River reached the major flood level of 4½ metres while in the North Richmond area in 1986 and 1988, the Hawkesbury River peaked at 12.8 and 14.4 metres, high above the 11-metre major flood level.
In 1986...
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UN panel: Global warming human-caused, dangerous
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 27th, 2014
Associated Press: Global warming is here, human-caused and probably already dangerous - and it's increasingly likely that the heating trend could be irreversible, a draft of a new international science report says.
The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on Monday sent governments a final draft of its synthesis report, which combines three earlier, gigantic documents by the Nobel Prize-winning group. There is little in the report that wasn't in the other more-detailed versions, but the language...
Climate change may disrupt global food system in a decade
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on August 27th, 2014
Sydney Morning Herald: The world is headed "down a dangerous path" with disruption of the food system possible within a decade as climate change undermines nations' ability to feed themselves, according to a senior World Bank official.
Rising urban populations are contributing to expanded demand for meat, adding to nutrition shortages for the world's poor. Increased greenhouse gas emissions from livestock as well as land clearing will make farming more marginal in many regions, especially in developing nations, said...
U.N. Draft Report Lists Unchecked Emissions’ Risks
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 27th, 2014
New York Times: Runaway growth in the emission of greenhouse gases is swamping all political efforts to deal with the problem, raising the risk of “severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts” over the coming decades, according to a draft of a major new United Nations report. Global warming is already cutting grain production by several percentage points, the report found, and that could grow much worse if emissions continue unchecked. Higher seas, devastating heat waves, torrential rain and other climate extremes...
Food is the ultimate security need, new map shows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 27th, 2014
Guardian: It is a graphic demonstration of the sickening, symbiotic relationship between hunger and conflict and highlights food supply problems from Somalia to India to Spain Share Tweet this Email Sub-saharan Africa dominates a new food security risk map, while the Indian sub-continent and Iberian peninsula also stand out Map: Maplecroft
A new map of food security risk around the world is, in some ways, depressingly familiar. Sub-saharan Africa leaps out as the place where the most people fear for their...