RSS Feed
Archive for November 8th, 2014
Colorado girds fproliferating people and increasingly scarce water
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 8th, 2014
Denver Post: Colorado is looking for 163 billion gallons of water, and a long-awaited state plan for finding it calls for increased conservation, reusing treated wastewater and diverting more water from the Western Slope.
The plan, ordered by Gov. John Hickenlooper to deal with a massive projected water shortfall, is about to be unveiled. Rising demand from population growth and industry, if continued through 2050, threatens to leave 2.5 million people parched.
But water suppliers east and west of the Continental...
Posted in 
Ghana: Human activities main cause land degradation
Posted by GhanaWeb: None Given on November 8th, 2014
GhanaWeb: The Upper East Regional Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, Mr Asher Nkegbe, has observed that human activities accounted for the major causes of land degradation and desertification in the country. Speaking to the GNA in Bolgatanga on Tuesday, he explained that even though natural factors could be cited for the causes of the phenomenon, human activities were the major cause of the problem. Mr Nkegbe cited human factors including indiscriminate bush burning, cutting down of trees for...
Groundwater Crisis is Driving Global Conflict
Posted by Nature World: Brian Stallard on November 8th, 2014
Nature World: With rising drought conditions and spiking populations, the world is becoming a very thirsty place. Now, one NASA researcher is highlighting the concerns of a great many experts, claiming that not only is the world facing a water crisis, but this crisis is a main but little-considered driver to violence in our world.
Violent protests, uprisings, militias, civil war - all have very obvious and very understandable political drivers in the world's most unstable countries. However, did it ever strike...
Changing climate changing forests: How best to help Pennsylvania’s forests
Posted by National Public Radio: Susan Phillips on November 8th, 2014
National Public Radio: In a 19th-century farmhouse deep in northern Pennsylvania`s Bradford County, Nancy Baker is looking at family photos dating back four generations.
One shows her grandfather with a team of horses on clear cut land. Another shows her mother and aunt on the same farm as a small child. Baker also has a series of aerial photos going back to 1939, which show how the forest cover has evolved in the past 70 years.
Her home was built by her great grandfather, Joseph Morrow Gamble, a Scots-Irish immigrant...
Republicans in Congress poised clash with Obama over environment
Posted by LA Times: Neela Banerjee on November 8th, 2014
LA Times: Despite postelection nods toward cooperation, Republicans, who will hold the majority in Congress next year, appear poised to clash with President Obama over a range of energy and environmental issues, including the controversial Keystone XL pipeline and important rules addressing climate change, smog and water pollution.
Congressional Republicans have long argued that environmental regulations kill jobs and that fossil fuel development, especially on federal lands, should be expanded.
Now...
Water demand shrinks even as Florida, US grow
Posted by South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Andy Reid and Kevin Spear on November 8th, 2014
South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Across the country and in Florida, Americans are only using as much water as almost 45 years ago, even though the population has grown by more than 100 million people, the U.S. Geological Survey reported this week. Environmentalists point to efficient toilets, low-flow showers and limits on lawn sprinkling, saying water conservation is the way to go. "We have hardly scratched the surface of what can be achieved by really effective efforts toward water conservation," Audubon Florida's Charles Lee...
Responding to climate change from grassroots up
Posted by Inter Press Service: Desmond Brown on November 8th, 2014
Inter Press Service: As concern mounts over food security, two community groups are on a drive to mobilise average people across Antigua and Barbuda to mitigate and adapt in the wake of global climate change, which is affecting local weather patterns and by extension, agricultural production. "I want at least 10,000 people in Antigua and Barbuda to join with me in this process of trying to mitigate against the effects of climate change," Dr. Evelyn Weekes told IPS. Bhimwattie Sahid picks a papaya in her backyard garden...
Mayor of South Miami on how climate change could force it to secede
Posted by CBC: None Given on November 8th, 2014
CBC: The latest report from the United Nations panel on climate science says climate change can be blamed almost entirely on humans. Some impacts, like rising sea levels, are already being felt in North America. Mayor of South Miami and biology professor at Florida International University Phil Stoddard talks to Brent about the reality of rising sea levels in South Florida and his recent vote in favour of the motion to secede from the north. Here's a Q&A between Brent and Phil Stoddard. I want to start...