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Archive for February 23rd, 2015
Outgoing government wipes hard drives, slowing environmental progress in Peru
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 23rd, 2015
Mongabay: Non-profit organizations are working with the regional government of Loreto, in northeastern Peru, to replace documents and data reportedly lost or destroyed before newly-elected officials took office.
Some hard disks had been removed from computers. Others had been deleted, password protected, or infected with viruses, according to regional government officials who took office at the beginning of the year.
The lack of data, combined with massive personnel turnover in some offices, will set...
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Most critical months for snowpack loom
Posted by Coloradoan: None Given on February 23rd, 2015
Coloradoan: The coming months will make or break snowpack levels on the Cache la Poudre River Basin and determine all important water supplies for families and farmers.
As of Feb. 1, the Poudre basin was at 92 percent of the median, seeing a rise in snowpack levels during the first part of February while levels in much of the Colorado declined. The same time last year, the Poudre Basin's snowpack was 112 percent.
But February, March and April are historically the snowiest months on the Poudre basin and...
At last, proof of a climate scientist getting rich pedaling science
Posted by Daily Climate: Peter Dykstra on February 23rd, 2015
Daily Climate: We`ve heard the charges leveled for years: Unlike oil and coal multinationals, climate scientists are only in it for the money. This week, researchers found the smoking gun. At least for one.
But there`s a catch.
I have known this, and I have warned of this. I've not been able to prove it, however.
- Rush Limbaugh
Wei-Hock "Willie" Soon of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has been a go-to voice for climate deniers and a frequent flier in contrarian media. Documents obtained...
European grain yield stagnation related to climate change, says researcher
Posted by PhysOrg: Leslie Willoughby on February 23rd, 2015
PhysOrg: The European Union led the world in wheat production and exports in 2014-15. Yet Europe is also the region where productivity has slowed the most. Yields of major crops have not increased as much as would be expected over the past 20 years, based on past productivity increases and innovations in agriculture.
Finding the causes of that stagnation is key to understanding the trajectory of the global food supply.
Logically, it would seem that climate change would affect crops. But in the overall...
Indigenous Food Systems Should Be on the Development Menu
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 23rd, 2015
Inter Press Service: Overcoming hunger and malnutrition in the 21st century no longer means simply increasing the quantity of available food but also the quality.
Despite numerous achievements in the world's food systems, approximately 805 million people suffer from chronic hunger and roughly two billion peoples suffer from one or more micronutrient deficiencies while, at the same time, over 2.8 billion people are obese.
Unfortunately, the debate over how to address this challenge has polarised, pitting agriculture...
Cutting Through India Smog
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 23rd, 2015
New York Times: Proof of the grave air pollution problem confronting India is seen not just in the suffocating smog that on many days crowds out the sun in New Delhi, the world’s most polluted city. It can be measured as well in the fact that the country has the world’s highest death rate from chronic respiratory diseases, which kill an estimated 1.5 million Indians every year. A 2014 World Health Organization report concluded of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, India has 13.
After years of denial and...