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Archive for March 3rd, 2015
Yields of key cassava crop not keeping pace with Africa population growth: TRFN
Posted by Reuters: Chris Arsenault on March 3rd, 2015
Reuters: Yields of cassava, a key crop feeding millions of people across Africa, are not keeping pace with population growth despite its tolerance for climate change, a leading scientist said.
More than half the world's cassava, a high-energy root crop, is grown in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is often the cheapest source of calories for poor people, said Clair Hershey, programme leader at the Colombia-based International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).
"More than 200 million people rely on...
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California’s terrifying forecast: In future, it could face droughts nearly every year
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 3rd, 2015
Washington Post: Not long ago, scientists at NASA and two major universities warned of an inevitable “megadrought” that will parch the southwestern United States for 35 years, starting around 2050. By then, a new study says, Californians should be fairly accustomed to long, harsh and dry conditions. Over the past 15 years, temperatures have been rising in the Golden State, resulting in annual periods of extreme and blazing heat, while the cycle of low and moderate precipitation cycles have not changed since 1977....
Researchers Link Syrian Conflict to a Drought Made Worse by Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 3rd, 2015
New York Times: Drawing one of the strongest links yet between global warming and human conflict, researchers said Monday that an extreme drought in Syria between 2006 and 2009 was most likely due to climate change, and that the drought was a factor in the violent uprising that began there in 2011.
The drought was the worst in the country in modern times, and in a study published Monday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists laid the blame for it on a century-long trend toward...
How Global Warming Helped Cause the Syrian War
Posted by Wired: None Given on March 3rd, 2015
Wired: The bloody conflict in Syria--which enters its fifth year this month--has killed almost 200,000 people, created 3.2 million refugees, and given rise to the murderous extremist group known as the Islamic State. The roots of the civil war extend deep into Syria’s political and socioeconomic structures. But another cause turns out to be global warming.
When violence erupted in Syria during the Arab Spring in 2011, the country had been mired in a three-year drought--its worst in recorded history....
Australia on El Nino watch after Pacific Ocean warms
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 3rd, 2015
Reuters: Australia's weather bureau said on Tuesday the chance of an El Nino developing this year had risen to about 50 percent after signs of renewed warming in tropical Pacific Ocean. The Bureau of Meteorology said six out of eight international models it surveyed indicated that sea surface temperatures in the central Pacific Ocean would exceed El Nino thresholds by mid-year. El Nino can prompt drought in Southeast Asia and Australia and heavy rains in South America, hitting production of food such as...
Business Briefing: Netherlands Regrets Ignoring Earthquakes at Natgas Field
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 3rd, 2015
New York Times: The Dutch government apologized on Monday for ignoring the risks posed by earthquakes caused by production of natural gas in the northern province of Groningen. The apology follows an official report that found the government, together with Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil, had put profits before safety in exploiting the Groningen gas field, Europe’s largest. Last month, the government ordered production at the Groningen field to be cut by 16 percent for the first half of 2015. The government is...
New Study Says Climate Change Helped Spark Syrian Civil War
Posted by Slate: None Given on March 3rd, 2015
Slate: By now, it's pretty clear that we're starting to see visible manifestations of climate change beyond far-off melting ice sheets. One of the most terrifying implications is the increasingly real threat of wars sparked in part by global warming. New evidence says that Syria may be one of the first such conflicts.
We know the basic story in Syria by now: From 2006-2010, an unprecedented drought forced the country from a groundwater-intensive breadbasket of the region to a net food importer. Farmers...