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Archive for March 5th, 2015
Climate change poses serious threats to food distribution
Posted by FERN: Elizabeth Grossman on March 5th, 2015
FERN: By now there has been a steady stream of news about climate change’s impacts on food production. Heat waves, drought, and wildfire are damaging harvests in California, Australia and Brazil. Warming and acidifying oceans threaten seafood stocks. Rising temperatures are causing declines in crops as different as wheat and cherries, while extreme precipitation and floods have destroyed crops across the US and Europe. Increasing temperatures and CO2 levels are reducing the nutritional value of grasses...
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India, Bangladesh, China most at risk from river floods: study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 5th, 2015
Reuters: India, Bangladesh and China are most at risk from river floods, with an increasing number of people threatened because of climate change and economic growth in low-lying regions, a study said on Thursday. The U.S.-based World Resources Institute think-tank and four Dutch research groups estimated that some 21 million people worldwide were affected by river flooding in a typical year. "That number could increase to 54 million in 2030 due to climate change and socio-economic development," their report...
Canadian Oil Imports to U.S. Gulf Rise on Pipeline Startups
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 5th, 2015
Reuters: The December startup of two major pipelines that move Canadian heavy crude to the United States helped increase U.S. Gulf Coast imports more than 12 percent from November, U.S. government data showed just days after President Barack Obama vetoed the Keystone XL pipeline.
The relatively swift uptick in Canadian oil arriving at the Gulf Coast, home to nearly half of U.S. refining capacity, follows the opening of two connecting lines that link Canada to U.S. tropical waters: Enbridge Inc's 600,000...
USGS: More Data Needed to Assess Fracking-Water Link
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 5th, 2015
Associated Press: More data are needed to be able to fully assess whether any widespread correlation might exist between recent oil and gas development in the U.S. and degraded quality of nearby surface water, a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey suggests. The study published in the American Geophysical Union journal Water Resources Research examined water quality data from 1970-2010 in areas with recent oil and gas drilling. The authors wrote they could document no trends involving surface water pollution in...
Global flood toll to triple by 2030
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 5th, 2015
BBC: The number of people affected by river flooding worldwide could nearly triple in the next 15 years, analysis shows.
Climate change and population growth are driving the increase, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI).
In the UK, about 76,000 people a year could be at risk of being affected by flooding if defences aren't improved, it says.
The yearly cost of damage to urban areas could reach more than £1bn.
The centre says this is the first public analysis of all world data...