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Archive for April 21st, 2015
California drought: LADWP’s Owens Valley pumping might suffer without snowpack runoff
Posted by KPCC: None Given on April 21st, 2015
KPCC: A possible consequence of another dry winter in California: the water supplies Los Angeles can take from Inyo County may be limited.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has oversight of the water it derives from the area. Today, it releases its plan for pumping groundwater out of the Owens Valley over the next six months.
In wet times -- as in the winter of 2011-2012 -- about a quarter of the L.A.'s water supply can come from Owens Valley's below ground reservoirs. But the city's...
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Deep carbon emission cuts possible and inevitable, reports find
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on April 21st, 2015
Sydney Morning Herald: Futures of the power sector and carbon reductions are closely tied.
Australia's abundance of renewable energy resources leaves it well-placed to exit fossil fuels altogether by 2050 at a manageable cost of the economy, according to an Australian National University report.
The report, synthesising research by the CSIRO, ClimateWorks and other sources, argues that the country can tap solar, wind and other renewable energy sources in the order of 500 times the current power generation capacity....
The California town no water: Even ‘angel’ can’t stop wells going dry
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 21st, 2015
Guardian: Water has its own language in this town. Residents talk about nervous neighbors “pulling the hose”, or speculate about which houses on a street are “on the line”. People gripe about how neighbors use “tank water” to hydrate plants.
That water lingo developed in this rural city of 6,700 – mostly poor Latino farm workers – should not be surprising. There has been a preoccupation with the stuff that comes from the tap since residents started running out of it.
East Porterville is the epicenter...
Florida Everglades could be a powerful symbol in climate debate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 21st, 2015
Washington Post: It may not be as obvious a climate symbol as the rapidly warming Arctic. But with President Obama’s climate-focused visit on Earth Day, Everglades National Park could take on new significance as a politically potent case study of how global warming directly impacts people living in the United States.
The chief reason? In the Everglades, the fate of an ecosystem, and the fate of millions of people, are tightly wrapped together -- and both are affected by rising seas.
Everglades National Park...
4 Ways to Beat the California Drought and Save the Colorado River
Posted by EcoWatch: Gary Wockner on April 21st, 2015
EcoWatch: The epic drought in California is beatable and we can save the Colorado River. All of Southern California—including the massive farm fields in Imperial County, the grapes and golf courses in the Coachella Valley and Palm Springs, and every person from Los Angeles to San Diego—gets most of its water from the Colorado River. The very same drought that has hammered southern California is almost as bad across the entire Southwest U.S.—including in the mountains of Utah, Wyoming and Colorado which are...
What one farmer learned from surviving the ’80s farm crisis
Posted by Grist: None Given on April 21st, 2015
Grist: Some basic economic forces are driving mid-sized farms out of existence. First, food prices keep falling. "Ever since World War II, agricultural commodities have trended steadily down," agricultural economist Otto Doering told me. We are on a technology treadmill: Farmers get a new tech (like hybrid seeds), increase productivity, and make money. But then all the farmers get it, they all produce more, and prices drop, Doering said. Those new technologies cost money, so farm costs go up while food...