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Archive for November 21st, 2015
Brazil dam toxic mud reaches Atlantic via Rio Doce estuary
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 21st, 2015
BBC: A wave of toxic mud travelling down the Rio Doce river in Brazil from a collapsed dam has reached the Atlantic Ocean, amid concerns it will cause severe pollution.
The waste has travelled more than 500km (310 miles) since the dam at an iron mine collapsed two weeks ago.
Samarco, the mine owner, has tried to protect plants and animals by building barriers along the banks of the river.
Workers have dredged the river mouth to help the mud flow out to sea fast.
The contaminated mud, tested...
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Fundão dam burst exposes failings in Brazil mining industry
Posted by Telegraph: Donna Bowater on November 21st, 2015
Telegraph: In 1984, the celebrated Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade published four simple stanzas lamenting the “sweet river” and the “bitter vale”.
Born in the mining village of Itabira in Minas Gerais, Drummond knew well the importance of the Rio Doce, which flows through the state from the Atlantic, and the Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, formed in 1942, to explore the valley for iron ore.
But after the Fundão tailings dam burst in Mariana, Minas Gerais, just over two weeks ago, flooding waste...
Weather extremes spur farmers’ interest in cover crops
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 21st, 2015
Associated Press: Weather extremes have reignited farmers' interest in planting cover crops, a traditional farming practice that is gaining renewed popularity in Kansas and other states as a way to help combat climate change and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to it. A New York-based environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, released a report Thursday on the benefits of cover crops — typically non-commodities that protect the soil between harvests of cash crops. The practice...
Soper Farms Triples Net Income Switching From GMO Crops to Organic
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on November 21st, 2015
EcoWatch: Making the transition from conventional to organic farming can be a big leap, but Harn Soper will tell you--based on experience--that it is worth it in terms of better crops, soil and financial returns. Soper, a member of a four-generation Iowa farming family, is so convinced of organic farming’s value that he has launched a fund, Sustainable Farm Partners, to increase organic farming in Iowa.
Based in Emmetsburg, Iowa, Soper Farms is a century farm, having been in the family for more than 100...
Climate Change Boosted Australia’s 2010 Floods
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on November 21st, 2015
Climate News Network: For the first time, researchers have linked the catastrophic floods in Australia in the summer of 2010 with global warming. And they warn that the double hazard of long-term ocean warming and rising atmospheric temperatures makes the risk of extreme rainfall greater in years to come.
In 2010, during a natural cyclic Pacific phenomenon called La Niña, sea surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific were high, and the air became saturated with moisture.
When the clouds billowed...
New fund lands $4M to protect the Amazon
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on November 21st, 2015
Mongabay: Efforts to protect the Amazon River's headwaters got a boost today with a $4 million commitment from the Wyss Foundation to a new conservation initiative.
The Wyss Foundation announced a multi-year grant to the Andes Amazon Fund in support of "locally-driven conservation initiatives in the headwaters of the Amazon".
While launched only this summer, the Andes Amazon Fund (AAF) has already made a name for itself with a million dollar commitment to the world's newest rainforest reserve: Sierra...
Record heat puts Australia at risk of intense fire season
Posted by New York Times: Michelle Innis on November 21st, 2015
New York Times: A fire that raged this week across hundreds of thousands of acres of grasslands and about-to-be harvested wheat crops, killing a farmer and three workers, points to a dangerous summer ahead in Australia, scientists and weather watchers say. The fire, in the south of Western Australia, began last weekend after lightning struck about 12 miles north of the township of Esperance. It was flaring six days later after burning through 580 square miles of farmland, fanned by temperatures above 100 degrees...