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Archive for November 27th, 2015
Seaweed Cultivation Ushers Waves of Change in Sundarbans
Posted by Inter Press Service: Oishanee Ghosh on November 27th, 2015
Inter Press Service: In Bengal’s mangrove forests, the effects of climate change are forcing men to leave their families in search of work. But now, seaweed farming is offering the women left behind financial stability and empowerment. At sunset, Kanchan Mondal would set off every evening to find odd jobs, leaving her children at home. Like many women in her village in Sundarbans of Bengal, her husband left to find work in the city, forced away by the ever-encroaching seawater that has left their farmlands barren. ...
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Pakistan to argue its case at Paris summit
Posted by Tribune: None Given on November 27th, 2015
Tribune: Pakistan will argue its precarious situation and risks to its economy owing to fast changing climate at next week’s global summit in Paris, vowed Federal Minister for Climate Change Zahid Hamid on Friday. “The case for Pakistan’s exposure to the climate change risks and prevailing opportunities would be compellingly presented at the climate change conference,” Hamid told a news conference in Islamabad. Hamid, who will be leading a 27-member Pakistan delegation at the two-week moot in Paris from...
Rising Temps, Invisible Threats: Climate Change Spurs Disease Fears
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 27th, 2015
NDTV: Winter was oddly mild in northern Texas in 2012, a year that saw few snowflakes and barely any ice. When the cold failed to show up, the spring mosquitoes arrived in droves, carrying disease.
The insects multiplied during an unusually muggy May, when temperatures hit the 90s and then stayed there. On June 20, Dallas recorded the season's first case of West Nile virus. By late August, there were nearly 400.
Nineteen people would die in the greater Dallas area in the worst West Nile outbreak...
Australia: Farmer attitudes to climate change across generations
Posted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Lucy Barbour on November 27th, 2015
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The nation's farmers could be considered the sentinels of climate change; they are more attuned than most to long-term changes in weather patterns.
But many of them are yet to be convinced that man-made climate change is real, arguing that floods and droughts are cyclical and extreme temperatures are nothing new.
It is a view some younger producers are now challenging and they are reshaping their farming practices to suit the changing climate.
Josh Gilbert's family has farmed at Nabiac in...
Brazil to sue BHP, Vale for $5 billion damages for dam burst
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 27th, 2015
Reuters: Brazil's federal and state governments plan to sue the owners of the Samarco iron ore miner for 20 billion reais ($5.24 billion)in damages caused by the burst of a tailings dam, Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira told reporters on Friday.
Samarco is a joint venture between the world's largest mining company, BHP Billiton Ltd, and the biggest iron ore miner, Vale SA.
The dam burst earlier this month unleashed 60 million cubic meters of mud and mine waste that devastated a village, killed...
Extreme heatwaves may hit Europe in the short term
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 27th, 2015
ScienceDaily: Regional climate projections for the two coming decades (2021-2040) suggest enhanced probability of heatwaves anywhere in Europe, which would be comparable or greater than the Russian heatwave in 2010 -- the worst since 1950 -- according to a JRC-led article published today in Environmental Research Letters. Using an improved heatwave index, the article also ranks the 10 record-breaking heatwaves that have struck the continent in the last 65 years. The findings are based on the use of the Heat Wave...
“París Is Not the End of a Climate Change Process but a Beginning”
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 27th, 2015
Inter Press Service: Chilean President Michelle Bachelet says the climate summit in Paris "is not the end of a process but a beginning," and that it will produce "an agreement that, although insufficient with respect to the original goal, shows that people believe it is better to move ahead than to stand still." In this exclusive interview with IPS, held shortly before Bachelet headed to the capital of France, the president reflected on the global impacts of climate change and stressed several times that the accords...
How Many Climate Change Refugees Should America Let In?
Posted by EcoWatch: Gary Wockner on November 27th, 2015
EcoWatch: The United Nations estimates that climate change will create 200 million migrants and refugees throughout the world. How many climate change refugees should America let in?
A vote in the U.S. House of Representatives last week created a firestorm of controversy about how many refugees from Syria should be allowed in the U.S. The House vote, which would further restrict Syrians from entering America, received support from nearly all the Republicans and 47 Democrats, including my Colorado Democratic...
As the heat rises, the wines are a-changing
Posted by Reuters: Sybille de La Hamaide on November 27th, 2015
Reuters: It's a $200 billion industry that prides itself on being rooted to a particular spot and doing things they way they've always been done. But global warming is forcing the world's wine growers to change. As a U.N. conference in Paris next week tries to limit climate change, wine makers from France to Australia are already changing their time-honoured methods, or even uprooting whole vineyards, as long-established weather patterns alter and the temperature rises. Already, English sparkling white...
Brazil dam disaster shows flaws in decrepit mining regulator
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 27th, 2015
Reuters: With leaking windows, moldy walls and piles of paper where you might expect computers, the office of Brazil's National Department of Mineral Production speaks volumes about the regulation of the country's mining industry.
The office, in the capital city of the mine-rich state of Minas Gerais, is the state headquarters for a team of inspectors that is supposed to vet mines like one 100 km (60 miles) to the southeast, where a dam burst on Nov. 5, spilling mineral waste across 800 km and into the...