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Governor declares drought emergency in California
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on January 18th, 2014
Al Jazeera: It’s official: California is in a drought emergency.
Gov. Jerry Brown made the long-awaited emergency declaration Friday morning in San Francisco, a day after legislators and hundreds of farmers from parched districts in Northern California and the Central Valley rallied on the steps of the Capitol in Sacramento.
"We are in an unprecedented, very serious situation," Brown said.
The governor asked Californians to reduce their water consumption by 20 percent.
"We're heading for a train...
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North California drought threatens farmers, ag workers, cities – and you
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on January 15th, 2014
Al Jazeera: The 20 people who work full time for Fresno County farmer Joe Del Bosque are on winter break now. But he is not sure they will have jobs to return to, let alone the 300 temporary workers he usually hires to harvest melons.
“I’m worried about my workers,” said Del Bosque, who farms 2,000 acres in a region known as the nation’s food basket because it produces almost half the fruits, vegetables and nuts on America’s tables.
“Right now we’re not sure if we’re going to bring them back or how many...
UK environmentalists brace for flood of fracking
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on January 14th, 2014
Al Jazeera: Environmentalists in the United Kingdom are reeling after French energy giant Total became the first company to announce an investment in fracking in the country.
The $48 million play is tiny by industry standards, but many see it as the first sign that Prime Minister David Cameron’s push to allow the controversial practice has paid off, despite protests from environmentalists who say the environmental danger posed by shale gas exploration (commonly known as fracking) outweighs the potential economic...
Okra-homa: As climate warms, Midwest farmers plant Southern crops
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on December 25th, 2013
Al Jazeera: It's no longer as corny as Kansas in August. Now it's cotton, okra and sorghum.
The hotter summers and more intense and frequent droughts in the Midwest are forcing farmers here to forgo the plants of their grandparents' generation and look down South for inspiration.
"We kept trying to grow sustainable tomatoes, but it was so hot that the plants got stressed and they wouldn’t produce fruit," said Courtney Skeeba, who started Homestead Ranch in the small town of Lecompton, Kan., about a decade...
Indigenous Canadian anti-fracking protesters refuse to back down
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on December 3rd, 2013
Al Jazeera: Anti-fracking demonstrators set tires ablaze to block a New Brunswick highway Monday in a fiery response to a judge’s decision to extend an injunction limiting their protests against a Texas-based shale gas exploration company.
In a courtroom in Fredericton, the capital of New Brunswick, Judge Paulette Garnett ruled to continue through Dec. 17 the injunction obtained by SWN Resources Canada against a coalition of protesters led by Mi’kmaq indigenous people from the Elsipogtog First Nation.
The...
Report: Obama’s ethanol policy has ravaged the environment
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on November 13th, 2013
Al Jazeera: When President Barack Obama gave a major policy speech on reducing greenhouse gases last June, he didn't once mention ethanol, an alcohol-based fuel distilled from fermented corn. Biofuels in general — which are extracted from plant or animal matter — received a brief, passing reference. But when the Iowa political caucuses were on the horizon in 2007, then–presidential candidate Obama made homegrown corn a centerpiece of his plan to slow global warming. And when former President George W. Bush...
House Democrats call for hearing oil, gas spills in Colorado floods
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on September 30th, 2013
Al Jazeera: Two House Democrats are urging Congress to investigate oil and gas spills caused by massive flooding in Colorado – a state where the number of oil and gas wells has doubled since 2006, when horizontal drilling and fracking were introduced.
Congressmen Jared Polis, D-Colo., and Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., in a letter sent Friday to the House Natural Resources Committee, called for a hearing on the spills. DeFazio is the committee's senior Democrat.
“Not only have my constituents been dealing with...
NASA scientists link climate change with increase in wildfires
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on September 8th, 2013
Al Jazeera: The devastating wildfire in Southern California that destroyed 26 homes and threatened hundreds of others in the San Jacinto Mountains before it was mostly contained on Sunday has prompted some scientists to examine whether climate change has impacted on the onset and severity of wildfire season.
The so-called Silver Fire is expected to be fully contained by Monday, according to California officials. But on Friday, as the fire moved toward Palm Springs and threatened some 500 homes, NASA hosted...
Fracking in Texas: Seen as the future, also viewed with fear
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on September 3rd, 2013
Al Jazeera: The Eagle Ford shale geological formation unfurls through the lower third of Texas, stretching 400 miles long and 50 miles wide from East Texas to Mexico, from Brazos County northeast of Houston to the Burgos Basin just over the border.
It could turn out to be the largest recoverable oil deposit ever found in the Lower 48.
And that, according to Dewitt County Judge Daryl Fowler, is a good thing. Fowler -- a native Texan who ran for office as a pro-oil Republican -- owns a ranch here in the...
Rising sea levels threaten US coastline
Posted by Al Jazeera: None Given on October 15th, 2012
Al Jazeera: The sea level on the east coast of the US is rising five times faster than the global average. The prospect of flooding is a major threat to millions of people who live in the region. Scott Heidler reports from a small community in the state of Delaware, which has found itself on the front line of the problem.