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MIT study links climate change, air pollution and decreasing food supplies
Posted by Blue and Green: Charlotte Malone on August 2nd, 2014
Blue and Green: MIT research published in the journal Nature Climate Change warns that rising temperatures and air pollution will combine to have negative effect on crop yield, placing pressure on the food system.
Several separate pieces of research of linked falling crop yields with climate change. Research from Stanford University suggests that climate change makes it 20 times more likely for corn and wheat crop production to decrease, whilst a study from the University of Leeds found climate change could have...
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Climate change to ‘substantially’ impact on coffee production this decade
Posted by Blue and Green: Charlotte Malone on July 3rd, 2014
Blue and Green: Coffee cultivation could be significantly affected by the effects of climate change as soon as 2020, according to a new report. The warning comes amid estimates that coffee bean production must rise by almost 15% in the next five years to keep up with demand.
The Coffee Barometer 2014 has been published to coincide with the Sustainable Coffee Conference on July 3 in Amsterdam. It was compiled by five NGOs – Hivos, IUCN NL, Oxfam-Novib, Solidaridad and WWF – and argues that coffee cultivation is...
UK pension fund investments linked land grabbing & risk
Posted by Blue and Green: Charlotte Malone on June 12th, 2014
Blue and Green: UK pensions funds and asset management companies potentially have up to £37 billion invested in ‘land grabs’ worldwide, according to a report published by Friends of the Earth. As well as raising ethical concerns, land grabbing could also pose additional risk to investments.
The report – What’s your pensions funding? How UK institutional investors finance the global land grab – links UK pension funds and asset management companies to global firms that are either known or alleged to be involved...
Researchers find fracking safety data is ‘sparse’ across Europe
Posted by Blue and Green: Charlotte Malone on March 25th, 2014
Blue and Green: A study from independent research consortium Researching Fracking in Europe (ReFINE) has found that data looking at the risks of leaking shale gas wells is “sparse”. It says current numbers show huge disparity in the safety of such wells.
The study, published in Marine and Petroleum Geology, found that previous research of oil and gas wells that were drilled over the last 100 years reveal highly variable well barrier and well integrity failure rates, ranging from 1.9% to 75%.
The researchers...
European flood losses could increase four-fold by 2050
Posted by Blue and Green: Charlotte Malone on March 3rd, 2014
Blue and Green: Losses from extreme floods in Europe could soar over the next 36 years, as climate change and socioeconomic development have an impact. In addition, extreme events will also become more frequent.
The research, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, uses a new model to assess the cost of flooding across Europe. Researchers from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) estimated that in the European Union, flood costs averaged EUR4.9 billion (£4 billion) a year from...
Environmental NGOs failing to address ‘blindingly obvious’ issues of population growth
Posted by Blue and Green: Charlotte Malone on March 2nd, 2014
Blue and Green: Environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are “failing the population challenge”, according to research from environmentalist and writer Jonathon Porritt and the charity Population Matters.
Porritt argues that population and environmental issues go hand in hand but that the majority of environmental NGOs are failing to recognise this and take the action necessary. He says that many of the organisations view the population issue as “completely off-limits” or it is only “grudgingly acknowledged”....
United Kingdom: David Cameron halts Environment Agency job cuts amid floods clean-up
Posted by Blue and Green: Charlotte Malone on February 14th, 2014
Blue and Green: The prime minister has said the Environment Agency will not lose 500 members of staff amid its efforts to deal with Britain’s flooding. However, he has not said whether the job cuts will go ahead once the situation has been dealt with.
David Cameron told BBC Breakfast, “Those have never been announced plans. These aren’t plans that are going to put in place.
“Of course every organisation has to make sure it is efficient but nothing will be done at the Environment Agency that will hamper our...