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Scientists help Vietnam’s rice farmers adapt to climate change, amid major drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 16th, 2016
IRIN: Scientists are developing more resistant varieties of rice to help farmers in Vietnam adapt to climate change, amid the country’s worst drought in 90 years. The drought, as well as the related flow of saltwater upriver, has destroyed 159,000 hectares of rice paddies and left almost one million people lacking drinking water, according to a new UN report. Another half million hectares are expected to be damaged by mid-year. In line with its work in other Asian countries, the Philippines-based...
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Comments Off on Scientists help Vietnam’s rice farmers adapt to climate change, amid major droughtClimate variations analyzed 5 million years back in time
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 16th, 2016
Science Codex: When we talk about climate change today, we have to look at what the climate was previously like in order to recognise the natural variations and to be able to distinguish them from the human-induced changes. Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute have analysed the natural climate variations over the last 12,000 years, during which we have had a warm interglacial period and they have looked back 5 million years to see the major features of the Earth's climate. The research shows that not only...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate variations analyzed 5 million years back in timePhotosynthesis more ancient than thought, and most living things could do it
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 16th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Photosynthesis is the process by which plants, algae and cyanobacteria use the energy from the Sun to make sugar from water and carbon dioxide, releasing oxygen as a waste product. But a few groups of bacteria carry out a simpler form of photosynthesis that does not produce oxygen, which evolved first. A new study by an Imperial researcher suggests that this more primitive form of photosynthesis evolved in much more ancient bacteria than scientists had imagined, more than 3.5 billion years ago....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Photosynthesis more ancient than thought, and most living things could do itUnited Kingdom: Supermarkets pledge to cut food waste 20% by 2025
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2016
Guardian: Britain’s leading supermarkets have pledged to drive down food and drink waste by a fifth within the next decade.
Retailers including Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons are backing a voluntary agreement, which also targets a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions created by the food and drink industry.
Some 24 local authorities, including the London Water and Recycling Board, and major brands and manufacturers such as Coca-Cola, Nestle and Pizza Hut have also committed to the agreement...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: Supermarkets pledge to cut food waste 20% by 2025EPA Chief To Testify Before Congressional Panel On Flint’s Water Crisis
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2016
National Public Radio: Renee Montagne talks to Gina McCarthy, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, about the federal government's role in the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on EPA Chief To Testify Before Congressional Panel On Flint’s Water CrisisZimbabwe says up to 4 million need food aid after drought: state paper
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2016
Reuters: The number of Zimbabweans requiring food aid has risen to 4 million, up from 3 million initially, a state-owned newspaper said on Tuesday, as the southern African nation grapples with its worst drought in more than two decades.
An El Nino induced-drought has hit Zimbabwe hard and last month it appealed for $1.6 billion in aid to help pay for grain and other food.
"Indications are that the figure of vulnerable households requiring food assistance could be as high as four million people," Public...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Zimbabwe says up to 4 million need food aid after drought: state paperEnvironmental risks killing 12.6 million people, WHO study says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2016
Guardian: Nearly one in four deaths are linked to unhealthy environments and are avoidable, a new World Health Organisation study – the first major assessment of environmental risk since 2006 – has shown.
It suggests environmental risks now contribute to more than 100 of the world’s most dangerous diseases, injuries, and kills 12.6 million people a year – nearly one in four or 23% of all deaths.
Of these, two-thirds or 8.2m deaths are from non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as strokes, cancers and...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Environmental risks killing 12.6 million people, WHO study saysFertilizer applied to fields today will pollute water for decades
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Dangerous nitrate levels in drinking water could persist for decades, increasing the risk for blue baby syndrome and other serious health concerns, according to a new study published by researchers at the University of Waterloo. Nitrogen fertilizer applied to farmers' fields has been contaminating rivers and lakes and leaching into drinking water wells for more than 80 years. The study, published this week in a special issue of the journal Environmental Research Letters, reveals that elevated nitrate...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Fertilizer applied to fields today will pollute water for decadesClimate change redistributes global water resources
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 14th, 2016
PhysOrg: Analysis of more than 40 years of water samples archived at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF) in New Hampshire tells a vivid tale of how the sources of precipitation have changed. Over the years, there has been a dramatic increase, especially during the winter, of the amount of water that originated far to the north.
"In the later years, we saw more water derived from evaporation of the Arctic and the North Atlantic oceans," said Tamir Puntsag, a graduate student at the SUNY College...
Degrading underground ice wedges are reshaping Arctic landscape
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 14th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Rapid melting of ice and Arctic permafrost is altering tundra regions in Alaska, Canada and Russia, according to a new study released in the journal Nature Geoscience. Ice-wedge degradation has been observed before in individual locations, but this is the first study to determine that rapid melting has become widespread throughout the Arctic.
Southwest Research Institute® (SwRI®) provided time series and change detection analyses of high resolution remote sensing imagery acquired over several...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Degrading underground ice wedges are reshaping Arctic landscape