Guardian: Householders in flood-hit properties have been dealt a further blow in their battle to get insurance as one of the last remaining insurers willing to offer them cover has changed its stance. Sainsbury's Finance offered low-cost insurance to homeowners and tenants whose properties had previously been flooded, whereas dozens of other major insurance companies turned them away. According to the National Flood Forum, a charity offering advice and support to communities and individuals at risk of flooding,...

Common Dreams: As southern Indiana, Kentucky and other midwestern states woke Saturday to devastated communities and a rising death toll, the world again was treated to pictures and video of mother nature's ferocious power and the merciless power of her most precise and terrifying storm, the tornado. Most striking to some is the early arrival of this year's tornado season, which usually begins later in the spring and runs into summer. For climate scientists, who have long predicted longer or more powerful storms...

Wall Street Journal: The state's persistent drought has claimed its latest victims: rice farmers. Because of low water levels in several lakes that serve as reservoirs here, officials said Friday that they wouldn't release irrigation water to farmers in three counties downstream that produce much of the rice in the state. Ronald Gertson stands beside one of his John Deere tractors last month at his rice farm in Lissie, Texas. The rice industry contributes about $394 million annually to the economy of the state,...

ClimateWire: The world's largest oil sands producers signed an agreement yesterday to waive their intellectual property and patent rights in order to reduce the industry's impact on greenhouse gases, agriculture and waterways. Twelve companies -- including Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Cenovus Energy Inc. and ConocoPhillips Co. -- formed Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) to eliminate redundancy in their research operations. The intent is for the participating companies -- which represent more than 80 percent...

Reuters: After Portugal's driest February in 80 years, farmers are praying for a miracle as drought ravages pastures and sparks forest fires, exacerbating the country's economic crisis. Worse still, official forecasters expect the freak weather pattern to prevail at least through the end of March, which would worsen a drought now classified as severe and extreme throughout mainland Portugal. Aside from the yet-unassessed impact on trade and GDP, the situation is likely to further strain limited financial...

New York Times: A frantic day and night of fast-moving tornadoes and severe thunderstorms churned across the South and the Midwest on Friday, leaving behind at least 27 deaths, hundreds of injuries and countless damaged buildings in several states. The storm systems stretched from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes and were so wide that an estimated 34 million people were at risk for severe weather, said Mike Hudson of the National Weather Service regional office in Kansas City, Mo. At one point, the storms were...

Guardian: BP will pay out $7.8bn (£5bn) to settle a lawsuit with thousands of individuals from the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, under an agreement reached late on Friday night. The settlement, announced by Judge Carl Barbier, was reached just ahead of Monday's trial in a New Orleans court. The trial, already delayed by a week to allow extra time for negotiations, has been postponed again. With one major settlement achieved, BP will probably redouble its efforts to reach a deal with the federal government...

Reuters: Barrick Gold named a corporate social responsibility board on Friday, which will advise the world's top gold producer on community relations, sustainable development and human rights, as miners around the globe face tougher public and investor scrutiny of their activities. Toronto-based Barrick was hit by a torrent of criticism last year after at least five people were killed and many more were hurt, when hundreds of people raided a gold mine in Tanzania owned by its subsidiary African Barrick...

Inter Press Service: Beauty Moyo’s desire for access to water has finally been met. The rains that fell in the past week after a long dry patch have awakened this small-holder farmer deep in rural Plumtree, Zimbabwe on the border with Botswana to the reality of sparse rainfall, climate change and how she and her fellow villagers can respond. Plumtree, like most parts of southwestern Zimbabwe, is notorious for low rainfall. But millions of farmers in the country rely on rain-fed agriculture and food they grow themselves,...

SciDev.Net: The rapid growth of cities across the developing world has resulted in urban areas overtaking rural communities as being the most vulnerable to widescale flooding, according to a report from the World Bank. The slums of Asian cities are especially vulnerable, says the report, pointing out that about 90 per cent of people exposed to floods live in Asia, and that the problems they face could worsen as a result of factors such as climate change. The report says that in 2010 alone, 178 million...