By Lucy Hornby LIDONG VILLAGE, China (Reuters) – China has declared an emergency over a drought which could damage the important wheat crop, threatening further hardship for farmers amid slumping economic growth. The dry winter gripping parts of central and northern China has sent Zhengzhou wheat futures up 5 percent this week but physical prices […]
Several hundred little brown bats are dead from White-Nose Syndrome in Lackawanna County, and the Pennsylvania Game Commission is looking to residents for help uncovering other sites where this deadly disorder may have surfaced. Last week, bats were found dead outside of an abandoned mine near Carbondale by a citizen who later reported the findings […]
From Calculated Risk: After the excellent stock market returns in January (just kidding – actually the worst January ever), it is probably time to check in on the Four Bad Bear markets … first, from MarketWatch: U.S. stocks end worst January on record with more losses The S&P 500 index fell 19 points, or 2.3%, […]
Scientists believe climate change is the cause of stronger winds that drive upwelling of nutrient-rich deep ocean waters The spectre of an ocean floor littered with dead shellfish, rock fish, sea stars and other marine life off the Oregon coast spurred Mark Snyder, a climate change expert, to investigate whether California’s coast faced a similar […]
Native British bees are dying out — and with them will go flora, fauna and one-third of our diet. We may have less than a decade to save them and avert catastrophe. So why is nothing being done? Richard Girling Midwinter. In a garden not far from the sea in Plymouth, there is a splash […]
MARSHES, Iraq (Reuters) – Miles of reed stalks and baked mud are all that can be seen of much of Iraq’s ancient marshes this year, as a lack of water threatens to turn one of the world’s most important wetlands to wasteland. Thought to be the biblical Garden of Eden, Iraq’s marshes have for […]
KOLKATA, India (Reuters) – Rising sea levels are causing salt water to flow into India’s biggest river, threatening its ecosystem and turning vast farmlands barren in the country’s east, a climate change expert warned Monday. A study by an east Indian university in the city of Kolkata revealed surprising growth of mangroves on the […]
From Calculated Risk: Note: This is a new “record low”, but the index has only been compiled since 2002, so this is the first recession for the index. From the National Restaurant Association (NRA): Restaurant Industry Outlook Softens as the Restaurant Performance Index Fell to a Record Low in December The outlook for the restaurant […]
One third of the world’s plants are threatened with extinction By Georgina Cooper ARDINGLY, England (Reuters) – A seed bank that is trying to collect every type of plant in the world is now under threat from the global financial crisis, its director says. The Millennium Seed Bank Project aims to house all the 300,000 […]
Richard Van Noorden Liberia prepares for second plague of caterpillar pests. A plague of crop-eating caterpillars has struck Liberia and a second wave could spread across West Africa in the next few weeks, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has warned. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberia’s president, has declared a state of emergency […]
