Blogging the End of the World™
HANOI (AFP) – Vietnam, the world’s second-biggest rice exporter, said Wednesday it needs help to safeguard the world’s food supply from the consequences of global warming. “The rice bowl of Vietnam will be severely affected” without action, Nguyen Khac Hieu, deputy director general of the government’s climate change agency, told reporters before key global climate […]
By Chris Buckley BEIJING (Reuters) – Droughts and floods stoked by global warming threaten to destabilize China’s grain production, the nation’s top meteorologist has warned, urging bigger grain reserves and strict protection of farmland and water supplies. Extreme weather damage can now cause annual grain output in China, the world’s biggest grain producer, to […]
The Maasai Mau Forest has been impacted heavily by encroachment, especially on the western side. Analysis of 1973 and 2005 satellite images shows that about 8,214 hectares of forest cover was lost inside the Maasai Mau Forest, and about 31,755 hectares lost outside the forest boundaries. This totals 39,969 hectares – representing about 39% of […]
By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – California officials said on Tuesday that drought and environmental restrictions have forced them to cut planned water deliveries to irrigation districts and cities statewide to just 5 percent of their contracted allotments. Although the state Water Resources Department typically ends up supplying more water than first projected […]
A review of climate change in Antarctica forecasts that by 2100 the world’s seas will have risen to levels previously considered too extreme to be realistic. The review, Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment [pdf], was compiled by 100 scientists associated with the international Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. Using 20 of the most […]
The number of food stamp recipients has climbed by about 10 million over the past two years, resulting in a program that now feeds 1 in 8 Americans and nearly 1 in 4 children. Food Stamp Usage Across the Country Technorati Tags: financial collapse,poverty,North America
By Rachel Morris, www.motherjones.com, November/December 2009 Issue IT’S A BRIGHT, BALMY SUNDAY afternoon and I’m driving through the western outskirts of Auckland, New Zealand, the kind of place you never see on a postcard. No majestic mountains, no improbably green pastures—just a bland tangle of shopping malls and suburbia. I follow a dead-end street, past […]
PARIS, Nov 29 (AFP) Nov 29, 2009 — The UN refugee agency says some 24 million people worldwide have fled their homes due to environmental factors, and warns their ranks could grow tenfold by mid-century, spurred greatly by climate change. Sheer numbers and the lack of legal status under international law mean a vicious humanitarian […]
Annual emissions of carbon from changes in land use (Note P = 1015).20 Virtually all of the carbon released to the atmosphere from land use changes now comes from the tropics. Tropical deforestation, including logging and the permanent and temporary conversion of forests to croplands and pastures, releases about 1-2 PgC/yr. This is 15-35% of […]
Australia, already the driest inhabited continent on Earth, is drying up for good. The state of New South Wales is particularly hard-hit, with catastrophic mega-fires destroying the eucalyptus forests, major rivers reduced to muddy streambeds, and dams drained to nothing but algae-filled ponds. Wyangala Dam is an example of how it will end. Now down […]
