Blogging the End of the World™
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 […]
A global glacier index update Sat, 31 Jan 2009 13:59:31 GMT Technorati Tags: glacier,deglaciation,global warming
David. S. Battisti1 and Rosamond L. Naylor2 Higher growing season temperatures can have dramatic impacts on agricultural productivity, farm incomes, and food security. We used observational data and output from 23 global climate models to show a high probability (>90%) that growing season temperatures in the tropics and subtropics by the end of the 21st […]
By Clare Baldwin SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A new survey of California winter snows on Thursday showed the most populous state is facing one of the worst droughts in its history, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said. The state, which produces about half the United States’ vegetables and fruit, is in its third year of drought and […]
Weakness in the bulk commodities markets, reflecting the depth of the recession, is shown by the incredible 92% decline in the Baltic Dry Index. … Construction and energy-intensive manufacturing are the first sectors to slump in a recession. This has cut the demand for bulk commodity inputs, leading to the Baltic Dry Index decline. Cargo […]
By Jeremy van Loon Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) — Glaciers from the Andes to Alaska and across the Alps shrank as much as 3 meters (10 feet), the 18th year of retreat and twice as fast as a decade ago, as global warming threatens an important supply of the world’s water. Alpine glaciers lost on average […]
From Calculated Risk: More cliff diving … From the International Air Transport Association: Cargo Plummets 22.6% in December (hat tip Bob_in_MA) In the month of December global international cargo traffic plummeted by 22.6% compared to December 2007. The same comparison for international passenger traffic showed a 4.6% drop. The international load factor stood at 73.8%. […]
By Michael Perry SYDNEY, Jan 29 (Reuters) – A heatwave scorching southern Australia, causing transport chaos by buckling rail lines and leaving more than 10,000 homes without power, is a sign of climate change, the climate change minister said on Thursday. The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting a total of six days of 40-plus Celsius […]
