Blogging the End of the World™
By Philip Rucker and Peter Wallsten 8 June 2011 It seemed like a straightforward question on a second-tier issue: Would Mitt Romney disavow the science behind global warming? The putative Republican presidential front-runner, eager to prove his conservative bona fides, could easily have said what he knew many in his party’s base wanted to hear. […]
Feeding the world by 2050 will require increasing agricultural output by 70 percent. To achieve this, agricultural productivity will need to grow at an annual average rate of at least 1.75 percent from a relatively fixed bundle of agricultural resources given growing regional scarcities of water and arable land. As noted earlier, over the past […]
Contact: Jeff Miller, (415) 669-7357 June 8, 2011 SAN FRANCISCO— In one of the largest fish kills in California history, new federal data show, the Central Valley Project and State Water Project pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta have killed more than 6 million Sacramento splittail in the past six weeks and more than 51,000 […]
By Hidenori Tsuboya and Jin Nishikawa9 June 2011 The Japanese government’s report to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant catalogues multiple failures at all levels of Japan’s nuclear industry, bureaucracy and government. The report, submitted June 7, lists 28 challenges thrown up by the […]
By Colin Barr 8 June 2011 The recovery is over. So says UCLA economist Ed Leamer. He notes that May brought the first year-over-year decline in the Pulse of Commerce Index of domestic diesel fuel use since the end of 2009 – the latest yellow flag to be raised over the sputtering U.S. economy. The […]
By arevamirpal::laprimavera8 June 2011 So the Tokyo Metropolitan government finally admitted to the high air radiation level in “Nanbu Sludge Plant” in Ota-ku in Tokyo, after, it turns out, a Tokyo Metropolitan Assemblyman from Ota-ku went inside the plant and measured the radiation. “Tobu” or Eastern, Sludge Plant in Koto-ku in Tokyo has an even […]
By Carey Gillam; Editing by John Picinich7 Jun 2011 KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – High-tech seeds and innovations in chemicals and farming will not be enough to solve looming food shortages for the world, according to a report issued Tuesday by a committee formed by food and chemicals conglomerate DuPont. Billions of dollars in private […]
An op-ed by Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org, narrated and illustrated by Stephen Thomson of Plomomedia.com Caution: It is vitally important not to make connections. When you see pictures of rubble like this week’s shots from Joplin, Mo., you should not wonder: Is this somehow related to the tornado outbreak three weeks ago […]
Beijing (AFP) June 7, 2011 – Authorities have closed schools in two towns in China after industrial waste contaminated the water supply for 200,000 residents, officials and state media said Tuesday. Locals in the towns of Pingyao and Liangzhu in the eastern province of Zhejiang have complained their tap water has a strange taste and […]
By Julia Scott8 June 2011 Bay Area cities and counties whose jurisdictions contain the San Francisco and Oakland airports and the ports of Oakland and Redwood City would be required to prepare action plans to deal with rising sea levels under a trailblazing bill passed by the state Assembly last week. The bill would require […]
