By Amy Quinton28 February 2013 (California Capital Network) – California has officially shattered an all-time record for the driest January and February in the northern Sierra since record-keeping began in 1921. This year, the area has received only 2.3 inches of precipitation. The northern Sierra is crucial in providing statewide water supplies because snow melt […]
By Mark Stevenson13 March 2013 MEXICO CITY (AP) – The amount of Monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico dropped 59 percent this year, falling to the lowest level since comparable record-keeping began 20 years ago, scientists reported Wednesday. It was the third straight year of declines for the orange-and-black butterflies that migrate from the United States […]
13 March 2013 (Fairfax) – The Wellington region’s water supply is at ‘crisis’ level, while even the typically wet West Coast is experiencing a big dry as New Zealand’s summer drought extends. Rural communities throughout the North Island are already reeling from extremely dry conditions. The Government has declared Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty […]
By Matthew Campbell and Chris V. Nicholson 7 March 2013 (Bloomberg) – Investing in climate change used to mean financing the fight against global warming. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and other firms took stakes in wind farms and tidal-energy projects, and set up carbon-trading desks. Then, as efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions faltered, […]
By Raveena Aulakh Environment Reporter5 March 2013 (Toronto Star) – Drought in eastern China. A shortage of wheat. An uprising in Egypt. On the face of it, the three don’t seem related. But two years after revolutions swept through the Arab world, a new study argues that climate change played a significant role in the […]
By Raveena Aulakh 16 February 2013 (Toronto Star) – Masud, 19, lives in Korail, Dhaka’s largest slum. Its roughly 70,000 residents dwell in the shadow of the affluent Gulshan neighbourhood, with its mansions, restaurants, and western-style shopping centres. Masud, her husband Mohammed, and their year-old daughter Karima share a one-room shanty that can be crossed […]
By Roger Harrabin, Environment analyst3 March 2013 (BBC) – Britain must become more resilient to both drought and flooding, Environment Agency chairman Chris Smith has said. New figures from the agency show that one in every five days saw flooding in 2012, but one in four days saw drought. Rivers such as the Tyne, Ouse, […]
By Rob Jordan 25 February 2013 (Stanford Report) – It’s no secret that China is faced with some of the world’s worst pollution. Until now, however, information on the magnitude, scope and impacts of a major contributor to that pollution – human-caused nitrogen emissions – was lacking. A new study co-authored by Stanford Woods Institute […]
By Dan Vergano3 March 2013 (USA TODAY) – Deforestation by early farmers likely kicked off an era of man-made climate change long before our present era, suggests a climate scientist taking a hard look at agriculture’s early effects. Chopping down trees with flint axes, planting peas and shearing sheep — those all sound like the […]
By Matt Bowen26 February 2013 (Fairfax NZ News) – Bilbo Baggins’ lush green shire could have the life sucked out of it after Waikato’s undeclared drought restricted Hobbiton’s water supply. It’s the region’s driest summer in five years and, with no rain in sight, Matamata’s best known tourist attraction may become three hectares of parched […]
