By Jeremy Lovell, E&E European correspondent13 June 2011 LONDON — One of the driest spring seasons on record in northern Europe has sucked soils dry and sharply reduced river levels to the point that governments are starting to fear crop losses and France, in particular, is bracing for blackouts as its river-cooled nuclear power plants […]
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer15 June 2011 WASHINGTON — The fires searing parts of the West are an eerie echo of the past, a frightening reminder of a once terrible danger that had been held largely at bay for decades. The number of large wildfires has been rising for roughly the past 25 […]
By COCO LIU of ClimateWire14 June 2011 SHANGHAI — It is an annual tradition for Chinese to race dragon boats at the end of each spring, but this year, the tradition has run aground. Many streams and lakes along the Yangtze River have almost dried up. The world’s third-largest river — stretching from the Himalayas […]
By Doyle Rice, USA TODAY16 Jun 2011 The so-called dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico — a region of oxygen-depleted water off the Louisiana and Texas coasts that is harmful to sea life — is predicted to be the largest ever recorded when it develops later this summer, scientists report. The unusually large size […]
Predicted patterns of Indus flows above Tarbela with changes in snow-melt patterns and volume under climate change (World Bank Pakistan Country Water Assistance Strategy, 2005, quoting Rees and Collins, 2006) Forward predictions, as shown in the graph, should see a mid-term increase in annual average runoff (consistent with mass balance) and/or an increase in groundwater […]
By JULIANA BARBASSA15 June 2011 RIO DE JANEIRO — A landless peasant activist was killed by a gunshot to his head outside his home in Brazil — the fifth murder in a month likely tied to the conflict over land and logging in the Amazon. The body of the victim, Obede Loyla Souza, was found […]
By Kevin Krolicki and Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Linda Sieg and Nick Macfie14 Jun 2011 KANAGAWA, Japan (Reuters) – Hisao Nakamura still can’t accept that his crisply cut field of deep green tea bushes south of Tokyo has been turned into a radioactive hazard by a crisis far beyond the horizon. “I was more than […]
By Wonkette Jr.9 June 2011 Texas Governor Rick Perry has declared he can’t solve the state’s problems, so from now on official government policy is “pray, everybody.” Perry is holding a day of fasting and prayer called “The Response” at a sports stadium in Houston on August 6th, which everyone can now consider the “effective […]
Bruce Blythe, Business Editor 13 June 2011 The government’s latest crops outlook brought unwelcome news for Mike Engler, a Texas feedlot operator who’s watched profits evaporate in recent months as corn prices soared to records and the cattle market slumped. There’s no apparent end in sight for tight corn supplies and high feed costs for […]
By Pete Spotts, Staff writer10 June 2011 A blend of natural climate swings and global warming appears to be driving a long-term decline in snowpack along the Rocky Mountains rarely seen in the past 800 years. In the process, and perhaps more important for the future, the dominant driver behind available snowpack along the continental […]
