agriculture – Page 20 – Desdemona Despair

Global quantities of cocaine seized, by region, 1998–2019. Quantities of cocaine seized reached record levels in 2019. In 2019, the global quantity of cocaine seized increased by 9.6 percent compared with the preceding year to reach 1,436 tons (of varying purities), a record high. The 90 percent increase in the quantities of cocaine seized between 2009 and 2019 is likely a reflection of a combination of factors, including an increase in cocaine manufacture (50 per cent between 2009 and 2019) and a subsequent increase in cocaine trafficking, as well as an increase in the efficiency of law enforcement, which may have contributed to an increase in the overall interception rate. Graphic: UNODC

June 28, 2021

Illegal drug trade back to business as usual in 2020 and 2021 – Cocaine production hits record high – Number of people using illegal drugs increased by 22 percent in 2010-2019 decade

By Pia Lee-Brago 28 June 2021 (The Philippine Star) – Around 275 million people used illegal drugs worldwide in the last year of unprecedented upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, up by 22 percent from 2010, and it is “business as usual” again for drug traffickers, according to the latest annual world drug report by […]

Seasonal honey bee colony loss rates in the United States, 2008-2021. Annual loss estimates (from one 1 April to the next 1 April) combine winter (1 October – 1 April) and summer (1 April – 1 October) losses. The loss rate was calculated as the total number of colonies lost divided by the number of colonies “at risk” during the season. Colonies at risk were composed of viable colonies and new colonies made or acquired, while excluding colonies sold or parted with. Graphic: Bee Informed Partnership

June 25, 2021

U.S. honey bee colonies hit by second-highest annual loss on record in 2021

By Nathalie Steinhauer, Dan Aurell, Selina Bruckner, Mikayla Wilson, Karen Rennich, Dennis vanEngelsdorp, and Geoffrey Williams 23 June 2021 (Bee Informed Partnership) – The Bee Informed Partnership (http://beeinformed.org) is a non-profit organization that works alongside beekeepers to improve honey bee colony health and survivorship across the United States. One of the organization’s longest running programs, […]

Risk levels for climate-sensitive health outcomes based on different greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation scenarios. Graphic: IPCC WG 2 Sixth Assessment Report / AFP

June 23, 2021

Hunger, drought, disease: UN climate report reveals dire health threats – “The basis for our health is sustained by three pillars: the food we eat, access to water, and shelter. These pillars are totally vulnerable and about to collapse.”

By Patrick Galey 23 June 2021 (AFP) – Hunger, drought and disease will afflict tens of millions more people within decades, according to a draft UN assessment that lays bare the dire human health consequences of a warming planet. After a pandemic year that saw the world turned on its head, a forthcoming report by […]

Satellite view of Lake Mead in 2000 and 2020. The United States' largest reservoir is draining rapidly. Plagued by extreme, climate change-fueled drought and increasing demand for water, Lake Mead on 16 June 2021 registered its lowest level on record since the reservoir was filled in the 1930s. Photo: LANDSAT / Copernicus / Google Earth

June 21, 2021

The American West is drying out – Lake Mead, largest reservoir in U.S., drops to lowest level on record since it was filled in the 1930s

By Zachary B. Wolf 20 June 2021 (CNN) – The incredible pictures of a depleted Lake Mead, on the Nevada-Arizona border, illustrate the effects of drought brought on by climate change. Later this year, the US government will almost certainly declare the first-ever water shortage along the Colorado River. Maps show more than a quarter of the US […]

A home destroyed in the 2020 North Complex Fire sits above Lake Oroville on 23 May 2021, in Oroville, California. At the time of this photo, drought had reduced the reservoir to 39 percent of capacity and 46 percent of its historical average. Photo: Noah Berger / AP Photo

June 20, 2021

Drought saps California reservoirs as hot, dry summer looms – “It makes me feel like our planet is literally drying up,”

By Adam Beam 17 June 2021 OROVILLE, Califorina (AP) – Each year Lake Oroville helps water a quarter of the nation’s crops, sustain endangered salmon beneath its massive earthen dam and anchor the tourism economy of a Northern California county that must rebuild seemingly every year after unrelenting wildfires. But the mighty lake — a […]

FAO Food Price Index, May 2020-May 2021. The FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) averaged 127.1 points in May 2021, 5.8 points (4.8 percent) higher than in April and as much as 36.1 points (39.7 percent) above the same period last year. The May increase represented the biggest month-on-month gain since October 2010. It also marked the twelfth consecutive monthly rise in the value of the FFPI to its highest value since September 2011, bringing the Index only 7.6 percent below its peak value of 137.6 points registered in February 2011. The sharp increase in May reflected a surge in prices for oils, sugar and cereals along with firmer meat and dairy prices. Graphic: UN FAO

June 5, 2021

Global food prices rise at rapid pace in May 2021 – Food Price Index hits highest value since September 2011, only 7.6 percent below its all-time peak

ROME, 4 June 2021 (FAO) – Global food prices rose in May at their fastest monthly rate in more than a decade, even as world cereal production is on course to reach a new record high, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported today. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 127.1 points in […]

Aerial view of a leak from the Piney Point reservoir in Manatee County, Florida, on 3 April 2021. Photo: NewsNation / MSNBC

April 4, 2021

“Imminent” collapse of wastewater reservoir in Florida forces evacuations – 20-foot “wall of water” if reservoir breaches – Workers try to prevent “real catastrophic flood situation”

By Raja Razek and Alaa Elassar 4 April 2021 (CNN) – Response teams in Manatee County Florida are trying to prevent a “real catastrophic flood situation” in the Piney Point reservoir area, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday after taking an aerial tour the area. The governor assured the public that the water being discharged to […]

Sri Lankan mother Sumitra Dissanayake weeps for her dead daughter, Shashikala Sewwandi, who she says was killed by the herbicide paraquat. She pleads for extremely poisonous pesticides and herbicides to be banned. “I don’t want anyone to grieve like me.” Photo: Greenpeace / The Guardian

March 28, 2021

Scientist tells of relief after speaking out over weedkiller fears – Herbicide poisoning expert says paraquat responsible for “tens of thousands” of deaths worldwide

By Ben Quinn 24 March 2021 (The Guardian) – A scientist with one of the world’s largest chemical firms took the difficult decision to speak out publicly when “a new generation” of managers rejected concerns about a mass-produced weedkiller that he had been expressing for decades. Going public has been a “relief”, says toxicologist Jon […]

Western Monarch butterfly abundance at 149 overwintering sites in California, 2017-2021. These critically low numbers follow two years with fewer than 30,000 butterflies—the previous record lows, indicating that the western monarch butterfly migration is nearing collapse. Sites were visited during both the Thanksgiving and New Year’s Counts during the 2020–2021 count season. Graphic: Xerces Society

March 13, 2021

Western Monarch butterfly population closer to extinction – No Endangered Species Act protection in sight – “In only a few decades, a migration of millions has been reduced to less than two thousand butterflies”

PORTLAND, Oregon, 19 January 2021 – The Xerces Society today announced that only 1,914 monarch butterflies were recorded overwintering on the California coast this year. This critically low number follows two years with fewer than 30,000 butterflies—the previous record lows—indicating that the western monarch butterfly migration is nearing collapse. The final results from the 24th annual Western […]

The global COVID-19 lockdowns caused fossil carbon dioxide emissions to decline by an estimated 2.4 billion tonnes in 2020 - a record drop according to researchers at the University of East Anglia, University of Exeter and the Global Carbon Project. It means that in 2020 fossil CO2 emissions are predicted to be approximately 34 GtCO2, seven per cent lower than in 2019. Emissions from transport account for the largest share of the global decrease. Those from surface transport, such as car journeys, fell by approximately half at the peak of the COVID lockdowns. Total CO2 emissions from human activities - from fossil CO2 and land-use change - are set to be around 39 GtCO2 in 2020. Video: UEA

December 12, 2020

COVID lockdown causes record drop in carbon dioxide emissions for 2020

11 December 2020 (UEA) – The global COVID-19 lockdowns caused fossil carbon dioxide emissions to decline by an estimated 2.4 billion tonnes in 2020 – a record drop according to researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA), University of Exeter, and the Global Carbon Project. The fall is considerably larger than previous significant decreases […]