By SOLOMON MOORE LOS ANGELES — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made an unusual request Friday, asking President Obama to declare Fresno County a federal disaster area because of a three-year drought that is straining California’s agricultural industry and worsening unemployment in the hard-hit Central Valley. Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, announced his request on a visit to […]
While long and severe drought in the US state of Georgia is officially “over”, and water restrictions going “off” across the US Southeast, the Canadian prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as pictured) are suffering an historic drought that may have serious impacts on farmers and food production. The Globe & Mail reports that “In […]
People have been listening to skylarks singing in Britain for 10,000 years. But now they, and many other much-loved species, are vanishing fast. By David Adam, environment correspondent …the star attraction of the neighbouring fields has flown. Until a year ago, a clutch of woodlark nested there, one of Britain’s rarest birds with just 1,000 […]
By Victoria GillScience reporter, BBC News The wild ancestors of common domestic fruit trees are in danger of becoming extinct, scientists have warned. Researchers have published a “red list” of threatened species that grow in the forests of Central Asia. These disease-resistant and climate-tolerant fruit trees could play a role in our future food security. […]
More than half of cropland expansion between 1980 and 2000 occurred at the expense of natural forests, while another 30 percent of occurred in disturbed forests, reported a Stanford University researcher presenting Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago. Holly Gibbs, formerly of the University […]
By JIM CARLTON MENDOTA, Calif. — Dwindling water supplies are compounding economic woes in California’s Central Valley, causing farmers to leave fields fallow and confront the prospect of going under. The state’s water supply has dropped precipitously of late. California is locked in the third year of one of its worst droughts on record, with […]
