Drowning in danger: Worldwide water crisis deemed biggest global risk

By Peter Neill 1 February 2016 (NY Daily News) – The World Economic Forum, which just completed its 2016 meeting in Davos, Switzerland, last year recognized the world water crisis as the most impactful global risk. The situation is no less complicated or critical today, with California reevaluating its water policies and structures as a […]

Study reveals Amazon deforestation tends to decrease but remains high – 222,248 square kilometers destroyed between 2000 and 2013

(RAISG) – The Amazonian Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG) reveals in a recent publication that the loss of original forest cover of the Amazon rainforest decelerated between 2000 and 2013 relative to the 1970-2000 period. Despite this deceleration, figures remain high within the entire region for the three periods analyzed (2000-2005, 2005-2010, 2010-2013). The […]

Human-made fires pollute air with ozone half a world away

By Cody Sullivan27 January 2016 (Eos) – Ozone, a common air pollutant and greenhouse gas, harms lungs and plants and has contributed almost as much as methane to global warming since the start of the Industrial Revolution. Now researchers are reporting new evidence that local-scale slash and burn farming techniques, cooking fires, and wildfires can […]

Second largest lake in Bolivia dries up – ‘There’s no future here’

By Carlos Valdez, with additional reporting by Frank Bajak21 January 2016 UNTAVI, Bolivia (AP) – Overturned fishing skiffs lie abandoned on the shores of what was Bolivia’s second-largest lake. Beetles dine on bird carcasses and gulls fight for scraps under a glaring sun in what marshes remain. Lake Poopo was officially declared evaporated last month. […]

Helping tomorrow’s climate refugees by engaging today: A dispatch from Bangladesh – ‘What will happen to the rest of the world tomorrow is already happening there today’

By Timmons Roberts13 January 2016 (Brookings) – I spent the past week in Bangladesh, visiting the countryside on a fascinating and heartening trip from the country’s massive capital, Dhaka, to the south, a region being hammered by climate change. I came to give some speeches and took the opportunity to see for myself how foreign […]

Can California save its drought-drained aquifers before El Niño destroys what’s left? ‘If we continue the way we are doing things right now, this depletion will be a catastrophe’

By Kurtis Alexander18 January 2016 (TNS) – The clouds over the Sierra foothills were a welcome sight for Phil Desatoff. As general manager of the Consolidated Irrigation District, which serves parts of Fresno, Tulare and Kings counties in the Central Valley, his job is to supply river water from the mountains to about 5,000 farmers, […]

14 million people in southern Africa face food crisis as funding shortfall threatens UN efforts to counter El Niño drought

18 January 2016 (UN) – With 14 million people facing hunger in southern Africa as the El Niño weather pattern, the worst in over three decades, exacerbates drought, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today that it faces critical funding challenges in scaling up food and cash-based aid. “The number of people without […]

Climate extremes threaten Australia wine industry – ‘The science projections do not point to Australia’s climate getting any more favorable’

By Colin Packham; Editing by Richard Pullin14 January 2016 SYDNEY (Reuters) – Winemakers in Australia’s oldest growing region fear a ruined harvest after heavy rainfall, while vineyards in the country’s west are under threat from bushfires, undermining efforts to recover from a near decade-long run of lower exports. Just weeks out from the 2016 harvest, […]

Brazil inflames forest fires with pro-deforestation laws

By Jan Rocha in Sao Paulo14 January 2016 (Climate News Network) – Almost a quarter of a million forest fires were detected in Brazil last year – and the main cause of a huge increase is being attributed to climate change that brought about a year-long drought in much of the country. Satellite data revealed […]

My dad worked at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and he knows what happens when ranchers get their way – ‘These fields were merely mud and cow shit’

By Tobias Coughlin-Bogue6 January 2016 (The Stranger) – Since the Mahleur National Wildlife Refuge occupation began, there’s been a number of articles pointing out how deeply in the wrong these self-styled freedom fighters are. Dan pointed out white privilege, Sydney pointed out hypocrisy, and Charles pointed out capitalism. But there is one more point to […]

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