agriculture – Page 9 – Desdemona Despair

Satellite view of the Chibayish marshes in Iraq before and after drying from extended drought. Photo: Planet Labs

December 20, 2022

Politics, climate conspire as Tigris and Euphrates dwindle – “Life has ended here”

By Samya Kullab 18 November 2022 DAWWAYAH, Iraq and ILISU DAM, Turkey (AP) – Next year, the water will come. The pipes have been laid to Ata Yigit’s sprawling farm in Turkey’s southeast connecting it to a dam on the Euphrates River. A dream, soon to become a reality, he says. He’s already grown a […]

An aerial view shows deforestation near a forest on the border between Amazonia and Cerrado in Nova Xavantina, Mato Grosso state, Brazil 28 July 2021. Picture taken 28 July 2021 with a drone. Photo: Amanda Perobelli / REUTERS

December 17, 2022

Deforestation of Brazilian savanna surged 25 percent in one year – “More than 10,000 square km is a scary number”

By Jake Spring 13 December 2022 SAO PAULO, Dec 13 (Reuters) – Deforestation in the world’s most biologically diverse savanna, the Brazilian Cerrado, rose by around 25 percent in the 12 months through July from the previous period, two people familiar with the still unreleased government data told Reuters. Brazil has yet to publish its […]

Hoof prints left by Camargue bulls mark a section of pasture encrusted with salt on the Raynaud ranch in Camargue, southern France, 23 September 2022. As soil salt levels rise due to drought and reduced river flow from the Rhone River, the land traditionally used by bull breeders like the Raynaud family is becoming more and more difficult to maintain as a suitable pace to raise animals. Photo: Daniel Cole / AP Photo

December 10, 2022

In southern France, drought, rising seas threaten traditions – “The sea level rises on our coast and takes more and more of our land”

By Daniel Cole 30 October 2022 SAINTES-MARIE DE LA MER, France (AP) – In a makeshift arena in the French coastal village Aigues-Mortes, young men in dazzling collared shirts come face-to-face with a raging bull. Surrounded by the city’s medieval walls, the men dodge and duck the animal’s charges while spectators let out collective gasps. […]

An indigenous woman raises her hands in prayer asking for rain in the Lloko Lloko community, in Tihuanacu, Bolivia, on 23 November 2022. Photo: Claudia Morales / REUTERS

December 10, 2022

In South America’s Andes, farmers pray for rain to end drought – “The heat is very strong and burning, we can no longer bear it”

By Monica Machicao 25 November 2022 TIHUANACU, Bolivia (Reuters) – High in the mountains of the Bolivian Andes, farmer Alberto Quispe has one thing on his mind: rain. In the rural area of Tihuanacu, around 100 kilometers (62 miles) south-west of highland city La Paz, locals say there has been little rain this season during […]

Number of Western Monarch butterflies (left) and butterfly surveys (right), 1997-2021. In the western United States, the number of individual butterflies has been steadily decreasing over the past four decades, at a rate of around 1.6% every year, according to a March 2021 study in the journal Science. The iconic Monarch butterfly is one of the species in trouble. Warmer autumn temperatures, an effect of climate change, may be interfering with the butterflies’ hibernation-like period known as diapause. So rather than slowing down ahead of winter, the insects are staying awake longer, expending more energy, and eventually starving to death. In July 2022, the migratory monarch was added to the IUCN’s global endangered species list. Graphic: Catherine Tai / Reuters

December 10, 2022

The collapse of insects – “They’re the fabric tethering together every freshwater and terrestrial ecosystem across the planet”

By Julia Janicki, Gloria Dickie, Simon Scarr and Jitesh Chowdhury 6 December 2022 (Reuters) – As a boy in the 1960s, David Wagner would run around his family’s Missouri farm with a glass jar clutched in his hand, scooping flickering fireflies out of the sky. “We could fill it up and put it by our […]

Police monitor a protest opposing COP15, the UN Biodiversity Conference, in Montreal, on Wednesday, 7 December 2022. Photo: Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press

December 10, 2022

Monbiot: The US is a rogue state leading the world toward ecological collapse – “It’s a cliff edge”

By George Monbiot 9 December 2022 (The Guardian) – There are two extraordinary facts about the convention on biological diversity, whose members are meeting in Montreal now to discuss the global ecological crisis. The first is that, of the world’s 198 states, 196 are party to it. The second is the identity of those that aren’t. Take a […]

Smoke rises from a forest fire in the Transamazonica highway region, in the municipality of Labrea, Amazonas state, Brazil, 17 September 2022. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon slowed slightly last year, a year after a 15-year high, according to closely watched numbers published Wednesday, 30 November 2022. Photo: Edmar Barros / AP Photo

December 5, 2022

Amazon deforestation in Brazil remains near 15-year high in 2022 – “If da Silva wants to decrease forest destruction by 2023, he must have zero tolerance for environmental crime from Day One of his administration”

By Fabiano Maisonnave 30 November 2022 RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon slowed slightly last year, a year after a 15-year high, according to closely watched numbers published Wednesday. The data was released by the National Institute for Space Research. The agency’s Prodes monitoring system shows the rainforest lost an area […]

60-year-old Abdullahi Hassan watches over four of his grandchildren in a shelter where he and his family of eight lives and sleep in November 2022. The shelter is located in a camp for the displaced on the outskirts of Luuq, Somalia. They had been at the camp for two weeks, having left home when rain didn't come and all their livestock was wiped out. Photo: Lily Martin / CBC

December 5, 2022

From Ukraine to Yemen, UN seeks record $51.5 billion for “shockingly high” aid needs – “The humanitarian response system is being tested to its limits”

By Emma Farge 1 December 2022 GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations and partners on Thursday appealed for a record $51.5 billion in aid money for 2023, with tens of millions of additional people expected to need assistance, testing the humanitarian response system “to its limits”. The appeal represents a 25% increase on 2022 and […]

Aerial view of apparent red tide and other phytoplankton species in the water near Naples and Sanibel, Florida on 13 November 2022. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, beaches from Sarasota to Port Charlotte varied between low, medium, and high levels of red tide. Because Hurricane Ian brought so much rain to Florida in October, scientists on the coast closely monitored water quality to see if the storm had any impacts. Photo: Ralph Arwood / Calusa Waterkeeper

November 20, 2022

Photos show toxic algae blooms plaguing southwest Florida waters – Runoff from Hurricane Ian suspected

By Dylan Abad 14 November 2022 TAMPA, Florida (WFLA) – Aerial photos revealed massive plumes of red tide stretching along much of southwest Florida’s coast days after Tropical Storm Nicole passed over the state. Photos released by Calusa Waterkeeper showed a deep reddish-brown discoloration of the water near Naples and Sanibel due to the presence […]

Deforested area of Amazon rainforest in Brazil, 2006-2021, with large increases shown during the Bolsonaro regime. Data: Brazil National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Graphic: DW

November 19, 2022

Lula insists “Brazil is back” at UN climate summit

By Stuart Braun 16 November 2022 (DW) – One of the most-watched visitors to the UN climate summit in Egypt this week has been incoming Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — more commonly referred to as Lula. With his successful election campaign having included a promise to arrest record deforestation in the Amazon, Lula carried huge expectations into the yearly climate summit […]