Climate change here and now: Interview with climate scientist Michael Mann – ‘Many regions of the globe will literally be unlivable’

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is meeting in Japan to release its latest report, on the impact of climate change on society and the planet. Penn State professor Michael Mann and host Steve Curwood discuss how the report anticipates that increased conflict and declining supplies of food and water lie ahead. Transcript CURWOOD: From […]

Facing rising seas, Bangladesh confronts the consequences of climate change – ‘There is no doubt that preparations within Bangladesh have been utterly inadequate, but any such preparations are bound to fail because the problem is far too big for any single government’

By Gardiner Harris28 March 2014 DAKOPE, Bangladesh (The New York Times) – When a powerful storm destroyed her riverside home in 2009, Jahanara Khatun lost more than the modest roof over her head. In the aftermath, her husband died and she became so destitute that she sold her son and daughter into bonded servitude. And […]

California drought: How water crisis is worse for almonds – ‘I think we’re going to see a lot of trees die. It’s going to break a lot of farmers.’

By Peter Fimrite 24 March 2014 Atwater, Merced County (San Francisco Chronicle) — A huge shift away from annual crops to nut trees has transformed the California farm belt over the past two decades and left farmers perilously vulnerable to the severe drought that is currently gripping the state. California farmers have spent past years […]

‘The polar bear is us’: New U.N. report warns that the effects of global warming are already being felt

By Lindsay Abrams24 March 2014 (Salon) – The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is at it again, as over 60 scientists and representatives from about 100 nations gather this week in Japan to finalize an authoritative report on the impacts of climate change. This time, the group’s focus moves beyond melting glaciers and threats […]

Australia scientists resign ‘living dead’ species to extinction, call for triage debate – ‘I’m afraid to tell everybody we’re in a terminal situation. We’re confronting a whole raft of species about to go over the extinction cliff.’

By Margot O’Neill20 March 2014 The dramatic ongoing loss of Australian animal and plant species has prompted influential scientists to call on governments to start making tough decisions about which ones to save – and which species should be left to face extinction. The proposal to triage Australia’s unique species comes from some of the […]

Scientists urge ban on roads in intact wilderness areas – ‘We’ll have another 25 million kilometers of paved roads by 2050—enough to encircle the Earth more than 600 times’

21 March 2014 (mongabay.com) – A group of prominent scientists chose to mark the second International Day of Forests by urging the world to support an initiative that aims keep wild areas free of roads. Roadfree, an initiative led by Member of the European Parliament Kriton Arsenis, has been growing in prominence over the past […]

Image of the Day: Satellite view of slash-and-burn forest fires in Southeast Asia

By Holli Riebeek18 March 2014 (NASA) – Fire and smoke dominate the landscape in this image of Southeast Asia taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on 18 March 2014. Marked in red, the fires burn largely in the subtropical forests common in northern Indochina. Most fires in this region […]

Climate change set to displace hundreds of millions of people by end of century

WASHINGTON, 18 March 2014 (ANI) – A new UN report suggests that climate change will displace hundreds of millions of people by the end of this century, increasing the risk of violent conflict and wiping trillions of dollars off the global economy. The second of three publications by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, […]

Voracious worm evolves to eat biotech corn engineered to kill it – ‘There needs to be a fundamental change in how the technology is used’

By Brandon Keim17 March 2014 (Wired) – One of agricultural biotechnology’s great success stories may become a cautionary tale of how short-sighted mismanagement can squander the benefits of genetic modification. After years of predicting it would happen — and after years of having their suggestions largely ignored by companies, farmers and regulators — scientists have […]

In parched California, town taps run nearly dry – ‘Our wells are so deep. I have lived here for 40 years, and this is the first time we’ve had a problem like this.’

By ADAM NAGOURNEY7 March 2014 LAKE OF THE WOODS, California (The New York Times) –  People in this mountain town straddling the San Andreas Fault are used to scrapping for water. The lake for which it is named went dry 40 years ago. But now, this tiny community is dealing with its most unsettling threat […]

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