By Jeff Spross 9 April 2014 (Climate Progress) – USDA choice-grade beef hit a record $5.28 in February, according to the LA Times, and drought is the culprit. Years of sometimes record-setting dry spells have punished the western and southern United States recently, cutting down crops like hay and corn that serve as cattle feed. […]
3 April 2014 (FAO) – The FAO Food Price Index is a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities. It consists of the average of five commodity group price indices, weighted with the average export shares of each of the groups for 2002-2004. » The FAO Food Price […]
By Bill Richardson31 March 2014 (CNN) – “Nothing poses a bigger threat to our water, our livelihood and our quality of life than a warming climate.” Those are my words from 2006 upon the signing of an executive order on climate change for New Mexico when I was governor. Almost a decade later, this statement […]
By Doyle Rice2 April 2014 (USA TODAY) – Drought-weary California got more bad news Tuesday. Though late-season storms slightly boosted the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, it’s still far below normal as the spring melt fast approaches. “This is dismal news for farms and cities that normally depend on the snowpack – often called California’s […]
31 March 2014 By Deborah Snow and Peter Hannam (Sydney Morning Herald) – The Earth is warming so rapidly that unless humans can arrest the trend, we risk becoming ”extinct” as a species, a leading Australian health academic has warned. Helen Berry, associate dean in the faculty of health at the University of Canberra, said […]
30 March 2014 (IPCC) – The Final Draft Report, dated 28 October 2013, of the Working Group II contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability was accepted but not approved in detail by the 10th Session of Working Group II and the 38th Session of the IPCC on […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
