Scientists confirm ancient cycle of megadroughts in Sierra Nevada

Media Contact: Mike Wolterbeek, mwolterbeek@unr.edu Media Relations OfficerUniversity Media RelationsUniversity of Nevada, Reno/108Reno, NV 89557Media newsroom: http://newsroom.unr.edu775-784-4547 phone24 May 2012 RENO, Nevada – The erratic year-to-year swings in precipitation totals in the Reno-Tahoe area conjures up the word “drought” every couple of years, and this year is no exception. The Nevada State Climate Office at […]

Iraq ‘green belt’ front line in anti-desertification fight – ‘If we do nothing, the desert will envelop us’

Karbala, Iraq, 3 June 2012 (AFP) – Trees as far as the eye can see are the weapons one Iraqi province is using in the fight against desertification in a country where decades of conflict have exacted a terrible environmental toll. Karbala, 110 kilometres (70 miles) south of Baghdad, is best known as the site […]

Nuclear, coal power face climate change risk as cooling water becomes becomes scarce

By David Fogarty; Editing by Ed Davies3 June 2012 SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Warmer water and reduced river flows will cause more power disruptions for nuclear and coal-fired power plants in the United States and Europe in future, scientists say, and lead to a rethink on how best to cool power stations in a hotter world. […]

Oklahoma not Texas, had hottest U.S. summer ever recorded in 2011 – ‘Warmer than all those summers that they experienced during the Dust Bowl’

1 June 2012, TULSA, Oklahoma (AP) – Oklahoma and Texas have argued for years about which has the best college football team, whose oil fields produce better crude, even where the state border should run. But in a hot, sticky dispute that no one wants to win, Oklahoma just reclaimed its crown. After recalculating data […]

Return of rain reignites Australia water wars between farmers and conservationists

2 June 2012 (Sydney Morning Herald) – Rivers are flowing again, but so is the friction over water rights among states and between farmers and conservationists, writes David Humphries. The last time we dropped in on the Kennedys, their cotton property Whitegates resembled a setting for The Grapes of Wrath. Dust into dust, and under […]

Wildfire shatters record for largest in New Mexico history

By Dalina Castellanos30 May 2012 The Whitewater-Baldy Complex fire in New Mexico hasn’t just broken the record for the largest blaze in state history, it’s shattered it. An infrared reading about midnight Tuesday measured the fire at 170,272 acres, leaving last year’s 156,593-acre Las Conchas fire in the dust. That acreage roughly translates to 269 […]

Kenya’s bid to become the first African nation to set up a climate authority

By Clar Ni Chonghaile, www.guardian.co.uk25 May 2012 NAIROBI – Even as drought persists in parts of Kenya’s arid north, intense rains are claiming lives in other parts of the country – flooding slums in the capital Nairobi, sweeping away hikers in the Rift Valley, and destroying crops. Many Kenyans shake their heads in dismay at […]

Mongolia’s dilemma: ‘I don’t care about the gold or the copper, I’m just afraid there won’t be water’

By Frank Langfitt22 May 2012 Mongolia, the land of Genghis Khan and nomadic herders, is in the midst of a remarkable transition. Rich in coal, gold, and copper, this country of fewer than 3 million people in Central Asia is riding a mineral boom that is expected to more than double its GDP within a […]

Thai drought could drive up global sugar prices

By Petchanet Pratruangkrai, The Nation 8 May 2012 Drought could result in a loss of 20 million to 30 million tonnes of sugar-cane output next year if the rainy season is not well underway by July and August, warned the Thailand Society of Sugar Cane Technologists. If that happens, the global price of sugar could […]

Australasia has hottest 60 years in a millennium, scientists find

Study of tree rings, corals, and ice cores find unnatural spike in temperatures that lines up with manmade climate change By Alison Rourke in Sydney, www.guardian.co.uk17 May 2012 The last 60 years have been the hottest in Australasia for a millennium and cannot be explained by natural causes, according to a new report by scientists […]

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