Where the Millennium Development Goals fell short: valuing Nature

Dr. Fred Boltz 29 May 2013 (Conservation International) – This week in New York City, the 27 members of the high-level panel of eminent persons appointed by the U.N. Secretary General will deliver a report providing recommendations on the post-2015 development agenda. This is a critical opportunity to address the inadequacies of the Millennium Development […]

Graph of the Day: Cumulative U.S. groundwater depletion, 1900-2008

(USGS) – Map of the United States (excluding Alaska) showing cumulative groundwater depletion, 1900 through 2008, in 40 assessed aquifer systems or subareas. Colors are hatched in the Dakota aquifer (area 39) where the aquifer overlaps with other aquifers having different values of depletion. Graphic: USGS ABSTRACT: A natural consequence of groundwater withdrawals is the […]

Peak Water, Peak Oil? Now, Peak Soil? – ‘It takes half a millennium to build two centimetres of living soil and only seconds to destroy it’

By Stephen Leahy31 May 2013 REYKJAVÍK, Iceland (IPS) – Soil is becoming endangered. This reality needs to be part of our collective awareness in order to feed nine billion people by 2050, say experts meeting here in Reykjavík. And a big part of reversing soil decline is carbon, the same element that is overheating the […]

Global majority faces water shortages ‘within two generations’ – 4.5 billion people already live within 50km of an impaired water resource – ‘These are self-inflicted wounds’

By Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent 24 May 2013 (The Guardian) – The majority of the 9 billion people on Earth will live with severe pressure on fresh water within the space of two generations as climate change, pollution and over-use of resources take their toll, 500 scientists have warned. The world’s water systems would soon […]

Colorado state climatologist says the High Park Fire gave him the courage to talk about climate change – ‘I have feared persecution at times in the past. I don’t fear it now.’

By Bobby Magill 23 May 2013 (The Coloradoan) – Nolan Doesken used to have a hard time talking about climate change. The topic has become so politically combustible that some scientists and researchers find it difficult to speak of or write about. But, after the High Park Fire swept the foothills in 2012, Doesken decided […]

Study finds alarming declines in U.S. amphibians, even in protected areas – Many species will disappear from half of habitats in 20 years

By Timothy B. Wheeler22 May 2013 (The Baltimore Sun) – Some of springtime’s more notable heralds appear to be fading away, as a new study finds frogs, toads and salamanders disappearing at an alarming rate across the United States. In what they say is the first analysis of its kind, scientists with the U.S. Geological […]

Forget Peak Oil, start worrying about Peak Water – Between 1900 and 2008, the US lost 1,000 cubic kilometers (240 cubic miles) of groundwater

By Todd Woody20 May 2013 (Quartz) – A report released today by the US Geological Survey (USGS) today shows that Americans are sucking dry the aquifers that irrigate their crops and supply their drinking water. Between 1900 and 2008, the US lost 1,000 cubic kilometers (240 cubic miles) of groundwater. That’s twice the volume of […]

Vast stretches of Texas and Kansas farmland over the High Plains Aquifer no longer support irrigation – Refilling the aquifer would require hundreds, if not thousands, of years of rains

By MICHAEL WINES 19 May 2013 HASKELL COUNTY, Kansas (The New York Times) – Forty-nine years ago, Ashley Yost’s grandfather sank a well deep into a half-mile square of rich Kansas farmland. He struck an artery of water so prodigious that he could pump 1,600 gallons to the surface every minute. Last year, Mr. Yost […]

For India’s drought-hit states, on-track monsoon may be too late – Charges of corruption fly

By Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Jo Winterbottom and Ed Davies24 April 2013 JAMWADI, India (Reuters) – India may be heading for another bumper grain harvest, if the first forecast for this year’s monsoon proves correct, but the rain may be too little – and too late – for southern and western states already parched by […]

Scientists find extensive glacial retreat in Mount Everest region – Glaciers have shrunk by 13 percent in the last 50 years and the snowline has shifted upward by 180 meters

By: Sudeep Thakuri, Graduate School of Earth, Environment and Biodiversity, University of Milan, Milan, MB, Italy, and Water Research Institute, National Research Council , Brugherio, MB, Italy and colleagues Contact: Sarah Charley, +1 (202) 777-7516scharley@agu.org13 May 2013 Cancún, Mexico (AGU) – Researchers taking a new look at the snow and ice covering Mount Everest and […]

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