Rome, October 10 (FAO) – Food price volatility featuring high prices is likely to continue and possibly increase, making poor farmers, consumers and countries more vulnerable to poverty and food insecurity, the United Nations’ three Rome-based agencies said in the global hunger report published today. Small, import-dependent countries, particularly in Africa, are especially at risk. […]
By Jeff Masters10 October 2011 A slow-moving low pressure system brought the heaviest rains of the year to large portions of rain-starved Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas over the weekend. Radar-estimated rainfall amounts reached eight inches over portions of Texas between Dallas and Abilene. Houston got 20% of their rain for the entire year–3.02″–on Sunday, breaking […]
October 9 (mongabay.com) – The 2010 drought that affected much of the Amazon rainforest triggered the release of nearly 500 million tons of carbon (1.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide) into the atmosphere, or more than the total emissions from deforestation in the region over the period, estimates a new study published in the journal […]
By Mike Lee; Editors: Susan Warren, Joe Winski6 October 2011 Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) – An intensifying drought in Texas is prompting limits on water consumption that for the first time target oil and natural gas producers. Local water districts, which have authority to allocate water from subterranean aquifers, are adding a water-intensive production method called […]
By JUSTIN GILLIS7 October 2011 In an article last weekend about rising stress in the world’s forests, I briefly mentioned that computer projections regarding the future of forests are still in a primitive state. Scientists cannot really say whether trees will continue to take up a big proportion of our carbon emissions through the rest […]
By Wang Xiaocong30 September 2011 (Beijing) – Acute power shortages will continue in parts of China in the upcoming winter and spring seasons, particularly in the southern and central regions where most of the country’s hydropower power stations are located, an energy official told a press conference on September 29. According to the State Electricity […]
SYDNEY, October 6 (The Economist) – ONE canary in the climate-change coalmine may have just quietly fallen from her perch. The tiny Pacific island nation of Tuvalu has declared a state of emergency after a fresh water shortage forced it to shutter its schools and hospitals and begin water rationing across the country. Observers blame […]
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times3 October 2011 Reporting from Robert Lee, Texas — It is the day before homecoming, and there is trouble at the Robert Lee High School football field. The field is dying. The field that was once so lush, so emerald green, that the maintenance staff took calls from other schools […]
By Neil Sands4 October 2011 (AFP) – A second South Pacific community has declared a state of emergency in a drought crisis that has seen water rationing imposed in parts of the region, officials in Wellington said Tuesday. Tokelau, a New Zealand-administered territory of about 1,400 people, has less than a week’s drinking water after […]
By JUSTIN GILLIS 1 October 2011 WISE RIVER, Mont. — The trees spanning many of the mountainsides of western Montana glow an earthy red, like a broadleaf forest at the beginning of autumn. But these trees are not supposed to turn red. They are evergreens, falling victim to beetles that used to be controlled in […]
