We meant well: How I helped lose the battle for hearts and minds in Iraq

The following is excerpted from We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People by Peter Van Buren. Read an interview with Peter Van Buren about the book here. By Peter Van Buren 21 September 2011 Help Wanted, No Experience Necessary The reconstruction of Iraq was […]

Grim predictions say 9 more years of Texas drought possible

By Jim Forsyth; Edited by Karen Brooks and Cynthia Johnston30 September 2011 SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – A devastating Texas drought that has browned city lawns and caused more than $5 billion in damages to the state’s farmers and ranchers could continue for another nine years, a state forecaster said on Thursday. “It is possible that […]

Graph of the Day: Colorado River Annual Flow, 1905-2010

Flow of the already over-allocated Colorado River, showing a general decreasing trend over the past 100 years. Thirsty for Answers: Preparing for the Water-related Impacts of Climate Change in American Cities Technorati Tags: population,freshwater depletion,drought,North America,climate change,global warming,agriculture

Groundwater greed driving sea level rises

By Michael Marshall25 September 2011 SLOWLY and almost imperceptibly the seas are rising, swollen by melting ice and the expansion of seawater as it warms. But there’s another source of water adding to the rise: humanity’s habit of pumping water from underground aquifers to the surface. Most of this water ends up in the sea. […]

Salination, drought threaten Iraq date palm industry – ‘All attempts are in vain’

BAGHDAD, 25 September 25 (AP) – After years of wars, sanctions and drought, farmer Qais Nima Khamis says it’s time to save the dates — and bring back Iraq’s long-regaled fruit palm industry, which once led the world market. Khamis, whose family has been growing the fruit since 1880, is growing hundreds of more date […]

Arizona drought conditions to deepen through winter

By Shaun McKinnon, The Arizona Republic25 September 2011  A dry winter and a weak monsoon fueled record wildfires, record heat and a succession of dust storms that played like a broken record, pushing Arizona deeper into a drought that has persisted since 1999. Now, forecasters say La Niña, the ocean force responsible for the scant […]

Graph of the Day: $5 Billion Dry Spell in Texas

The 2011 Texas drought has caused more than $5 billion in losses for farmers and ranchers, according to a Texas A&M University study, and has sparked damaging wildfires. A $5 billion dry spell Technorati Tags: North America,agriculture,drought,wildfire,freshwater depletion,financial collapse,poverty,global warming,climate change

‘Severe’ drought triggers Stage 3 water restrictions for more than 1 million in North Texas

By Randy McIlwain, NBCDFW.com 22 September 2011 More than 1 million North Texas water customers will be under Stage 3 water restrictions beginning Nov. 1. The North Texas Municipal Water District’s board of trustees unanimously voted to implement a Stage 3 drought plan for its 1.6 million customers. “This is an ongoing drought, and it […]

Scientists rescuing minnows from Texas river as drought threatens their ability to reproduce

FORT WORTH, Texas, September 16 (AP) — Wading through a muddy river bed to reach shallow pools of water, wildlife biologists scooped up hundreds of minnows Friday in one of the first rescues of fish threatened by the state’s worst drought in decades. The scientists collected smalleye shiners and sharpnose shiners from the Brazos River […]

Texas drought worsens from ‘abysmal’ – Hottest three months ever recorded in the U.S.

15 September 2011 (MSNBC) – The drought in Texas that has fueled wildfires, devastated agriculture and caused water shortages actually worsened in the past week while several other states also saw spreading drought, according to a weekly report issued Thursday. The forecast for three months out isn’t any better: Texas was told to expect abnormally […]

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