France in crisis as drought deepens, with hottest April in over a century

By Gerard Bon, Marie Maitre, and Sybille de La Hamaide; editing by Anthony Barker16 May 2011 PARIS (Reuters) – France has imposed limits on water consumption in 28 of its 96 administrative departments, the environment ministry said Monday, amid signs that a prolonged dry spell that has hit grain crops would continue. “We are already […]

Graph of the Day: World Oil Production, 0-2500 CE

By Ursula Goodenough5 May 2011 Sometimes, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. I was recently at a scientific conference on the development of sustainable biofuels, this being my lab’s research focus. Much data was presented and much was said of substance. But the one slide I made sure to get a […]

2,300-year climate record suggests severe tropical droughts as northern temperatures rise

Contact: Morgan Kelly, mekelly@pitt.edu, 412-624-4356, Cell: 412-897-1400   11 May 2011 A 2,300-year climate record University of Pittsburgh researchers recovered from an Andes Mountains lake reveals that as temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere rise, the planet’s densely populated tropical regions will most likely experience severe water shortages as the crucial summer monsoons become drier. The Pitt […]

Image of the Day: Satellite View of Ellesmere Island Ice Shelf Breakup, August 2008

Ellesmere Island ice shelves at the end of August 2008. The 2007 ice shelf extent is outlined in black and coastline in blue. Left to Right: Serson, Petersen, Milne, and Ward Hunt. The unusually wide expanse of open water along the coast likely contributed to the 2008 break-up of three of these ice shelves. 29 […]

Radiation-contaminated area spans 800 square km, new map shows

By Hisae Sato and Fumikazu Asai12 May 2011 The total area contaminated with radiation from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is estimated at about 800 square kilometers, or about 40 percent the size of Tokyo, according to a radiation map created by the science ministry and U.S. Department of Energy. The report uses […]

Extreme drought crippling Texas agriculture

May 12 (Southwest Farm Press) – The Texas Farm Bureau board of directors, meeting in its regular quarterly session at its headquarters in Waco, Texas, issued the following statement of urgency: As wildfires in Texas continue a rampage across more than two million acres, another major disaster is gripping the Lone Star State. Dry weather […]

U.S.-Japan joint survey reveals high radiation beyond evacuation zone

BY HISAE SATO STAFF WRITER8 May 2011 The first map of ground surface contamination within 80 kilometers of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant shows radiation levels higher in some municipalities than those in the mandatory relocation zone around the Chernobyl plant. The map, released May 6, was compiled from data from a […]

Nearly 30 percent of U.S. home mortgages underwater – Home values see biggest drop since 2008

May 9 (Reuters) – U.S. home values fell in the first quarter at the fastest rate since late 2008, real estate data firm Zillow said on Monday, suggesting that a bottom will not be seen until 2012 at the earliest. Zillow said its home value index fell 3 percent in the first three months of […]

Graph of the Day: Exceedance of Critical Eutrophication Loads by Nitrogen Deposition, 2010

Exceedance of critical loads for eutrophication by nitrogen deposition in 2010 under current European legislation (courtesy of CCE, 2008). Nitrogen deposition remains a threat to biodiversity across large areas of Europe (CCE, 2008). This concern is reflected in the incorporation of an indicator for nitrogen deposition under the Streamlining European Biodiversity Indicators 2010 (SEBI, 2010) […]

Climate change analysis predicts increased mortality from heat waves

Baltimore MD (SPX) May 04, 2011 – Global climate change is anticipated to bring more extreme weather phenomena such as heat waves that could impact human health in the coming decades. An analysis led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health calculated that the city of Chicago could experience between 166 […]

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