By Rhett A. Butler, www.mongabay.comApril 28, 2010 Industrial soy expansion in the Brazilian Amazon has contributed to deforestation by pushing cattle ranchers further north into rainforest zones, reports a new study published the journal Environmental Research Letters. The authors — including Elizabeth Barona, Navin Ramankutty, Glenn Hyman and Oliver Coomes — analyzed annual census data […]
By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.comApril 26, 2010 Forests continue to decline worldwide, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). Employing satellite imagery researchers found that over a million square kilometers of forest were lost around the world between 2000 and 2005. This represents a 3.1 percent loss of […]
By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent; editing by Sandra MalerWASHINGTONThu Apr 22, 2010 2:53pm EDT (Reuters) – Carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming are also turning the oceans more acidic at the fastest pace in hundreds of thousands of years, the National Research Council reported Thursday. “The chemistry of the ocean is changing at […]
By Lester Brown12 Feb 2010 4:51 AM …World food production continues to increase, yet the rate at which it is increasing has slowed. From 1970 to 1990, world grain production grew by 64 percent. From 1990 to 2009, it increased by only 24 percent. Past growth in agricultural production was fueled in part by expanding […]
ScienceDaily (Apr. 22, 2010) — African farmers risk being forced from their lands by investors or government projects as global demand for biofuels encourages changes in crop cultivation. Research from the University of Edinburgh has found that livelihoods may be put at risk if African farmland is turned over to growing crops for biofuel. With […]
By Richard BlackEnvironment correspondent, BBC NewsMonday, 19 April 2010 01:12 UK The amount of water used to produce food and goods imported by developed countries is worsening water shortages in the developing world, a report says. The report, focusing on the UK, says two-thirds of the water used to make UK imports is used outside […]
The temperature trend graph shows that winter temperatures have remained at or above normal since 1997. The red dashed line indicates winter temperatures have warmed over the last 63 years by 2.5°C. The winter season shows the greatest warming of any season, but all seasons have shown a warming trend since 1948. Climate Trends and […]
For central Australia, the late summer and early fall of 2010 was eventful, starting with rain, and leading to floods, plants, and finally insects. Between the end of February and early March, unusually heavy rain fell across Australia’s dry interior. Parts of central Australia received more rain in 11 days than they usually do in […]
Arable land expansion has slowed down substantially in the last 50 years. This implies that much of the best arable land is already in use. Land Commodities: Investment Fundamentals Technorati Tags: soil degradation,desertification,agriculture,deforestation,habitat loss,drought,freshwater depletion
The English version of the Black Report on the Iceland bank failures was released today. It has it all – regulatory capture, oblivious politicians, shadow banking, loans to shareholders to buy shares and more. (ht Steinn) Here is the website with the English version. … One of the key problems identified in the report […]
