Book review: Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence

By ARTHUR WESTING 14 July 2011 Some 200 years ago Benjamin Franklin noted that nothing is certain except for death and taxes. Today Franklin could readily have been additionally certain of the inevitability of two further events of sad note, namely armed conflicts and global warming. In his latest book, impassioned investigative journalist and courageous […]

Don Quijote and the (n)ever growing air traffic

By Matt Mushalik30 June 2011 Still looking for a 2nd Sydney airport? Want to spend millions on consultants? You can have it easier than that. Find out about the latest peak oil ignorant airport project by just typing 3 words on the internet: “Ciudad Real Airport”, formerly known as Don Quijote or Madrid South Airport, […]

A warming planet struggles to feed itself

By JUSTIN GILLIS4 June 2011 CIUDAD OBREGÓN, Mexico — The dun wheat field spreading out at Ravi P. Singh’s feet offered a possible clue to human destiny. Baked by a desert sun and deliberately starved of water, the plants were parched and nearly dead. Dr. Singh, a wheat breeder, grabbed seed heads that should have […]

If Monterrey falls, Mexico falls

By Robin Emmott, with additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Phoenix; Editing by Kieran Murray and Claudia Parsons1 Jun 2011 MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) – Mario Ramos thought it was a bad joke when he received an anonymous email at the start of this year demanding $15,000 a month to keep his industrial tubing business operating […]

90 percent of Sinaloa winter corn crop damaged in cold snap

Caption by Holli Riebeek23 March 2011 With an average temperature of 24 degrees Celsius (76 degrees Fahrenheit) in the month of February, the Mexican state of Sinaloa is a popular winter vacation spot. It is also ideal for winter crops. A sizable portion of Mexico’s corn is grown in Sinaloa, and much of that is […]

Glaciers atop Mexico volcano likely to vanish by 2015

By Isabel de Bertodano15 February 2011 AMECAMECA, Mexico — Glaciers that crown a Mexican volcano could disappear by 2015 with scientists pointing to global warming as a chief cause of their demise. Until recently, the glacial field on Iztaccihuatl, a dormant volcano and one of two white-capped peaks that can be seen from Mexico City, […]

Pollutants in aquifers may threaten future Of Mexico’s fast-growing ‘Riviera Maya’

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 08, 2011 – Pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, shampoo, toothpaste, pesticides, chemical run-off from highways and many other pollutants infiltrate the giant aquifer under Mexico’s “Riviera Maya,” research shows. The wastes contaminate a vast labyrinth of water-filled caves under the popular tourist destination on the Yucatan Peninsula. The polluted water flows through the […]

Poor Mexico farmers fear that toxic-sludge irrigation will end

By ELISABETH MALKINPublished: May 4, 2010 MIXQUIAHUALA, Mexico — Night and day, Marcelo Mera Bárcenas slops the fetid water that has coursed 60 miles downhill from the sewers of Mexico City and spreads it over the corn and alfalfa fields of this once arid land. From the roads here in the Mezquital Valley, fields stretch […]

Humboldt squid thriving, thanks to ocean dead zones

Human-size jumbo squid are growing thick along the U.S. west coast. Is climate change aiding their expansion? By Katherine Harmon    April 8, 2010 Although many of the Pacific Ocean’s big species are floundering, one large creature of the deep seems to be flourishing. The Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas, also known as jumbo squid, owing to […]

Graph of the Day: Size of Hypoxic Zone in the Gulf of Mexico, 1977-2007

The relationship between the size of the hypoxic zone in July (km2) and the May nitrate+nitrite N loading (kg N) to the Gulf of Mexico each year. A linear regression of the data is shown. The individual data points are in four chronologically-sequenced groups separated from each other when the data fall below the slope, […]

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