Despite the rain, California drought lingers — ‘Agriculture will have another year of record acres unfarmed’

California needs much more to beat effect of three dry years By Mark Grossi, mgrossi@fresnobee.comand John Holland, jholland@modbee.com The Sierra Nevada snowpack has improved. Waterfalls are starting to thunder in Yosemite Valley. A spring storm adds to the bounty. It’s time to celebrate the end of the state’s three-year drought. Right? Wrong. The El Niño-powered […]

Ocean acidification threatens Alaska fisheries

KUCB News (2010-03-26) UNALASKA, AK (kucb) – The cold waters and currents of the North Pacific Ocean make the ecosystems around the Aleutians more susceptible to ocean acidification. Brad Warren with the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership spoke about the issue at the Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference Thursday. “It’s a cross cutting threat to food webs […]

U.S. personal bankruptcies increase sharply in March

By DUFF WILSONPublished: April 1, 2010 More Americans filed for bankruptcy protection in March than during any month since the federal personal bankruptcy law was tightened in October 2005, a new report says, a result of high unemployment and the housing crash. Federal courts reported over 158,000 bankruptcy filings in March, or 6,900 a day, […]

A bad winter and pesticides spell more trouble for honeybees

  By Bonnie Hulkower, New York, New York  on 03.30.10 TreeHugger has reported in the past about the mysterious honeybee decline due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Without any discernible explanation, entire hives of honeybees have been abandoning their hives and dying. There are likely many reasons for CCD, including: parasites, viruses, bacteria, poor nutrition, […]

With hungry bears rising early, Tahoe-area residents put on alert

By Barbara Barte OsbornBee Correspondent, The Sacramento BeePublished: Tuesday, Mar. 30, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 2BLast Modified: Tuesday, Mar. 30, 2010 – 12:28 am The Lake Tahoe-area bears are up early, and they’re ravenous. “They feel the warmth and come out of their dens, but there’s no natural food for them yet,” said […]

‘Nightmare’ rains drench East Coast

Airport delays, rising rivers and about-to-be-broken rainfall records BOSTON – The second major rain storm of the month pounded the Northeast on Tuesday with what meteorologists said could be record-setting rainfall, sending rivers toward flood stage, closing roads, delaying flights and causing a run on basement sump pumps. About 1,000 National Guard troops were ready […]

Scientists study centuries-long Sierra dry spell

By Mark Grossi / The Fresno BeePosted at 10:07 PM on Sunday, Mar. 28, 2010 Scientists have found evidence in Sequoia National Park of a centuries-long dry spell — and clues about how the Sierra Nevada could be changing. The researchers studied tree rings on dead giant sequoias, the largest trees on Earth. They found […]

Earth out of sync: Rising temperatures throwing off seasonal timing

By Janet LarsenMarch 25, 2010 …With global average temperatures up 0.5 degrees Celsius since the 1970s, springtime warming is coming earlier across the earth’s temperate regions.  A number of organisms have responded to the warming temperatures by altering the timing of key life-cycle events. The problem, however, is that not all species are adjusting at […]

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, […]

Unemployment rate increases in 27 U.S. states in February

By CalculatedRisk on 3/26/2010 10:00:00 AM From the BLS: Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary Twenty-seven states recorded over-the-month unemployment rate increases, 7 states and the District of Columbia registered rate decreases, and 16 states had no rate change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the year, jobless rates increased in […]

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