Wringing China dry and blaming climate change – ‘Catastrophic urbanisation’ has caused up to 28,000 rivers to vanish since the 1990s

BEIJING, 23 September 2013 (Reuters) – For China, global warming has become something of a convenient truth. Beijing blames climate change for wreaking havoc on scarce water resources, but critics say the country’s headlong drive to build its industrial prowess and huge hydro projects are just as responsible. On the eve of a global climate […]

Graph of the Day: Annual groundwater withdrawal estimates by water-use class from the Death Valley regional flow system, 1913-1998

Groundwater pumpage within the Death Valley area began around 1913 in Pahrump Valley. Pumpage began mainly to support rising agricultural interests, but also supplied mining, industry, rural, and urban growth. The number of pumping wells in the region had increased from three in 1913 to over 9,300 in 1998. Pumpage for irrigation in the DVRFS […]

The day the Earth ran out: The causes and consequences of Earth Overshoot Day

By Carter Roberts 20 August 2013 (Foreign Affairs) – Many readers will be familiar with the worrisome, white-knuckle wait that comes when you drain your checking account long before payday, the anxiety that builds until the coffers are replenished. That is what all of humanity has signed on for, effective today. Earth Overshoot Day marks […]

Kimmel Kartoon: You’re Screwed

“So, you’re saying my generation faces the imminent prospect of a bleak and potentially apocalyptic future?” 12 July 2013 Jimmy Kimmel Live – Kimmel Kartoon – “You’re Screwed” Jimmy Kimmel Live’s YouTube channel features clips and recaps of every episode from the late night TV show on ABC. Subscribe for clips from the monologue, the […]

Experts see new normal as a hotter, drier U.S. West faces more huge fires – ‘The fire season has lengthened substantially, by two months, over the last 30 years’

By FELICITY BARRINGER and KENNETH CHANG, with additional reporting by Fernanda Santos and John Dougherty from Prescott, Arizona, and Jonathan Weisman from Washington1 July 2013 (The New York Times) – One of the deadliest wildfires in a generation vastly expanded Monday to cover more than 8,000 acres, sweeping up sharp slopes through dry scrub and […]

Solomon Islands Prime Minister: ‘It is high time to move into resettlement’ as sea level rises

By Solomon Star3 July 2013 (Fiji Times) – People of Malaita Outer Islands (MOI) says it is time for them to move into resettlement before sea level rise could become a huge threat for them. This was highlighted during the three days visit of the Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo to the low-lying atolls over […]

Food and climate are our greatest global challenges

30 June 2013 (Brisbane Times) – The world’s population is 7 billion. By 2050, it is forecast to be 9 billion. The pressures to feed and sustain this increase in people can only magnify in coming decades, unless world leaders can take meaningful and long-lasting action. There need to be aggressive moves on tackling climate […]

Global food security weakening ‘on a scale we haven’t seen yet’ – ‘Of all the resources we have, time is the scarcest’

By Laurie Goering28 June 2013 LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Population growth, rising affluence, water shortages, and climate change are combining to create unprecedented pressure on the world’s food supply – pressure that is likely to play out both as slow rises in hunger and as famines linked to extreme weather events, a leading agriculture […]

Growth in crop yields inadequate to feed the world by 2050 – ‘The world faces a looming agricultural crisis, with yield increases insufficient to keep up with projected demands’

By Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent 20 June 2013 (The Guardian) – If the world is to grow enough food for the projected global population in 2050, agricultural productivity will have to rise by at least 60%, and may need to more than double, according to researchers who have studied global crop yields. They say that […]

Tanzania: Zanzibar’s encroaching ocean means less fresh water

By Erick Kabendera12 June 2013 ZANZIBAR (IPS) – Khadija Komboani’s nearest well is filled with salt water thanks to the rising sea around Tanzania’s Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar. And until recently, the 36-year-old mother of 12 from Nungwi village in Unguja on the northernmost part of Zanzibar, spent most of her day walking to […]

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