Water Current News
Water Conserve: Water Conservation Newsfeed Aug 07, 2008 06:25PM http://www.waterconserve.org/ Aug 07, 2008 11:00PM United Kingdom: Environment: Intense rainfall due to global warming could raise flood risk Guardian: Climate scientists have issued a fresh warning over the future risk of flooding after research showed heavy rainstorms are likely to become even more intense than predicted. Rainfall is expected to increase with global warming because the atmosphere can hold more water as it heats up, but the extent to which rainfall patterns will change in the future has been unclear. Writing in the US journal Science, researchers warn regions that are already vulnerable to flooding will be ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM 'Green' building codes sprout up across USA USA Today: As energy costs rise, more states and cities are adopting policies that encourage or require new construction to be energy-efficient. This week, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed into law what he called the nation's strictest "green" building codes. "There's been a huge groundswell in green-building leadership at state and local levels. It's remarkable," says Jason Hartke of the U.S. Green Building Council, a private group that tracks legislation and sets ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM Climate Change: When It Rains It (really) Pours Science Daily: Climate models have long predicted that global warming will increase the intensity of extreme precipitation events. A new study conducted at the University of Miami and the University of Reading (U.K.) provides the first observational evidence to confirm the link between a warmer climate and more powerful rainstorms. One of the most serious challenges humanity will face in response to global warming is adapting to changes in extreme weather events. Of utmost concern is that heavy ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM Climate-Change Program to Aid Poor Nations Is Shut New York Times: <body>The National Center for Atmospheric Research, an important hub for work on the causes and consequences of climate change, has shut down a program focused on strengthening poor countries' ability to forecast and withstand droughts, floods and other climate-related hazards. The move, which center officials say resulted from the shrinking of federal science budgets, is being denounced by many experts on environmental risk, who say such research is more crucial than ever in a world ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM Chad: Shrinking African lake imperils wildlife McClatchy Newspapers: There's nothing remarkable about this lump of hot sand, tangled weeds and tree-branch huts except that, until a few years ago, it didn't exist. More precisely, the island was underwater, hidden beneath the vast surface of central Africa's Lake Chad. The emergence of the island, whose sweltering shores have been settled by dozens of families, is evidence of an unsettling ecological trend: The lake is drying up. Once among the largest lakes in the world – at some 9,000 square ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM What the World Is Coming To Washington Post: THE DOMINANT ANIMAL Human Evolution and the Environment By Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich Island Press/Shearwater. 428 pp. $35 Canadians joke that, given their vile winters, they are the only people in the world who welcome global warming. But some things are too serious for humor. The world is in a crisis because of rising temperatures. Climate patterns have been disrupted, with devastating effects on lands near and far. Regions that once produced food in ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM Dreaming of a long shower in parched Cyprus Reuters: We're a Tuesdays and Thursdays household. Sometimes it's late, sometimes it's a dribble, but the sound of water in our taps is the highlight of my week as Cyprus suffers one of its worst droughts on record. With water reserves at their lowest levels in decades, people on this Mediterranean island have seen the most stringent water rationing in years. Reservoirs are just 5.5 percent full, two desalination plants cannot cope with demand from 800,000 people and emergency water ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM Extreme rainstorms will rise by 10 per cent by 2050 Telegraph (UK): Predictions that our warming world will become a wetter place have been confirmed by a study which suggests that extreme rainstorms will rise by more than 10 per cent by the year 2050. For some time, computer models of the global climate have predicted that global warming will increase the intensity of rainfall and it is these extremes, linked with landslides and flooding, that are among the major impacts. Woman walking in heavy rain: extreme rainstorms will increase by 10 per ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM Global warming increases "extreme" rain storms Mongabay: Global warming is increasing the incidence of heavy rainfall at a rate greater than predicted by current climate models have predicted, reports a new study published in the journal Science. The findings suggest that storm damage from precipitation could worsen as greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise. Researchers from the University of Miami and the University of Reading looked at 20 years of satellite observations and found a "distinct link between tropical rainfall extremes ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM River cities at risk from climate change Edie: Cities on rivers are most at risk from rising water caused by climate change, according to a report from the UN and the World Bank. The report, Climate Resilient Cities, gives city planners practical advice, noting that eight of the planet's ten largest cities are on rivers or seas and as such vulnerable to flooding, rising sea levels and storms. With more people living in cities than in the countryside, the advice could save many lives. To minimise the impact of ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM Thailand: Sustainable approach to tackle coastal erosion IRIN: Panya Changcharoen still remembers when he was a child and the Bang Khunthian District stone, marking the edge of Bangkok, was in a lush mangrove forest. Now, at 60, he finds it hard to believe the shore has eroded so much that the marker lies stranded far out in the muddy sea. "All the mangrove forests are gone and coastal erosion keeps getting worse, especially during the monsoon season," Panya told IRIN. "I'm not sure how long my family and I can live here," he ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM UN asks govts to combat effects of climate change Press Trust of India: With eight of the world's 10 most populous cities situated near rivers or seas and already witnessing hazards of flooding, a United Nations-backed report calls on governments to take urgent steps to protect their cities from adverse effects of climate change. "Ultimately, the cities hardest hit by climate change will be the ones least prepared," said Neeraj Prasad, the World Bank's Lead Environmental Specialist for the region. The report "Climate Resilient Cities" jointly ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM Western cities aim for sustainability Wyoming Tribune: Sustainability is not a new consideration for city planners. The local environment, water and transportation systems always have played their parts as cities grow. Today this idea has taken on new importance, said Ben Herman from the Fort Collins, Colo., office of the land-use consulting firm Clarion Associates. By the end of the century half of the world's species will become extinct. China will demand more food in 2030 than the entire world produces today, he ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM Wisconsin greens drop opposition to coal plant Reuters: Environmentalists pulled opposition to an expansion of what will be the biggest coal-fired power plant in Wisconsin after gaining concessions from We Energies and two smaller utilities, environmental and utility officials said on Wednesday. We Energies, the principal unit of Wisconsin Energy Corp, Madison Gas & Electric and Wisconsin Public Power now expect to open the first of two new 615-megawatt units in fall 2009 at the Oak Creek Power Plant on Lake Michigan south of ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM California officials reject emergency salmon protection petition Guardian: California forestry officials yesterday rejected an emergency petition to protect coho salmon in coastal streams, even though federal fisheries regulators said it would help the imperilled fish. The petition before the state board of forestry comes as California salmon are at historic lows, requiring regulators to suspend all salmon fishing on the coast this year - a first. The request came from California Trout, the Sierra Club, and the Environmental Protection Information ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM United Kingdom: Defra: expect 4C global warming First Post: Defra's chief scientist says the country should prepare for a 4C rise in average global temperatures, despite an EU committment to ensure climate change causes no more than a 2C rise. Speaking about the EU policy, Professor Bob Watson said: "Given this is an ambitious target, and we don't know in detail how to limit greenhouse gas emissions to realise a 2 degree target, we should be prepared to adapt to 4C." Professor Watson was backed by the Government's former chief ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM United States: Desalination plant plans OK'd San Diego Union Tribune: A private company's proposal to build the nation's largest drinking water desalination plant at Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad cleared its final hurdles yesterday before the California Coastal Commission. The decision came at the conclusion of a 10½-hour hearing in Oceanside punctuated by objections from environmentalists and support from elected officials who stressed the crucial need to increase the region's water supply. 'We must diversify our region's water-supply ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM NASA study shows global warming will diminish rainfall in East Africa, worsening hunger Mongabay: A new NASA-backed study has found a link between a warming Indian Ocean and reduced rainfall in eastern and southern Africa. The results suggest that rising sea temperatures could exacerbate food problems in some of the continent's most famine-prone regions. Analyzing seasonal rainfall data over the Indian Ocean and the eastern seaboard of Africa from 1950 to 2005, researchers found that rainfall in eastern Africa during the rainy season has declined about 15 percent since the 1980s. ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM Study: China's hail storms are decreasing United Press International: U.S. and Chinese researchers say they've determined climate change might be responsible for a decrease in hail falling across China. Hail -- defined as precipitation of balls or irregular lumps of ice produced by storm clouds -- forms when liquid raindrops freeze at altitudes above a threshold called the "freezing level height," researchers said. If drops cannot be formed above the freezing level, precipitation remains in a liquid state. The scientists from the University of ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM Australia: Sunscreen for crops Australian Broadcasting Corporation: You've heard the slip, slop, slap message to protect us from the sunburn. Now it mightn't be too long before it's common for our fruit and vegie growers to be slapping sunscreen on their crops . Horticultural consultant David Bell believes it will be common practice for growers to apply a clay-based spray to protect fruit and vegetables from UV rays. "As the climate change occurs, as the drought continues for Australia, the next step will be for farmers to look at means ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM Tree rings used in African drought study United Press International: A U.S.-led study has used tree rings to investigate human-induced climate change that's projected to cause drier conditions in the mid-latitudes. To assess whether drier weather conditions have started, Ramzi Touchan of the University of Arizona and colleagues studied newly developed multi-century tree ring records from Tunisia and Algeria for a longer-term perspective on northwestern African drought. Using a set of 13 chronologies from Atlas cedars and Aleppo pines, the ... Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM Utilities settle environmentalists' suit for $105M Associated Press: Two environmental groups have dropped their challenge of a power plant's water cooling system in exchange for the three owner utilities spending $105 million on Lake Michigan improvements, the parties said Wednesday. The environmental groups, Clean Wisconsin and the Sierra Club, and the companies that own the Oak Creek plant -- We Energies, Madison Gas and Electric, and Wisconsin Public Power Inc. -- called the settlement a victory. Clean Wisconsin and the Sierra Club filed a ... Aug 05, 2008 11:00PM A How-To Manual for Large Cities to Build Climate Resilience Environment News Service: With eight of the world's 10 largest cities located near rivers or seas and exposed to such climate hazards as flooding, sea level rise, and hurricanes, a United Nations-World Bank report released today offers advice on how to make these population centers more resistant to the effects of global warming. "Climate Resilient Cities" is intended as a primer for East Asia and the Pacific to curb vulnerability to climate change and strengthen disaster risk management in the face of the ... Aug 05, 2008 11:00PM Kenyan courts consider terminating biofuel plans Environmental News Network: The Kenyan courts are considering halting the first stage of a US$370 million biofuel project that aims to replace up to 20,000 hectares of coastal grassland with irrigated fields of sugarcane. A judicial review of the project, based at the Tana River Delta on the northern Kenyan coast, was granted last month (11 July) after a campaign from environmental groups such as Nature Kenya and the East Africa Wildlife Society,and nomadic cattle-farming groups. The project is intended ... Aug 05, 2008 11:00PM Nomura to Study Sending Water From Japan to Australia in Ships Bloomberg: A Nomura Holdings Inc. unit plans to study exporting water to Australia from Japan for agriculture and industrial use as the nation recovers from its worst drought on record, two people familiar with the proposal said. Nomura Research Institute Ltd. proposes organizing the delivery of water on ships that carry Australian coal to JFE Holdings Inc., Japan's second-largest steelmaker, which has a mill in Kawasaki, next to Tokyo, said the people, who didn't want to be identified before an ... Aug 05, 2008 11:00PM United Kingdom: River banks face foreign invasion Western Morning News: <body>RIVER ecosystems are at risk of being over-run by invasive foreign plants thriving because of climate change. Giant hogweed, Japanese knotweed and Himalayan balsam have colonised our river banks, suffocating native plants because of the more favourable weather conditions. Dr Dylan Bright, director of the Launceston-based Westcountry River Trust, said climate change had led to longer seedling seasons and higher temperatures. He said invasive plants had been thriving ... Aug 05, 2008 11:00PM Rockies wilderness at risk from latest dash for gas Guardian: It has been called one of North America's wildest places. Just north of the US-Canada border, the wooded slopes of the Canadian Rockies channel unpolluted water into a valley that remains free of human development. Grizzly bears, cougars and wolverines prowl the banks of the Flathead river. Outside of a national park, there is probably no wilderness like it on the continent. But outside of a national park could mean outside of legal protection. Somewhere in the workings of the British ... Aug 05, 2008 11:00PM Scientists warn that there may be no ice at North Pole this summer Independent: It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year. The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer. "From the viewpoint of science, the ... Aug 05, 2008 11:00PM Australia: Govt 'wiser on water' after trickle reaches river Canberra Times: The Rudd Government will learn from earlier purchases when it opens its next tender process to buy water in Queensland, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says. It was revealed yesterday that $50million spent earlier this year to secure 35billion litres of water entitlements would return just 10megalitres the equivalent of 10 swimming pools to the Murray-Darling River system this year. Greens leader Bob Brown said the result would be laughable if it were not such a serious ... Aug 05, 2008 11:00PM China: Let's discuss water scarcity Jakarta Post: The Chinese government has made a huge effort to improve air quality and beautify Beijing for the Olympics that open on Friday (8 August). But it cannot apply a short-term 'fix' to another problem that visitors to the Games will not see - the steady depletion of underground water supplies in northern China, where the capital is located. A study published in June by Probe International, a Canadian environmental research group, found that over two-thirds of Beijing's water is being ... Aug 05, 2008 11:00PM United Kingdom: Rare butterfly rises again Independent: A threatened butterfly has bounced back after last year's bad weather to increase its numbers at one of the best sites for the species in Europe, the Wildlife Trusts said yesterday. Last year populations of the large blue butterfly fell at Green Down nature reserve, managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust, as a result of a spring drought and poor weather during the flight period. But this year more than 3,000 butterflies took flight in June at the site, which was recently ... Aug 05, 2008 11:00PM United States: Forestry board pushed for emergency logging rules Eureka Times-Standard: The rule-making arm of the California Department of Forestry is considering today whether to impose stricter logging rules immediately, which conservation groups and the federal government say are critical to protecting already threatened coho salmon. The Board of Forestry is responding to an emergency petition from California Trout, the Sierra Club and the Environmental Protection Information Center. If the measures they are requesting -- including improved road work and reduced ... Aug 05, 2008 11:00PM China: Tibetan plateau melts in the face of climate change Environmental News Network: Climate change is affecting the Tibetan plateau, threatening regional water supplies and altering atmospheric circulation for half the planet. The plateau is the world's third largest store of ice. But its temperature has risen by up to 0.3 degrees Celsius every ten years over the last fifty years – approximately three times the global warming rate. As a result, 82 per cent of the plateau's glaciers have retreated while ten per cent of its permafrost has degraded. Among the ... Aug 04, 2008 11:00PM United States: An urban marsh's unfinished saga Christian Science Monitor: If we view cities as densely populated areas surrounded by increasingly less populated and wilder land, then New York's Jamaica Bay wetlands present this phenomenon in reverse. The 39-square-mile saltwater marsh at the far eastern edge of Queens and Brooklyn is a piece of nature engulfed by the country's largest metropolitan area. Since the mid-1990s, the marsh, which hosts a multitude of fish and bird species, has been disappearing at an accelerating rate. "Something has dramatically ... Aug 04, 2008 11:00PM Brazil mulls sugar cane limit to protect wetland Reuters: Brazil would restrict sugar cane planting in one of the world's largest wetland areas if the government approves a proposal to protect the Pantanal area's ecology, the Environment Ministry said on Tuesday. The agriculture ministry has been working for a year with state-run agencies on a law to restrict cane planting in the Latin American nation amid concern about the environmental impact of the crop's rapid expansion. Agriculture Minister Reinhold Stephanes and Environment ... Aug 04, 2008 11:00PM Climate change to expose women to more gender based violence in conflict areas of Uganda Africa Science News Service: Lack of access to water and sanitation is already exposing rural women in conflict areas to more dangers like battering, rape, and poverty. But with the looming impacts expected due to climate change, these dangers are feared that they will double. Due to social gender roles, women are made responsible to meet water and sanitation needs of the family.In North Eastern Uganda, like Karamoja and Teso, a woman walks an average of ten kilometers in the dry season for water, spending 15-17 ... Aug 04, 2008 11:00PM India: Rainwater harvesting path to beat water shortage Times of India: What if mega projects, glitzy malls and booming property market - the face of Gujarat's development - get derailed by water shortage? One solution would be to ensure water security alongside development by using sustainable rainwater harvesting (RWH) techniques. "Making Gujarat water secure needs multiple approaches and RWH is the safest and least expensive option. Relying solely on mega projects like Sardar Sarovar Project and the proposed Kalpasar would be a mistake. Water security ... Aug 04, 2008 11:00PM Thailand: River Diversion Plans For Whose Benefit? Inter Press Service: Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's plans to divert water from rivers in neighbouring Laos to help feed agricultural production faces stiff opposition from activists, who argue the ambitious projects could threaten the environment and local people's lives. Since taking office on Feb. 6. this year, Samak has repeatedly stated that his People Power Party government intends to push ahead with the water diversion projects -- worth around 500 billion baht (14.97 billion US dollars) ... Aug 04, 2008 11:00PM Why Water Rights Are Women's Rights AlterNet: Having an ample supply of safe water is something most of us don't think much about. Turning on the kitchen tap or running a bath is usually an effortless decision. Yet, when we flush the toilet, we use as much water as most people in Kenya use in an entire day. Imagine that day. You spend six hours fetching and hauling heavy loads of water across a dangerous expanse. Once you get the water home, you conserve and manage every drop to have enough for drinking, cooking, cleaning, ... Aug 04, 2008 11:00PM World faced with growing instability, violence: think tank Associated Press: Rising food and energy prices, water scarcity, climate change and increasing migrations could fuel growing instability and violence around the world over the next decade, a report by a global think tank said Tuesday. But despite its grim forecast, the 2008 State of the Future report by the Millennium Project -- a global research undertaking -- insists that "advances in science, technology, education, economics and management seem capable of making the world work far better than it ... Aug 04, 2008 11:00PM Australia: Govt defends $350m Qld water buyback Sydney Morning Herald: A $350 million water buyback in Queensland is part of the federal government's plan to improve flows in the Murray-Darling Basin, Water and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says. The announcement follows reports $50 million spent earlier this year to secure 35 billion litres of water entitlements will return just 10 megalitres, the equivalent of 10 swimming pools, to the river system. The opposition says the government bought the cheapest allocations possible which were never ... Aug 04, 2008 11:00PM Australia: Water buyback 'won't reach Murray-Darling' Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Federal Opposition has criticised the Commonwealth Government's $50 million water buyback scheme, saying only a trickle of the water will make it into the Murray River this year. The Government has purchased about 35 billion litres of water entitlements from a number of catchments across the Murray-Darling Basin. Federal Opposition water spokesman John Cobb says the drought conditions through much of the system mean most of the water will not be delivered this ... Aug 04, 2008 11:00PM China: Algae Not a Threat to Games Regatta - Official Reuters: Olympic sailing organisers have won the battle to clear a vast algae bloom that has blighted preparations for the Games regatta at the Chinese coastal resort of Qingdao, an official said on Monday. "In the competition area, the algae is completely gone," Wang Haitao, vice-director of Publicity Department of Qingdao Municipal Communist Party Committee, told Reuters through a translator. In June, large swathes of offshore waters became clogged by the unsightly green algae, ... Aug 04, 2008 11:00PM Australia to Hold Tender to Purchase Water for Murray-Darling Bloomberg: Australia's government will next month hold a new tender to buy back water from farmers in Queensland state to boost flows in the Murray-Darling Basin, home to almost half the nation's farms. The tender will be the first part of a A$350 million ($324 million) commitment to purchase water in Queensland, announced last month, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said today in Sydney. It follows an initial A$50 million tender securing 35 billion liters of water earlier this year, she ... Aug 04, 2008 11:00PM Drought policy review panel visits western Vic Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A Federal Government drought policy review panel is sitting in western Victoria today. The panel is looking into the social effect of drought, as the Government reviews how well it is supporting rural and regional communities. Buloke Shire Mayor Reid Mather says today's sitting in Birchip is a terrific opportunity for the region to put forward its views. He says he believes the problems the Wimmera-Mallee is facing go beyond what could be put down to climate ... Aug 04, 2008 11:00PM United Kingdom: Organic food becomes latest casualty of the credit crunch Independent: Dairy farmers are turning their backs on Britain's organic milk market as economic pessimism dents consumers' previously buoyant demand for organic produce. The organic goods market at large is being "credit crunched", particularly among new products like organic ready meals and home-delivery vegetable boxes. Figures show there has been a dramatic reversal in the numbers of dairy farmers converting to organic farming from conventional methods. Rises of up to 80 per ... Aug 03, 2008 11:00PM Climate Change And Species Distributions ScienceDaily: Scientists have long pointed to physical changes in the Earth and its atmosphere, such as melting polar ice caps, sea level rise and violent storms, as indicators of global climate change. But changes in climate can wreak havoc in more subtle ways, such as the loss of habitat for plant and animal species. In a series of talks at the Ecological Society of America (ESA) 93rd Annual Meeting, climate change scientists will discuss how temperature-induced habitat loss can spell disaster ... Aug 03, 2008 11:00PM United Kingdom: Unregulated sewage pipes give water firms a 'licence to pollute' Press Association: The Environment Agency is giving water companies "a licence to pollute" by allowing thousands of "unregulated" overflow pipes to dump sewage into rivers and coastal waters, according to the Marine Conservation Society. The charity said about 3,500 combined sewer overflows (CSOs), which act as a flood-release mechanism for sewers carrying both sewage and storm water, were in urgent need of review. It said they have not been properly investigated since being ... Aug 03, 2008 11:00PM California Fights Nestle's Plan to Bottle Pristine Waters Environmental News Network: The State of California will challenge the environmental plan for a bottled water plant that Nestle Waters North America intends to build in Siskiyou County if the company does not revise its contract to pump water from the McCloud River, says the state's top lawyer. "It takes massive quantities of oil to produce plastic water bottles and to ship them in diesel trucks across the United States," said California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. "Nestle will face swift legal ... Aug 03, 2008 11:00PM Australia: Govt urged to ensure river environmental flows Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Environment Victoria is calling on the State Government to ensure the state's rivers get their full environmental allocations each year. The lobby group has made its submission to the Government's climate change summit paper, which closes today. Environment Victoria's campaigns director, Mark Wakeham, says the Government's 60 per cent emissions reduction target for 2050 is inadequate. He says improving river health will be vital to lessen the effects of climate ... Ecological Internet, Inc.
Water Conserve: Water Conservation Newsfeed Aug 07, 2008 06:25PM
Aug 07, 2008 11:00PM
United Kingdom: Environment: Intense rainfall due to global warming could raise flood risk
Guardian: Climate scientists have issued a fresh warning over the future risk of flooding after research showed heavy rainstorms are likely to become even more intense than predicted. Rainfall is expected to increase with global warming because the atmosphere can hold more water as it heats up, but the extent to which rainfall patterns will change in the future has been unclear. Writing in the US journal Science, researchers warn regions that are already vulnerable to flooding will be ...
Aug 06, 2008 11:00PM
'Green' building codes sprout up across USA
USA Today: As energy costs rise, more states and cities are adopting policies that encourage or require new construction to be energy-efficient. This week, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed into law what he called the nation's strictest "green" building codes. "There's been a huge groundswell in green-building leadership at state and local levels. It's remarkable," says Jason Hartke of the U.S. Green Building Council, a private group that tracks legislation and sets ...
Climate Change: When It Rains It (really) Pours
Science Daily: Climate models have long predicted that global warming will increase the intensity of extreme precipitation events. A new study conducted at the University of Miami and the University of Reading (U.K.) provides the first observational evidence to confirm the link between a warmer climate and more powerful rainstorms. One of the most serious challenges humanity will face in response to global warming is adapting to changes in extreme weather events. Of utmost concern is that heavy ...
Climate-Change Program to Aid Poor Nations Is Shut
New York Times: <body>The National Center for Atmospheric Research, an important hub for work on the causes and consequences of climate change, has shut down a program focused on strengthening poor countries' ability to forecast and withstand droughts, floods and other climate-related hazards. The move, which center officials say resulted from the shrinking of federal science budgets, is being denounced by many experts on environmental risk, who say such research is more crucial than ever in a world ...
Chad: Shrinking African lake imperils wildlife
McClatchy Newspapers: There's nothing remarkable about this lump of hot sand, tangled weeds and tree-branch huts except that, until a few years ago, it didn't exist. More precisely, the island was underwater, hidden beneath the vast surface of central Africa's Lake Chad. The emergence of the island, whose sweltering shores have been settled by dozens of families, is evidence of an unsettling ecological trend: The lake is drying up. Once among the largest lakes in the world – at some 9,000 square ...
What the World Is Coming To
Washington Post: THE DOMINANT ANIMAL Human Evolution and the Environment By Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich Island Press/Shearwater. 428 pp. $35 Canadians joke that, given their vile winters, they are the only people in the world who welcome global warming. But some things are too serious for humor. The world is in a crisis because of rising temperatures. Climate patterns have been disrupted, with devastating effects on lands near and far. Regions that once produced food in ...
Dreaming of a long shower in parched Cyprus
Reuters: We're a Tuesdays and Thursdays household. Sometimes it's late, sometimes it's a dribble, but the sound of water in our taps is the highlight of my week as Cyprus suffers one of its worst droughts on record. With water reserves at their lowest levels in decades, people on this Mediterranean island have seen the most stringent water rationing in years. Reservoirs are just 5.5 percent full, two desalination plants cannot cope with demand from 800,000 people and emergency water ...
Extreme rainstorms will rise by 10 per cent by 2050
Telegraph (UK): Predictions that our warming world will become a wetter place have been confirmed by a study which suggests that extreme rainstorms will rise by more than 10 per cent by the year 2050. For some time, computer models of the global climate have predicted that global warming will increase the intensity of rainfall and it is these extremes, linked with landslides and flooding, that are among the major impacts. Woman walking in heavy rain: extreme rainstorms will increase by 10 per ...
Global warming increases "extreme" rain storms
Mongabay: Global warming is increasing the incidence of heavy rainfall at a rate greater than predicted by current climate models have predicted, reports a new study published in the journal Science. The findings suggest that storm damage from precipitation could worsen as greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise. Researchers from the University of Miami and the University of Reading looked at 20 years of satellite observations and found a "distinct link between tropical rainfall extremes ...
River cities at risk from climate change
Edie: Cities on rivers are most at risk from rising water caused by climate change, according to a report from the UN and the World Bank. The report, Climate Resilient Cities, gives city planners practical advice, noting that eight of the planet's ten largest cities are on rivers or seas and as such vulnerable to flooding, rising sea levels and storms. With more people living in cities than in the countryside, the advice could save many lives. To minimise the impact of ...
Thailand: Sustainable approach to tackle coastal erosion
IRIN: Panya Changcharoen still remembers when he was a child and the Bang Khunthian District stone, marking the edge of Bangkok, was in a lush mangrove forest. Now, at 60, he finds it hard to believe the shore has eroded so much that the marker lies stranded far out in the muddy sea. "All the mangrove forests are gone and coastal erosion keeps getting worse, especially during the monsoon season," Panya told IRIN. "I'm not sure how long my family and I can live here," he ...
UN asks govts to combat effects of climate change
Press Trust of India: With eight of the world's 10 most populous cities situated near rivers or seas and already witnessing hazards of flooding, a United Nations-backed report calls on governments to take urgent steps to protect their cities from adverse effects of climate change. "Ultimately, the cities hardest hit by climate change will be the ones least prepared," said Neeraj Prasad, the World Bank's Lead Environmental Specialist for the region. The report "Climate Resilient Cities" jointly ...
Western cities aim for sustainability
Wyoming Tribune: Sustainability is not a new consideration for city planners. The local environment, water and transportation systems always have played their parts as cities grow. Today this idea has taken on new importance, said Ben Herman from the Fort Collins, Colo., office of the land-use consulting firm Clarion Associates. By the end of the century half of the world's species will become extinct. China will demand more food in 2030 than the entire world produces today, he ...
Wisconsin greens drop opposition to coal plant
Reuters: Environmentalists pulled opposition to an expansion of what will be the biggest coal-fired power plant in Wisconsin after gaining concessions from We Energies and two smaller utilities, environmental and utility officials said on Wednesday. We Energies, the principal unit of Wisconsin Energy Corp, Madison Gas & Electric and Wisconsin Public Power now expect to open the first of two new 615-megawatt units in fall 2009 at the Oak Creek Power Plant on Lake Michigan south of ...
California officials reject emergency salmon protection petition
Guardian: California forestry officials yesterday rejected an emergency petition to protect coho salmon in coastal streams, even though federal fisheries regulators said it would help the imperilled fish. The petition before the state board of forestry comes as California salmon are at historic lows, requiring regulators to suspend all salmon fishing on the coast this year - a first. The request came from California Trout, the Sierra Club, and the Environmental Protection Information ...
United Kingdom: Defra: expect 4C global warming
First Post: Defra's chief scientist says the country should prepare for a 4C rise in average global temperatures, despite an EU committment to ensure climate change causes no more than a 2C rise. Speaking about the EU policy, Professor Bob Watson said: "Given this is an ambitious target, and we don't know in detail how to limit greenhouse gas emissions to realise a 2 degree target, we should be prepared to adapt to 4C." Professor Watson was backed by the Government's former chief ...
United States: Desalination plant plans OK'd
San Diego Union Tribune: A private company's proposal to build the nation's largest drinking water desalination plant at Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad cleared its final hurdles yesterday before the California Coastal Commission. The decision came at the conclusion of a 10½-hour hearing in Oceanside punctuated by objections from environmentalists and support from elected officials who stressed the crucial need to increase the region's water supply. 'We must diversify our region's water-supply ...
NASA study shows global warming will diminish rainfall in East Africa, worsening hunger
Mongabay: A new NASA-backed study has found a link between a warming Indian Ocean and reduced rainfall in eastern and southern Africa. The results suggest that rising sea temperatures could exacerbate food problems in some of the continent's most famine-prone regions. Analyzing seasonal rainfall data over the Indian Ocean and the eastern seaboard of Africa from 1950 to 2005, researchers found that rainfall in eastern Africa during the rainy season has declined about 15 percent since the 1980s. ...
Study: China's hail storms are decreasing
United Press International: U.S. and Chinese researchers say they've determined climate change might be responsible for a decrease in hail falling across China. Hail -- defined as precipitation of balls or irregular lumps of ice produced by storm clouds -- forms when liquid raindrops freeze at altitudes above a threshold called the "freezing level height," researchers said. If drops cannot be formed above the freezing level, precipitation remains in a liquid state. The scientists from the University of ...
Australia: Sunscreen for crops
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: You've heard the slip, slop, slap message to protect us from the sunburn. Now it mightn't be too long before it's common for our fruit and vegie growers to be slapping sunscreen on their crops . Horticultural consultant David Bell believes it will be common practice for growers to apply a clay-based spray to protect fruit and vegetables from UV rays. "As the climate change occurs, as the drought continues for Australia, the next step will be for farmers to look at means ...
Tree rings used in African drought study
United Press International: A U.S.-led study has used tree rings to investigate human-induced climate change that's projected to cause drier conditions in the mid-latitudes. To assess whether drier weather conditions have started, Ramzi Touchan of the University of Arizona and colleagues studied newly developed multi-century tree ring records from Tunisia and Algeria for a longer-term perspective on northwestern African drought. Using a set of 13 chronologies from Atlas cedars and Aleppo pines, the ...
Utilities settle environmentalists' suit for $105M
Associated Press: Two environmental groups have dropped their challenge of a power plant's water cooling system in exchange for the three owner utilities spending $105 million on Lake Michigan improvements, the parties said Wednesday. The environmental groups, Clean Wisconsin and the Sierra Club, and the companies that own the Oak Creek plant -- We Energies, Madison Gas and Electric, and Wisconsin Public Power Inc. -- called the settlement a victory. Clean Wisconsin and the Sierra Club filed a ...
Aug 05, 2008 11:00PM
A How-To Manual for Large Cities to Build Climate Resilience
Environment News Service: With eight of the world's 10 largest cities located near rivers or seas and exposed to such climate hazards as flooding, sea level rise, and hurricanes, a United Nations-World Bank report released today offers advice on how to make these population centers more resistant to the effects of global warming. "Climate Resilient Cities" is intended as a primer for East Asia and the Pacific to curb vulnerability to climate change and strengthen disaster risk management in the face of the ...
Kenyan courts consider terminating biofuel plans
Environmental News Network: The Kenyan courts are considering halting the first stage of a US$370 million biofuel project that aims to replace up to 20,000 hectares of coastal grassland with irrigated fields of sugarcane. A judicial review of the project, based at the Tana River Delta on the northern Kenyan coast, was granted last month (11 July) after a campaign from environmental groups such as Nature Kenya and the East Africa Wildlife Society,and nomadic cattle-farming groups. The project is intended ...
Nomura to Study Sending Water From Japan to Australia in Ships
Bloomberg: A Nomura Holdings Inc. unit plans to study exporting water to Australia from Japan for agriculture and industrial use as the nation recovers from its worst drought on record, two people familiar with the proposal said. Nomura Research Institute Ltd. proposes organizing the delivery of water on ships that carry Australian coal to JFE Holdings Inc., Japan's second-largest steelmaker, which has a mill in Kawasaki, next to Tokyo, said the people, who didn't want to be identified before an ...
United Kingdom: River banks face foreign invasion
Western Morning News: <body>RIVER ecosystems are at risk of being over-run by invasive foreign plants thriving because of climate change. Giant hogweed, Japanese knotweed and Himalayan balsam have colonised our river banks, suffocating native plants because of the more favourable weather conditions. Dr Dylan Bright, director of the Launceston-based Westcountry River Trust, said climate change had led to longer seedling seasons and higher temperatures. He said invasive plants had been thriving ...
Rockies wilderness at risk from latest dash for gas
Guardian: It has been called one of North America's wildest places. Just north of the US-Canada border, the wooded slopes of the Canadian Rockies channel unpolluted water into a valley that remains free of human development. Grizzly bears, cougars and wolverines prowl the banks of the Flathead river. Outside of a national park, there is probably no wilderness like it on the continent. But outside of a national park could mean outside of legal protection. Somewhere in the workings of the British ...
Scientists warn that there may be no ice at North Pole this summer
Independent: It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year. The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer. "From the viewpoint of science, the ...
Australia: Govt 'wiser on water' after trickle reaches river
Canberra Times: The Rudd Government will learn from earlier purchases when it opens its next tender process to buy water in Queensland, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says. It was revealed yesterday that $50million spent earlier this year to secure 35billion litres of water entitlements would return just 10megalitres the equivalent of 10 swimming pools to the Murray-Darling River system this year. Greens leader Bob Brown said the result would be laughable if it were not such a serious ...
China: Let's discuss water scarcity
Jakarta Post: The Chinese government has made a huge effort to improve air quality and beautify Beijing for the Olympics that open on Friday (8 August). But it cannot apply a short-term 'fix' to another problem that visitors to the Games will not see - the steady depletion of underground water supplies in northern China, where the capital is located. A study published in June by Probe International, a Canadian environmental research group, found that over two-thirds of Beijing's water is being ...
United Kingdom: Rare butterfly rises again
Independent: A threatened butterfly has bounced back after last year's bad weather to increase its numbers at one of the best sites for the species in Europe, the Wildlife Trusts said yesterday. Last year populations of the large blue butterfly fell at Green Down nature reserve, managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust, as a result of a spring drought and poor weather during the flight period. But this year more than 3,000 butterflies took flight in June at the site, which was recently ...
United States: Forestry board pushed for emergency logging rules
Eureka Times-Standard: The rule-making arm of the California Department of Forestry is considering today whether to impose stricter logging rules immediately, which conservation groups and the federal government say are critical to protecting already threatened coho salmon. The Board of Forestry is responding to an emergency petition from California Trout, the Sierra Club and the Environmental Protection Information Center. If the measures they are requesting -- including improved road work and reduced ...
China: Tibetan plateau melts in the face of climate change
Environmental News Network: Climate change is affecting the Tibetan plateau, threatening regional water supplies and altering atmospheric circulation for half the planet. The plateau is the world's third largest store of ice. But its temperature has risen by up to 0.3 degrees Celsius every ten years over the last fifty years – approximately three times the global warming rate. As a result, 82 per cent of the plateau's glaciers have retreated while ten per cent of its permafrost has degraded. Among the ...
Aug 04, 2008 11:00PM
United States: An urban marsh's unfinished saga
Christian Science Monitor: If we view cities as densely populated areas surrounded by increasingly less populated and wilder land, then New York's Jamaica Bay wetlands present this phenomenon in reverse. The 39-square-mile saltwater marsh at the far eastern edge of Queens and Brooklyn is a piece of nature engulfed by the country's largest metropolitan area. Since the mid-1990s, the marsh, which hosts a multitude of fish and bird species, has been disappearing at an accelerating rate. "Something has dramatically ...
Brazil mulls sugar cane limit to protect wetland
Reuters: Brazil would restrict sugar cane planting in one of the world's largest wetland areas if the government approves a proposal to protect the Pantanal area's ecology, the Environment Ministry said on Tuesday. The agriculture ministry has been working for a year with state-run agencies on a law to restrict cane planting in the Latin American nation amid concern about the environmental impact of the crop's rapid expansion. Agriculture Minister Reinhold Stephanes and Environment ...
Climate change to expose women to more gender based violence in conflict areas of Uganda
Africa Science News Service: Lack of access to water and sanitation is already exposing rural women in conflict areas to more dangers like battering, rape, and poverty. But with the looming impacts expected due to climate change, these dangers are feared that they will double. Due to social gender roles, women are made responsible to meet water and sanitation needs of the family.In North Eastern Uganda, like Karamoja and Teso, a woman walks an average of ten kilometers in the dry season for water, spending 15-17 ...
India: Rainwater harvesting path to beat water shortage
Times of India: What if mega projects, glitzy malls and booming property market - the face of Gujarat's development - get derailed by water shortage? One solution would be to ensure water security alongside development by using sustainable rainwater harvesting (RWH) techniques. "Making Gujarat water secure needs multiple approaches and RWH is the safest and least expensive option. Relying solely on mega projects like Sardar Sarovar Project and the proposed Kalpasar would be a mistake. Water security ...
Thailand: River Diversion Plans For Whose Benefit?
Inter Press Service: Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's plans to divert water from rivers in neighbouring Laos to help feed agricultural production faces stiff opposition from activists, who argue the ambitious projects could threaten the environment and local people's lives. Since taking office on Feb. 6. this year, Samak has repeatedly stated that his People Power Party government intends to push ahead with the water diversion projects -- worth around 500 billion baht (14.97 billion US dollars) ...
Why Water Rights Are Women's Rights
AlterNet: Having an ample supply of safe water is something most of us don't think much about. Turning on the kitchen tap or running a bath is usually an effortless decision. Yet, when we flush the toilet, we use as much water as most people in Kenya use in an entire day. Imagine that day. You spend six hours fetching and hauling heavy loads of water across a dangerous expanse. Once you get the water home, you conserve and manage every drop to have enough for drinking, cooking, cleaning, ...
World faced with growing instability, violence: think tank
Associated Press: Rising food and energy prices, water scarcity, climate change and increasing migrations could fuel growing instability and violence around the world over the next decade, a report by a global think tank said Tuesday. But despite its grim forecast, the 2008 State of the Future report by the Millennium Project -- a global research undertaking -- insists that "advances in science, technology, education, economics and management seem capable of making the world work far better than it ...
Australia: Govt defends $350m Qld water buyback
Sydney Morning Herald: A $350 million water buyback in Queensland is part of the federal government's plan to improve flows in the Murray-Darling Basin, Water and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says. The announcement follows reports $50 million spent earlier this year to secure 35 billion litres of water entitlements will return just 10 megalitres, the equivalent of 10 swimming pools, to the river system. The opposition says the government bought the cheapest allocations possible which were never ...
Australia: Water buyback 'won't reach Murray-Darling'
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Federal Opposition has criticised the Commonwealth Government's $50 million water buyback scheme, saying only a trickle of the water will make it into the Murray River this year. The Government has purchased about 35 billion litres of water entitlements from a number of catchments across the Murray-Darling Basin. Federal Opposition water spokesman John Cobb says the drought conditions through much of the system mean most of the water will not be delivered this ...
China: Algae Not a Threat to Games Regatta - Official
Reuters: Olympic sailing organisers have won the battle to clear a vast algae bloom that has blighted preparations for the Games regatta at the Chinese coastal resort of Qingdao, an official said on Monday. "In the competition area, the algae is completely gone," Wang Haitao, vice-director of Publicity Department of Qingdao Municipal Communist Party Committee, told Reuters through a translator. In June, large swathes of offshore waters became clogged by the unsightly green algae, ...
Australia to Hold Tender to Purchase Water for Murray-Darling
Bloomberg: Australia's government will next month hold a new tender to buy back water from farmers in Queensland state to boost flows in the Murray-Darling Basin, home to almost half the nation's farms. The tender will be the first part of a A$350 million ($324 million) commitment to purchase water in Queensland, announced last month, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said today in Sydney. It follows an initial A$50 million tender securing 35 billion liters of water earlier this year, she ...
Drought policy review panel visits western Vic
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A Federal Government drought policy review panel is sitting in western Victoria today. The panel is looking into the social effect of drought, as the Government reviews how well it is supporting rural and regional communities. Buloke Shire Mayor Reid Mather says today's sitting in Birchip is a terrific opportunity for the region to put forward its views. He says he believes the problems the Wimmera-Mallee is facing go beyond what could be put down to climate ...
United Kingdom: Organic food becomes latest casualty of the credit crunch
Independent: Dairy farmers are turning their backs on Britain's organic milk market as economic pessimism dents consumers' previously buoyant demand for organic produce. The organic goods market at large is being "credit crunched", particularly among new products like organic ready meals and home-delivery vegetable boxes. Figures show there has been a dramatic reversal in the numbers of dairy farmers converting to organic farming from conventional methods. Rises of up to 80 per ...
Aug 03, 2008 11:00PM
Climate Change And Species Distributions
ScienceDaily: Scientists have long pointed to physical changes in the Earth and its atmosphere, such as melting polar ice caps, sea level rise and violent storms, as indicators of global climate change. But changes in climate can wreak havoc in more subtle ways, such as the loss of habitat for plant and animal species. In a series of talks at the Ecological Society of America (ESA) 93rd Annual Meeting, climate change scientists will discuss how temperature-induced habitat loss can spell disaster ...
United Kingdom: Unregulated sewage pipes give water firms a 'licence to pollute'
Press Association: The Environment Agency is giving water companies "a licence to pollute" by allowing thousands of "unregulated" overflow pipes to dump sewage into rivers and coastal waters, according to the Marine Conservation Society. The charity said about 3,500 combined sewer overflows (CSOs), which act as a flood-release mechanism for sewers carrying both sewage and storm water, were in urgent need of review. It said they have not been properly investigated since being ...
California Fights Nestle's Plan to Bottle Pristine Waters
Environmental News Network: The State of California will challenge the environmental plan for a bottled water plant that Nestle Waters North America intends to build in Siskiyou County if the company does not revise its contract to pump water from the McCloud River, says the state's top lawyer. "It takes massive quantities of oil to produce plastic water bottles and to ship them in diesel trucks across the United States," said California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. "Nestle will face swift legal ...
Australia: Govt urged to ensure river environmental flows
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Environment Victoria is calling on the State Government to ensure the state's rivers get their full environmental allocations each year. The lobby group has made its submission to the Government's climate change summit paper, which closes today. Environment Victoria's campaigns director, Mark Wakeham, says the Government's 60 per cent emissions reduction target for 2050 is inadequate. He says improving river health will be vital to lessen the effects of climate ...
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