Posts

Canada Tries to Hide Alberta Tar Sands Carbon Emissions

Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian - 1 June 2011 Greenhouse gas emissions from the tar sands are on the rise, but try finding that in Canada's official report to the UN. Details here.

Drought Strikes France

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  VINCENT MICHEL / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Cracked and dry earth is seen along the riverbed of the Loire River in Ancenis, western France. Rainfall in France has been down 50 percent from normal levels since March, leading France to impose curbs on water consumption in a third of France's administrative departments.

Is Three Gorges Dam Making China's Worst Drought in Decades Worse?

By Tom Lasseter | McClatchy Newspapers May 31'11 XINZHOU, China — As deputy Communist Party secretary of the Yangtze River management station… Details here.

Much More Policy Support and Investment Is Needed in Sustainable Smallholder Farming - & Quickly! - UN

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Rome/Nairobi, 1 June 2011 United Nations officials called today for a "Green Revolution," a dramatic increase in support for sustainable agriculture.... Details here.

Start Fighting the Next Flood Now

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By: Josh Brandon - 06/1/2011 Wpg. Free Press The flood season of 2011 is among the worst Manitoba has ever seen. Details here. (Josh Brandon is water caucus co-ordinator at the Manitoba Eco-Network ) Below the Shellmouth Dam.  l.p. photo Please also read "Lake-of-the-Prairies - the next Lake Winnipeg?" Like the article above, it also includes information on the critical role of wetlands.

Hundreds Ordered to Evacuate as Homes, Cottages Threatened

Winnipeg Free Press - By: Bruce Owen - 06/1/11 HUNDREDS of residents and cottagers on Lake Manitoba and other flood-prone parts of the province were ordered to get out... Details here. * “I find it systematically tends to get underplayed by my fellow scientists. I’m sure you’ve probably heard, ‘Well you can’t attribute a single event to climate change.’ But there is a systematic influence on all of these weather events nowadays because of the fact that there is this extra water vapor lurking around in the atmosphere than there used to be say 30 years ago. It’s about a 4% extra amount, it invigorates the storms, it provides plenty of moisture for these storms and it’s unfortunate that the public is not associating these with the fact that this is one manifestation of climate change. And the prospects are that these kinds of things will only get bigger and worse in the future.” *Kevin Trenberth , lead author with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Senior Sci