Food waste costs North America $162 billion

Waste Management World: Food waste in America amounts to $162 billion and between 31% to 40% of American food supply goes to waste, primarily in homes, stores and restaurants, according to a new study. The findings, from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, were published in a report in the journal PLOS ONE.

Top food wasted, by weight, include fruit and vegetables yet nearly 75% of Americans believe that they waste less food than the national average, according to the findings.

Furthermore, as a result the food waste places a huge drain on the environment when approximately 30% of the fertiliser, 35% of the fresh water and 31% of the cropland in the US was used to grow food that was eventually wasted.

The first nationally representative consumer survey focused on wasted food sheds some light on factors affecting consumers’ waste. The survey, administered to 1,010 American consumers in April 2014, covered awareness, knowledge, attitudes and behaviors related to wasted food.

Despite the large environmental impacts related to wasted food, most survey respondents listed environmental concerns last when ranking reasons to reduce food waste, with just 10% calling them “very important.” Instead, respondents said that saving money and setting a positive example for children were the top motivators for wanting to throw out less food....

Wasted food, shot by Assianir, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

Climate change contributed towards the collapse of the Maya

Adam Steedman Thake in New Historican: Climate change is one of the major problems facing the world today. It is not simply a modern-day occurrence, however. Ancient populations also struggled to deal with changes in their environment.

New research has explored the devastating consequences of climate change on an ancient Maya civilisation.

Researchers have found that historic droughts in Central America matched the patterns of disruption to Maya society. Importantly, these findings provide clues regarding the longstanding questions about what role climate change had in the Maya collapse between 800 and 950 CE.

Paleoclimate records indicate a series of severe droughts occurred during this period of Maya decline. Evidence for drought, however, largely derives from the drier, less populated northern Maya Lowlands. As such, this does not explain the much more drastic societal disruption in the humid conditions of the southern Maya Lowlands.

“Our work demonstrates that the southern Maya lowlands experienced a more severe drought compared to the north,” said Mark Pagani, a Yale University professor of geology and geophysics and co-author of the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences....

Mayan compass, "Chimera of the Crystal Skull," shot by Rikfriday : Xneotek.com, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license 

'Dangerous' hurricane eyes Mexico Pacific resorts

Terra Daily via AFP: Hurricane Odile swirled menacingly toward Mexico's Los Cabos resorts on Sunday, forcing authorities to evacuate high-risk areas and open shelters as the powerful storm threatened to thrash the Pacific coast.

The "dangerous" category three storm in the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale packed 205 kilometer (125 mile) per hour winds as it approached the Baja California peninsula, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

"All preparedness actions to protect life and property should be rushed to completion," the Miami-based center said, warning that the hurricane could produce life-threatening floods and mudslides.

The core of Odile will pass close to, or over, the southern tip of the peninsula late Sunday and Monday, it added.

Four-meter (13-foot) waves crashed on the beaches and intense rains lashed Los Cabos, which is known for its high-end hotels. Some 26,000 foreign tourists and another 4,000 Mexicans were staying in 18 hotels converted into temporary shelters, officials said....

NASA image of Odile on September 13, 2014

Hurricane Norbert drenches Mexican coast

Greg Botelho in CNN: Hurricane Norbert lashed Mexico's west coast Saturday with strong winds and drenching rains, the latter of which triggered mudslides that cut off some communities.

As of 5 p.m. (8 p.m. ET), the storm had 100 mph sustained winds as it moved northwest at an 8 mph clip. The worst of it was not rolling over land -- centered, as it was, 180 miles west-northwest of Cabo San Lazaro -- meaning its winds haven't been as devastating as might have otherwise been the case.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted that 3 to 6 inches will likely fall in the central and northern Baja California peninsula, with 10 inches possible in some spots.

All that water has already caused dangerous mudslides and damage. "There are no terrestrial communications" in two communities in the Loreto municipality after landslides, said Baja California official Jose Luis Perpuly Drew, according to the Notimex state news agency.

Local authorities working with army, navy and civil protection forces are moving to bring food and medical supplies to Ague Verde and San Cosme, said Drew....

NASA image of Norbert, September 7, 2014

Marie remains powerful hurricane south of California

Brian Lada in AccuWeather: Hurricane Marie rapidly intensified into a major hurricane on Saturday night, becoming the third major hurricane of the 2014 Eastern Pacific Hurricane Season. While the storm will not have any direct impacts on Mexico or the United States, indirect impacts, such as rough surf and enhanced monsoonal rainfall, could be rather significant.

During Saturday morning, local time, Marie intensified into a Category 1 hurricane. By Sunday afternoon, Marie had undergone explosive intensification to become a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph. Since then, the hurricane intensity slipped slightly a powerful Category 4 with sustained winds of 150 mph.

Marie is expected to remain a major hurricane during the start of the week before gradually weakening around midweek. After being classified as a Category 5 hurricane, Marie has become the strongest hurricane over the eastern Pacific since Hurricane Celia in 2010.

"Marie is a very large hurricane, and as its moisture gets drawn to the northeast into the region, very heavy rainfall is possible, along with localized flooding," said AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Anthony Sagliani.

Sagliani continued by saying, "Some of the most likely cities to see locally heavy rainfall include La Paz, Cabo San Lucas and Hermosillo in Mexico, and Phoenix, Tucson and Albuquerque in the southwestern United States."...

NOAA image of Hurricane Marie on August 24, 2014

Tropical Storm Hernan forms off Mexico's Pacific coast

Terra Daily via AFP: Fearing potentially deadly flooding, Mexican disaster officials are closely monitoring the weather after Tropical Storm Hernan formed off the country's Pacific coast of Mexico late Saturday.

Hernan was located 585 kilometers (more than 360 miles) southwest of the tourist port of Manzanillo and was moving in a northwesterly direction, parallel to the coastline, at a speed of 22 kilometers per hour, Mexico's National Meterological Service (SMN) reported at 0300 GMT.

The storm was packing maximum winds of 65 kilometers per hour, with gusts up to 85 kilometers per hours, the SMN said.

The Miami-based National Hurricane Center, which had slightly different figures, warned that Hernan was picking up strength. "Additional strengthening is expected" overnight Saturday to Sunday, "and Hernan could be near hurricane strength by Sunday afternoon," the NHC said....

NASA image of Hernan, July 27, 2014

Weakened storm Boris still packing heavy rains, mudslide risk

Terra Daily via AFP: Boris, now a tropical depression after losing some of its punch, nevertheless was potent enough to prompt evacuations of thousands of inhabitants Wednesday along Mexico's Pacific coast.

The season's second named storm -- downgraded overnight from a tropical storm -- Boris brought "extraordinarily" heavy rains that led disaster officials to evacuate some 16,000 people.

On his Twitter account, the head of Mexico's National Civil Protection office, Luis Felipe Puente, said Boris so far has caused no loss of life, although it continues to carry the risk of potentially lethal flash floods and mudslides.

Officials from the US National Hurricane Center said that at 1500 GMT, Boris was 80 miles (130 kilometers) east of the town of Salina Cruz, with maximum sustained winds of 30 miles (45 kilometers) per hour.

It was moving north at two miles (four kilometers) per hour, a leisurely pace ensuring it will linger, continuing to dump up to another 10 inches of heavy rain in some areas, including the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz and Tabasco, the Miami-based NHC said....

NASA image of Boris making landfall in Mexico on June 3, 2014

Tropical storm Boris downgraded, still packing heavy rain

Terra Daily via AFP: A storm named Boris that is lingering off Mexico's west coast was downgraded to a tropical depression on Wednesday, but is still packing heavy rains that could cause deadly flash floods and mudslides. The warning from the US National Hurricane Center said Boris could dump as much as 20 inches (50 cm) of rain in some parts of the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca.

Boris was expected to make landfall later Wednesday, according to the center's tracking map. The storm was packing maximum sustained winds of almost 55 kilometres (35 miles) per hour, down slightly from Tuesday. It was still moving toward the north at seven kilometres (five miles) per hour.

As of 0900 GMT, the storm was 140 kilometres (85 miles) from the town of Salina Cruz, the center said. But Boris is expected to weaken later Wednesday.

...The storm is expected to make landfall as a tropical depression on Wednesday between the southwestern Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, according to a US National Hurricane Center tracking map. The Miami-based center said the storm would likely produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides....

Mexico experiments with adapting to climate change naturally — and on the cheap

Jason Margolis in PRI.org: When we hear about climate change, “adaptation" is one word that usually finds its way into the conversation. But it's a term that means different things in different parts of the world.

For southern Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala, adaptation means experimenting with the best and most cost-effective ways to prepare for stronger tropical storms and hurricanes. The area has long been one of the most susceptible spots on the planet and, as ocean temperatures rise, climate scientists predict storms will grow more intense. In fact, there are indications that the number of category 4 and 5 hurricanes is already increasing.

Residents from the small community of Valdivia — in the southernmost Mexican state of Chiapas along the Guatemalan border — know all too well about the destructive potential of intense storms. All that’s left today of the town are shells of concrete buildings amidst the weeds. In 1998, Tropical Storm Javier swept across Chiapas and literally wiped the community of 4,000 off the map.

I met Joel Garcia Vasquez grazing his cows in front of the ruins of a church. He said the church served as a refuge during the storm. He and others huddled on the rooftop when the river, about a mile away, flooded. Garcia said the water was about 10 feet high for 10 days. Thirty residents died and another 50 or so bodies floated by from upstream, by his rough count.

When it was all over, rather than rebuild the town, the government helped the people of Valdivia start over on higher ground. They named the town Nuevo Valdivia, or New Valdivia. I asked Vasquez how he feels grazing his cows among the ruins of his childhood home. His answer took me by surprise.   “The new town is a little better because we’re getting more help from the government,” he said....

A river ferry in Valdivia, 2012, shot by CristianDiaz, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Deforestation of Central America rises as Mexico's war on drugs moves south

Frederic Saliba in the Guardian (UK): According to Kendra McSweeney: "Drug trafficking is causing an ecological disaster in Central America." McSweeney, a geographer at Ohio State University, is the co-author of a recent report on the little-known phenomenon of "narco-deforestation" that is destroying huge tracts of rainforest that are already under threat from other quarters.

Viewed from the air, the tropical forests of Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua are scarred with landing strips and roads built illegally by the narco-traffickers for transporting drugs to the US, the leading world market. "These protected ecological zones have become the hub for South American cocaine," according to McSweeney, who stresses that the annual deforestation rate in Honduras more than quadrupled between 2007 and 2011, a boom-period for drug trafficking. In 2011 alone, 183 sq km of forest was destroyed in the east of the country, including in the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, an endangered Unesco world heritage site. This was in addition to the pre-existing problem of forest destruction due to illegal logging.

The wave of devastation has been moving south down the American continent, as drug crackdowns have taken force in Mexico. This is known as the efecto cucaracha, or cockroach effect, with reference to the survival instinct this creature has of seeking refuge next door as soon as it has been of chased out of one house. In the Laguna del Tigre national park in north-east Guatemala, deforestation has increased by between 5% and 10% in the past seven years. That coincides with the war against drug trafficking launched at the end of 2006 by the former Mexican president Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), with backing from the US.

Take the powerful Sinaloa cartel. When it was headed by Joaquin Guzmán, alias El Chapo, before his arrest on 22 February, the Mexican mafia extended its influence in Central America via local gangs. For McSweeney: "Narco-deforestation enables cartels to occupy territory to the detriment of their competitors. If that continues, the entire Mesoamerican [Central American] biological corridor, which stretches from Panama to Mexico, will be affected by tree felling."...

Burned jungle in Mexico, shot by Jami Dwyer, public domain

Smithsonian reports GMO soybean pollen threatens mexican honey sales

A press release from the Smithsonian Newsdesk: Mexico is the fourth largest honey producer and fifth largest honey exporter in the world. A Smithsonian researcher and colleagues helped rural farmers in Mexico to quantify the genetically modified organism (GMO) soybean pollen in honey samples rejected for sale in Germany. Their results will appear Feb. 7 in the online journal Scientific Reports.

David Roubik, senior staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and colleagues developed the ability to identify pollen grains in honey in Panama and Mexico during the 1980s and 1990s when they studied the effects of the arrival of Africanized bees on native bees. “Nobody else can do this kind of work in the ‘big field’ environment and be confident that what they are seeing are soybean pollen grains,” said Roubik. They found that six honey samples from nine hives in the Campeche region contained soy pollen in addition to pollen from many wild plant species. The pollen came from crops near the bee colonies in several small apiaries.

Due to strict European regulations, rural farmers in the Mexican Yucatan face significant price cuts or outright rejection of their honey crop when their product contains pollen from GMO crops that are not for human consumption. The regional agricultural authorities, furthermore, seemed unaware that bees visited flowering soybeans to collect nectar and pollen.

 “As far as we could determine, every kind of GMO soybean grown in Campeche is approved for human consumption,” said Roubik. “But the importers sometimes still just say ‘forget it’ and do no further analysis to match GMO pollen grains with their source.”

... “We cautiously interpret these results as significant for elsewhere in Mexico where some five times the GMO soy grown in Campeche is found and beekeeping is alive and well, not to mention the rest of the world,” said Roubik. “Bee colonies act as extremely sensitive environmental indicators. Bees from a single colony may gather nectar and pollen resources from flowers in a 200-square-kilometer area. With an economy based on subsistence agriculture associated with honey production, the social implications of this shift in the status of honey are likely to be contentious and have profound implications for beekeeping in general.”....

Bees pollinated on a flower in Tula, Mexico, shot by AlejandroLinaresGarcia, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Sonia could bring more flooding to Mexico

Accuweather.com: Now a tropical storm in the Eastern Pacific, Sonia will bring a new round of dangerous and life-threatening flooding and mudslides to areas in Mexico already hit hard since the summer.

Tropical Depression 18-E strengthened early Sunday morning, becoming Tropical Storm Sonia, and is forecast to turn northeastward through Monday, reaching part of the west coast of Mexico.

States to watch in Mexico for heavy rain and flooding issues include southern Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Durango, Jalisco and Colima.

Mexico cities that could experience flooding problems include Mazatlan, Culiacan, Los Mochis, Durango and La Paz. There is the potential for 5 to 10 inches of rain as Sonia moves inland and the moisture is squeezed out over the southwestern-facing slopes along the Mexico mainland....

Climate change creates complicated consequences for North America's forests

EurekAlert via Dartmouth College: Climate change affects forests across North America – in some cases permitting insect outbreaks, plant diseases, wildfires and other problems -- but Dartmouth researchers say warmer temperatures are also making many forests grow faster and some less susceptible to pests, which could boost forest health and acreage, timber harvests, carbon storage, water recycling and other forest benefits in some areas.

The Dartmouth-led study, which appears in the journal Ecological Monographs, reviewed nearly 500 scientific papers dating to the 1950s, making it the most comprehensive review to date of climate change's diverse consequences for forests across the United States, Canada and the rest of North America.

Tree-killing insects and plant diseases are natural elements of healthy forest ecosystems, but climate change is rapidly altering the distribution and magnitude of forest pestilence and altering biodiversity and the ecosystem. For example, pine bark beetles have recently killed trees over more area of U.S. forests than wildfires, including in areas with little previous experience managing aggressive pests. "One of our prominent challenges is to adapt forest management tactics and generalize the underlying theory to cope with unprecedented changes in pest pressure," the authors say.

Results show that over the last 50 years, the average global air temperature has increased about 1 ̊ F, while the coldest winter night averages about 7 ̊ F warmer. That has permitted population explosions of tree-killing bark beetles in forests that were previously shielded by winter cold and made it easier for invasive species to become established. But tree growth rates in many regions are increasing due to atmospheric change, which may increase resilience to pests. Also, pest populations in some regions may decline, allowing those forests and their environmental and economic benefits to expand....

S-64 dropping water on the Ahorn Fire, Montana, September 2007. U.S. Forest Service photo from http://inciweb.org/incident/pictures/large/805/0/

Tropical Storm Octave forms off Mexico's Pacific coast

Space Daily: Tropical Storm Octave formed off Mexico's Pacific Coast south of the Baja California peninsula on Sunday, US and Mexican weather services said.

Located about 565 kilometers (350 miles) south of the tip of the peninsula, the storm was traveling north-northwestward at 23 kilometers per hour, the Miami-based US National Hurricane Center said.

Octave had top winds of 80 kilometers per hour that could begin to weaken gradually starting Monday, it added.

There were no hazards affecting land. Mexico's National Weather Service said Octave would trigger rains in the northwestern part of the country, noting that heavy downpours could cause flooding in urban areas.

Rivers may also overflow and trigger landslides in mountainous regions, the weather service added....

Tropical Storm Octave on October 13, 2013

Storm-stricken Acapulco hit by new floods

Terra Daily via AFP: Authorities in Acapulco closed schools and evacuated dozens of residents Thursday after heavy rains sparked new floods in the Mexican Pacific resort still reeling from deadly tropical storms.

Flooding was reported in at least 22 city districts and the main boulevard to the airport was closed after a lagoon overflowed, though the terminal remained in operation, officials said.

Around 40 people were evacuated from high-risk areas, according to authorities. Residents from the Diamante hotel neighborhood, which was heavily flooded just days ago, left their homes for fear of being trapped by the rising waters again....

Locator map of Acapulco by Mixcoatl, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license

In Mexico, storms dredge up human errors

Terra Daily via AFP: Human nature is sharing the blame with Mother Nature in Mexico for the destruction spawned by twin storms, with critics pointing to shoddy construction, endemic corruption and political wheeling-and-dealing.

The country was thrashed last week by a rare tag team of tropical storms on opposite coasts, Manuel and Ingrid, that killed at least 123 people, damaged 72 roads and affected 1.5 million homes to various degrees.

A further 63 people are still missing, authorities said in the latest tally late Monday. The interior minister has estimated the final death toll could reach 200, with some 1.5 million homes affected.

While some experts say there was little Mexico could do against the first double storm assault since 1958, critics argue that the disaster was exacerbated by bad urban planning, poorly designed roads and widespread illegal logging. "It's not surprising. We develop in unbuildable areas, we build with garbage and we design without planning," Jesus Silva-Herzog Marquez, a law professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico, wrote in Reforma newspaper...

Hurricane Ingrid on September 14, 2013, via NASA

Mexico looks to rebuild from deadly, costly twin storms

Terra Daily via AFP: Mexico looked Saturday to the Herculean task of rebuilding after a rare double onslaught of storms, with at least 170 people feared dead in the path of destruction.

The death toll in the tragedy soared, with President Enrique Pena Nieto saying another 68 people were feared dead in a landslide in the southern village of La Pintada in Guerrero state. An earlier count put the number of dead at 101.

"The sheer volume of earth that has virtually buried more than 40 homes there means (it would be difficult) to find anybody alive" in La Pintada, the president said during a press conference with members of his cabinet in Guerrero, the state hardest hit by the twin storms that have since dissipated.

"As of today, there is virtually no hope that we can find anyone alive" in La Pintada, added the president who visited the devastated mountain town.

A police rescue helicopter missing since Thursday also was found to have crashed, with no survivors, the Interior Ministry said. Five policemen were killed, the ministry said in a statement...

Locator map of Guerrero state in Mexico

Mexico in grip of hurricane disaster

The Guardian (UK) via AP: The toll from devastating twin storms climbed to 80 on Wednesday as isolated areas of Mexico reported deaths and damage to the outside world. Mexican officials said another 58 people were missing in a massive landslide in the mountains north of Acapulco.

The storm that devastated the Pacific resort over the weekend regained strength on Wednesday and became hurricane Manuel, taking a route that could see it make landfall on Mexico's north-western coast. It would be a third blow to a country still reeling from the one-two punch of Manuel's first landfall and hurricane Ingrid on Mexico's eastern coast.

The US National Hurricane Centre said Manuel was hugging Mexico's coast late on Wednesday and was about five miles from the village of Altata. It called Manuel a small hurricane that was expected to produce up to 250mm (10in) of rain over the state of Sinaloa.

Sinaloa state civil protection authorities said some areas were flooding in the towns of Escuinapa, El Rosario and Mazatlan. At least 60 families were evacuated from the village of Yameto, authorities said. The affected area is mainly small fishing villages.

Outside Acapulco federal authorities reached the mountain village of La Pintada by helicopter and evacuated 334 people, many of whom were hurt, one seriously, said interior minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong...

Hurricane Ingrid's track from September 9 through September 13, 2013. Map created by Cyclonebiskit, public domain

Mexican death toll rises as landslides and flooding block roads after tropical storms

The Weather Channel via AP: As rescuers rush to get help to stranded tourists and others cutoff after two tropical storms hit separate coasts of Mexico, the death toll rose to 47. With roads blocked by landslides, rockslides, floods and collapsed bridges, Acapulco was cut off from road transport after Tropical Storm Manuel made landfall on Sunday. The terminal at the city's international was flooded, but not the landing strips.

....Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong told the Radio Formula that 27 people had died because of the storm in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located. Osorio Chong said 20 more people died nationwide, many as a result of former hurricane Ingrid, which struck the Gulf coast on Monday. Mexican meteorologists said it was the first time since 1958 that two tropical storms or hurricanes had hit both the country's coasts within 24 hours.

...City officials said about 23,000 homes, mostly on Acapulco's outskirts, were without electricity and water. Stores were nearly emptied by residents who rushed to stock up on basic goods. Landslides and flooding damaged an unknown number of homes.

...More than 23,000 people fled their homes in Veracruz state due to heavy rains spawned by Ingrid, and 9,000 went to emergency shelters. At least 20 highways and 12 bridges were damaged, the state's civil protection authority said....

Tropical storm Ingrid on September 13, 2013, via NOAA

Two tropical storms flank Mexico's coasts

Yahoo News via AFP: Two tropical storms flanked Mexico on the Gulf and Pacific coasts, producing heavy rains, causing rivers to overflow and threatening to spark landslides, forecasters said.

Tropical Storm Manuel formed off the western coast hours after Ingrid emerged in the Gulf of Mexico near the eastern state of Veracruz., according to US and Mexican weather authorities. Tropical Storm Ingrid could become a hurricane before making landfall late Sunday or early Monday, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

The Gulf storm was stationary about 95 kilometers (60 miles) from the port of Veracruz but was already drenching eastern Mexico, forcing villages to evacuate and causing some rivers to overflow.

Ingrid was expected to be very close to the coast over the weekend, the Miami-based Center said in a 0000 GMT bulletin. The storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 75 kilometers (45 miles) per hour. The storm was expected to dump 10 to 15 inches of rain on a large part of eastern Mexico and more in mountainous areas. "These rains are likely to result in life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," the center said.

State oil company Pemex said late Thursday that it had preemptively suspended "sea and air operations" in the area although rigs in the region continued to operate....

Tropical Storm Ingrid on September 13, 2013, from NOAA