'America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2009' announced today

AmericanRivers.org: From outdated flood control schemes to harmful dams and mining projects, our nation’s rivers and clean water are at risk. American Rivers, the nation’s leading river conservation organization, today released America’s Most Endangered Rivers: 2009 edition spotlighting ten rivers in need of urgent action.

…This year’s report highlights the sorry state of the nation’s water infrastructure -- our drinking water, wastewater and stormwater systems, and our dams and levees – and the need for green, 21st century investments to protect clean water, public health and safety, and the fish and wildlife that depend on healthy rivers.

Rivers in Alaska, California, Georgia, Idaho, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington and Wisconsin are on the list this year.…America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2009 are:

#1: Sacramento-San Joaquin River System (CA)
#2: Flint River (GA)
#3: Lower Snake River (WA, OR, ID)
#4: Mattawoman Creek (MD)
#5: North Fork of the Flathead River (MT)
#6: Saluda River (SC)
#7: Laurel Hill Creek (PA)
#8: Beaver Creek (AK)
#9: Pascagoula River (MS)
#10: Lower St. Croix National Scenic Riverway (MN, WI)

Ansel Adams, "The Tetons and the Snake River," (1942)

Potential to amass more carbon in eastern North American forests

Science Daily: With climate change looming, the hunt for places that can soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is on. Obvious "sinks" for the greenhouse gas include the oceans and the enormous trees of tropical rainforests. But temperate forests also play a role, and new research now suggests they can store more carbon than previously thought.

In a study that drew on both historical and present-day datasets, Jeanine Rhemtulla of McGill University and David Mladenoff and Murray Clayton of University of Wisconsin-Madison quantified and compared the above-ground carbon held in the forest trees of Wisconsin just prior to European settlement and widespread logging, and the total carbon they contain today.

Writing in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers report that despite decades of forest recovery, Wisconsin's woodlands still only hold about two-thirds the carbon of pre-settlement times — suggesting substantial room for them to accumulate more. "There's probably more potential (to store carbon) than people were considering," says Mladenoff. "There's still a big difference between what was once there and what's there now."

He adds that the true storage potential is probably at least two-fold higher than what he and Rhemtulla calculated, since they factored in only the live, above-ground biomass of tree trunks and crowns, and not the carbon stored in roots and soil.

The results have implications not only for Wisconsin, but also for regions across eastern North America where forests were leveled historically to make room for agriculture, and then grew up again as settlers abandoned their farms and headed west. In Wisconsin, for example, forest biomass and carbon have been steadily recovering since the peak of agricultural clearing in the 1930s, while those in the northeastern U.S. have been rebounding for about 125 years….

Forest Hill House, Franconia, New Hampshore, 1909

Change is the new normal for water agencies

Brown & Caldwell’s Water News: Like many water agencies, the El Dorado County Water Agency in California started looking into climate change five years ago. More than just the natural variations in climate was happening, with less rain falling and less snowpack melting into the American River near Sacramento.

That worried Bill Hetland, general manager of the water agency. With snow melting earlier in the spring, it meant more runoff and a need for more long-term storage. Two years ago, they came up with a drought plan.

From 1,100 miles of new sea walls and other flood protections to possibly more desalination plants to combat less rain and droughts, California is in for a full dose of the effects of climate change. While water problems are becoming worse for water managers in the state, change has been a problem they’ve had to deal with for a long time. “We’re going to be in a world of hurt” without more storage, Hetland said. So the water agency started working with area utilities to add storage. It now has 15,000 acre-feet of storage specifically for drought protection.

El Dorado is just one of many agencies throughout the United States dealing with climate change and its effects on preparation for floods and droughts. Local and state governments, utilities and water agencies are preparing for these changes faster than they might have liked, though….

Looking bucolic in El Dorado, California, from that county's web page

Poor nations call for 'levy' on air tickets to help adapt to climate change

Guardian (UK): A levy on all airline tickets and a global trading system for aircraft emissions are the contrasting proposals presented today to tackle the impact of flying on climate. Negotiators at UN climate talks in Bonn were told by the world's poorest 49 countries that the annual 760m international air passengers should each pay a levy of about $6 (£5.4) on every flight to help those nations adapt to climate change.

The least developed group of countries (LDCs) said a modest levy could raise up to $10bn (£6.8bn) a year and help countries in the frontline of climate change adapt to the intense floods, droughts, sea level rises and crop failures that poor nations are experiencing as a result of global warming.

The proposed levy, they said, would increase the average price of an international long-haul fare by less than 1% for standard class passengers, but up to $62 for people travelling first class.

According to Benito Müller, environment director of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and author of the proposal for the LDCs, said the compulsory levy would have no significant effect on global passenger numbers and would have minimal negative impact on tourism. "By contrast, it will have significant positive impacts on the development of the poorest and most vulnerable countries and communities, by avoiding climate change impacts," he said….

Detail of a winglet on a Boeing 737-800, Photograph © Andrew Dunn, 3 May 2006. Website: http://www.andrewdunnphoto.com/, Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License

Fargo, Moorhead grapple with how best to protect region against future flooding

MinnPost.com: It's a difficult, emotional, often bitter negotiation that local officials conduct with people who dearly love their riverfront property despite chances the river will overwhelm them some spring day and carry everything away.

The tense scene is about to play out on a large scale in Fargo, N.D., and Moorhead, Minn., and in rural townships up and down the Red River Valley, as federal and state agencies, local governments and individual citizens grapple with how best to protect the region — and the nation's taxpayers — against major flooding.

In countless posts to newspaper websites here, people from across the country have reacted to images of the rampaging Red River by posing a pointed question: "Why do people live there, so close to that river?" And, "Why do governments let them live there?"

Moorhead has allowed developments in the floodplain since the 1997 floods, "but the developers did raise the elevation of the subdivision so it was out of the 100-year floodplain," City Planner Debra Martzahn said. "They flood-proofed basements, beyond what our code requires. They've been very conscientious. But this flood is extreme," she said. "It's higher here than it was in 1997, so it's a problem."

People are naturally drawn to the river, Martzahn said. "We have a lot of parkland by the river, so it's convenient for people who like to walk, bike or fish. "Our zoning seemed to be reasonable up until now, but maybe we need to look at our code to see if we should be allowing development this close to the river."….

Red River of the North, viewed on the Fargo side, shot by Tim Kiser (Maleaphasant), Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License

Reject the god of growth for a sustainable future, says professor

Wales Online (UK): Tomorrow, Professor Tim Jackson, economics commissioner for the Sustainable Development Commission, will be in Swansea to launch a report calling on the UK government to tackle the economic crisis through low carbon recovery measures. Here, he suggests a new way of thinking to meet the challenges that lie ahead:

This year is likely to be seen as a defining moment in economic history. The combination of the severest economic recession since the 1930s; increasingly stark warnings about the risk of accelerating climate change; worsening environmental problems and resource shortages, and the threat of widespread social disruption all leave no room for business- as-usual thinking.

On a more modest scale, 2009 is also a defining moment for the Government. With little more than a year to run in its current term, it faces unprecedented challenges to its own credentials. But it is also presented with a unique opportunity to create lasting change and make a vital transition to a sustainable low carbon economy.

It’s against this backdrop that the Sustainable Development Commission has been developing its advice to the Treasury and to Number 10 regarding the Budget on April 22. The 2008 Pre-Budget Report indicated some significant shifts in the direction of what we have called a Sustainable New Deal, but at nothing like the scale that is now required given such dire threats both to the global economy and to the global environment.

…But the current financial crisis not only presents us with a unique opportunity to begin the transition to a low carbon economy. It provides the space for us to question the short-term thinking that has plagued society for decades, and to invest in real change. The reasons behind our current predicament are easy enough to find. The modern economy is structurally reliant on economic growth for its stability.

When growth falters – as it has done recently – politicians panic. Businesses struggle to survive. People lose their jobs and sometimes their homes. A spiral of recession looms. In these circumstances, it may seem inopportune to be questioning growth. However, the current crisis is in no small measure a result of our pursuit of growth. So figuring out how to deliver prosperity without growth is more essential now than ever…..

Nicholas Roerich, "Lao Tse" (1943)

Satellite images could be used 'to predict animal extinction threat from climate change'

Telegraph (UK): The photographs from space show the amount of vegetation available in an area for animals like giraffe, buffalo or wildebeest to eat. Already the information is being used to show the impact of climate change on great wilderness areas.

Now scientists at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) want to use the information to predict which species may be worse affected if the temperature rises and the grassland becomes a desert. Animals that rely on the vegetation include elephants, bushbuck and antelopes and, indirectly, carnivores like lions and cheetahs.

The study, due to appear in The American Naturalist, examined patterns for 13 herbivore species in 77 African national parks. By comparing the images known as a "normalized difference vegetation index" or NDVI with traditional aerial and on-the-ground surveys of animal numbers, researchers were able to prove a correlation between healthy grasslands and wildlife.

It means there could be potential to predict which species will die out first if climatic conditions change, giving conservationists a chance to focus on those species before it is too late. Dr Nathalie Pettorelli, ZSL researcher and lead author of the study, said images from space could show scientists which animals may need to be protected and even moved to a different area.

"Several climatic models can be used to predict changes in NDVI, allowing scientists to forecast how climate change might affect vegetation. The correlation discovered means that the effects of climate change on wildlife could also ultimately be predicted quantitatively," she said. "This is a really important step forward in helping to determine conservation priorities in a changing climate."…

A wildebeest in Kenya, shot by Paul Mannix, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 license

WHO urges countries to build disaster-proof hospitals

Terra Daily, via Agence France-Presse: The World Health Organisation on Monday urged governments across the globe to build hospitals to withstand earthquakes and other disasters. The UN agency said it is dedicating this year's World Health Day on Tuesday to the issue as the number of natural and man-made disasters increases worldwide.

"In disasters and emergencies, health facilities are crucial to survival," said Shin Young-soo, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific region, in a statement released here. "Health facilities must be structurally resilient, well equipped and staffed, and with health workers who are properly trained to respond."

The WHO said the Western Pacific region was particularly vulnerable to natural disaster, citing tropical cyclones, floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Last year's devastating earthquake in China destroyed or damaged more than half of Sichuan province's 6,800 hospitals, forcing tens of thousands of people to seek treatment elsewhere. Also last year, Typhoon Fengshen damaged or destroyed 89 hospitals and health facilities in the Philippines, and a 2007 tsunami damaged many hospitals and health facilities in the Solomon Islands, exposing communities to asbestos, the WHO said.

"Research shows that damage to health facilities can cost up to 60 percent of annual government health spending, so making facilities safe can sometimes be a means of actually saving money," said Shin….

A hospital in Thailand

Plants buy Earth more time as CO2 makes them grow

Times Online (UK): Trees and plants are growing bigger and faster in response to the billions of tons of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by humans, scientists have found. The increased growth has been discovered in a variety of flora, ranging from tropical rainforests to British sugar beet crops. It means they are soaking up at least some of the CO2 that would otherwise be accelerating the rate of climate change. It also suggests the potential for higher crop yields.

Some researchers believe the phenomenon is strong enough to buy humanity some extra years in which to try to reverse the growth of greenhouse gas emissions. However, few dispute that this will provide anything more than a temporary reprieve.

“There is no doubt that the enrichment of the air with CO2 is increasing plant growth rates in many areas,” said Professor Martin Parry, head of plant science at Rothamsted Research, Britain’s leading crop institute. “The problem is that humans are releasing so much that plants can remove only a fraction of it.”CO2 Plants survive by extracting CO2 from the air and using sunlight to convert it into proteins and sugars.

Since 1750 the concentration in the air has risen from of CO2 278 parts per million (ppm) to more than 380ppm, making it easier for plants to acquire the CO2 needed for rapid growth. One of the most convincing confirmations of this trend, recently published in the science journal Nature, came from a team at Leeds University.

Simon Lewis, a fellow of the Royal Society, led the study that measured the girth of 70,000 trees across 10 African countries and compared them with similar records made four decades ago. “On average, the trees were getting bigger faster,” Lewis said. He found that each hectare of African forest was trapping an extra 0.6 tons of CO2 a year compared with the 1960s….

Baobab from Madagascar, picture taken near Morondava, shot by Bernard Gagnon, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0, Attribution ShareAlike 2.5, Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 and Attribution ShareAlike 1.0 License

Adaptation network launching in Africa

Africa Science News.org: Plans are at an advanced stage for the establishment of a Global Climate Change Adaptation Network for Africa to spearhead mitigation of effects of climate change in the continent. The network is set to enhance climate change adaptation capacity of developing countries by mobilising appropriate knowledge and technologies to help build the climate change resilience of vulnerable human systems.

A regional consultative forum on the development of the Global Climate Change Adaptation Network for Africa held recently in Nairobi , Kenya unanimously agreed that the network was necessary to bring together different kinds of expertise and capacities to address climate change. The meeting brought together experts from Africa, government representatives, civil society organizations, regional bodies, research centres, ground facility centres and donor agencies.

According to a communiqué released after the end of the meeting, the envisaged network will among other things improve the accessibility and applicability of existing knowledge on climate change. “The network would focus on key thematic and priority areas notably water, agriculture, coastal zones and mountain areas, forest and energy. Best practices and coping strategies would be promoted/strengthened and existing capacity mobilised and shared,” reads the communiqués in part. It will also enhance collaboration between sectors and regions and facilitate the sharing of best practices and lessons learnt.

During the two-day meeting, the participants emphasised on the need for the network to bring all stakeholders on board in order to bridge the gaps between science, policy and implementation. Other function of the Global Climate Change Adaptation Network for Africa will be to bridge the knowledge gap by integrating traditional and indigenous knowledge with modern science and technologies so as to increase the continent’s level of adaptation to climate change…..

Florida legislators consider gradual property insurance hikes as Citizens cap nears end

Tampabay.com, via the St. Petersburg Times (Florida): With the 2009 hurricane season fast approaching and the legislative session more than halfway over, lawmakers consumed in recent weeks by Florida's budget woes are turning their attention to the state's troubled property insurance market.

For residential property owners, that could mean paying premiums of between 10 and 20 percent more each year — but only if legislators can come to an agreement before the session ends in May. A Senate proposal this week stalled in its first committee amid concerns about raising homeowners' insurance costs during economic hard times. "The last thing people can afford right now is increased premiums," said Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey.

The problem facing the Sunshine State is this: Thanks in part to the global recession and tightening credit markets, Florida's Hurricane Catastrophe Fund is billions of dollars short of what it would need to cover massive property damage likely to come from "the big one."

Legislators' long-term solution, unveiled in recent days, is this: Let rates for state-run Citizens Insurance rise to more realistic market rates, but gradually, to boost cash assets and reduce the need for bonds. Encourage Citizens policyholders to strengthen their homes against storms, and slowly reduce the financial liability for Florida insurance customers should a major storm hit.

… Right now the Cat Fund has about $4 billion in cash on hand and the ability to raise a few billion more through bonds, leaving a more than $18 billion gap of losses that need to be covered in the event of a major storm, Nicholson said. That's a shortfall that could financially devastate the state, and would have to be made up in part through assessments on all Florida property owners in the event of a big storm.

Christine Turner, director of legislative and external affairs for Citizens, supports the "glide path" of gradually increasing rates. But she has concerns about a provision in the bills to send 10 percent of revenue from the increased Citizens rates into the My Safe Florida program, which is designed to help Floridians harden their homes against a storm. "If I am a Citizens holder, I want my money going to cover claims, not a home mitigation program," Turner said.

Hurricane Fay over Florida at peak strength, August 2008. NASA

Louisiana National Guard tests disaster readiness

Digital Video & Imaging Distribution System: The Louisiana National Guard, in coordination with local, state and federal emergency management agencies, teamed up to test its disaster response capabilities at training exercises around the state, with major operations at the Lakefront Airport in New Orleans and in Hackberry, La., April 4.

The exercise tested the LANG’s response plan to identified deficiencies prior to the 2009 hurricane season and also to evaluate LANG’s ability to respond to multiple missions simultaneously.

“Training exercises like these help us to evaluate our overall plan and enables us to make the necessary modifications as needed,” said Maj. Gen. Bennett C. Landreneau, LANG adjutant general. “A lot of the times we focus on hurricanes, but it has to be an all-hazards approach. This exercise allows us to showcase just that, in order to respond to whatever the situation may be.”

“This exercise is to validate our hurricane exercise plan and to make sure that it fits well with the state emergency response plan,” added Brig. Gen. Glenn H. Curtis, LANG director of the joint staff. “We want to make sure that our citizens know that we are prepared and able to come to their aid.”

The training showcased the LANG’s ability to respond quickly to any and all emergency situations by conducting simulated air, water and ground search and rescue operations, while also maintaining sound coordination throughout.

“Our overall goal is to continue to refine our services and challenge our Soldiers so that they can know what to expect and how to react in case we have to respond,” stressed Capt. Joshua Davis, commander of the 2225th Multi-Role Bridge Company in Marrero, La. “They are put in realistic situations to define what we need to improve on, and it gives them a chance to showcase the tools that they have been taught.”...

Hurricane Katrina damage in Buras, Louisiana

New environmental satellite going up

SpaceRef.com: The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-O, or GOES-O, that will be launched into orbit aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket in late April, will be the focus of a media opportunity on Friday, March 20. The event will start promptly at 9:30 a.m. EDT at the Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville, Fla.

The event will include an opportunity to photograph GOES-O and interview project officials from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, and Boeing Satellite Systems. Media may proceed directly to Astrotech located in the Spaceport Florida Industrial Park, 1515 Chaffee Drive, Titusville at 9:15 a.m. Due to the amount of time needed for accreditation for foreign nationals, international media will not be able to attend this event.

GOES-O, which becomes GOES-14 when it reaches orbit, is the second of three new geostationary weather and environmental satellites built for NASA by Boeing Satellite Systems. GOES-N was launched in 2006, GOES-O is to be launched this year, and GOES-P is currently planned for launch in 2010….

The solar array for GOES O after its arrival in the Astrotech payload processing facility 

Mercury in seals linked to vanishing sea ice

Erika Engelhaupt in Environmental Science & Technology: Every summer, seal hunters in the village of Ulukhaktok in Canada’s Northwest Territories carve out small pieces of muscle from ringed seals during their annual subsistence hunt. As part of their collaboration with Arctic researchers, they carefully bag the tissue samples, draw blood, and measure each seal.

After more than 30 years of monitoring the seals, the researchers have noticed a disturbing pattern: levels of the dangerous metal mercury in the seals are connected to the state of sea ice on the ocean. The new research, published in ES&T, reveals that more mercury may be spiraling up the food chain as sea ice disappears.

“The trend now in the loss of sea ice suggests that mercury in ringed seals will increase over time,” says Gary Stern, a study coauthor from the University of Manitoba (Canada). His team, along with colleagues from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, measured mercury levels in ringed seals collected from 1973 to 2007 and related the levels to the length of the summer ice-free season in the seals’ habitat.

The Arctic environment already contains more mercury than animals there can take up, Stern explains. However, a shifting climate could result in ecosystems converting the mercury into highly toxic forms that biomagnify up the food chain.

The researchers found that mercury concentrations in seals were higher in years when the ice-free season was either very long or very short. The researchers think this is related to the seals’ food supplies. Cod are the most-mercury-contaminated food that ringed seals eat, so the seals’ summer mercury levels depend largely on how much cod the seals ate during their previous fall and winter hunting season. Older cod are the most contaminated, because the metal accumulates over time.

The researchers think that a longer ice-free season creates milder conditions that favor cod growth. So in years with less sea ice, seals have a longer ice-free period in which to catch cod, plus there may be more cod to eat. Alternatively, when sea ice stays frozen for a long time, young cod may have a harder time surviving the winter, leaving a greater proportion of older and more contaminated cod as a food supply….

Lee Cooper shot this portrait of a ringed seal

NOAA chief's challenge: Make science useful

Denver Post: "Science is back." That is the message of Jane Lubchenco, the new head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. After years in which scientific findings were edited or downgraded by the Bush administration, Lubchenco says science will now play a bigger role. "Science has relevance to decision-makers," Lubchenco said in an interview with The Post. "And scientists have an obligation to show what they know."

To that end, Lubchenco, 61, a Denver native and Colorado College graduate, said NOAA will look for ways to channel science to both policymakers and program managers while continuing the agency's role in basic research. "Good government depends upon good science," she said.

…One goal for NOAA, she said, is creating a National Climate Service, based on the model of the agency's National Weather Service.

…Similarly, Lubchenco said that NOAA has an important role in helping manage coastal areas and oceans. Among the kinds of data and studies NOAA could produce are ones on fishery populations, land-generated pollutants flowing into estuaries, and water quality measures.

In addition to the traditional fishing, shipping and tourism, oceans will increasingly be used for things such as wind- and wave-energy farms and aquaculture, she said. "We need to know how all these uses interact with one another, what the cumulative impact is in the system," Lubchenco said….

NOAA photograph of Jane Lubchenco

A natural defence against flash floods in Yorkshire

Yorkshire Post (UK): In 1935, Britain was still in the financial crisis of the "hungry thirties" but managed to enjoy a hot summer. Few were concerned about a huge fire which ravaged vast areas of heather cloaking the highest parts of the North York Moors. But more than 70 years later that same moorland is finally being repaired. It is said that the worst economic stormclouds since the 1930s are now gathering, but the reason for the moorland work is the accumulation of real clouds, ones that produce monsoon-like torrential rainfall.

These heavy rains used to occur once every 40 or 50 years but because of global warming they are predicted to be perhaps a one-in-ten year event. And they have usually happened during summer months. If there is more vegetation and peat on the moors, however, the rain is likely to be soaked up, as if by a huge sponge. This water can be held back for sometimes days or weeks, and released slowly into rivers.

But because fire erodes moorland right down to the bare mineral soil and rocks, the heavy rainfalls now being experienced immediately wash down from the moors to create flood surges which were described by one eye-witness a couple of summers ago as being "like a tidal wave of water coming downstream". That's one of the basic principles behind the work now going on at Cockayne Head about eight miles north of Helmsley and – at 1,500 feet – one of the highest points in the North York Moors National Park.

…Jeff Pacey, the Agency's Ouse Catchment Manager, believes a crucial factor in flooding after intense rainfall is speed…"It's the sheer speed at which the water is running off those upland areas, getting into the river and coming downstream. If we can hold up that water on the moorland for even just five or six hours it enables the water that's fallen lower down the catchment to run out of the system."

…With financial aid from Natural England's Higher Level Stewardship scheme, local contractor Ian Fletcher is minimising the effects of those old moorland fires by harvesting the heather – which will regrow – and spreading this so-called "brash" on the bare soil. It is then pegged down beneath coir matting, made from coconut husks, and a mixture of grass and heather seed is planted and fertilised to kick-start the moor's regeneration.

Another major element of the work at Cockayne Head and Bransdale Moor is the blocking of drainage channels – so-called "grips" – which were dug many decades ago to drain the moorland for sheep grazing and grouse shooting. These grips exacerbate the water run-off from the moors, so they are being blocked up with huge bales of heather to allow the moorland to naturally revert to its age-old function of water sponge….

North York Moors national park near Chopgate, shot by Bernard Leprêtre, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License.

ACES: More than just a climate bill

I’ve selected the adaptation portions of a Juliana Williams article from It’s Getting Hot in Here: The first draft of the American Clean Energy and Energy Security Act of 2009 (ACES) was released yesterday (full text here, summary here).

….This bill is far from perfect. Beyond the massive investment in carbon capture and storage, the weak emissions reductions targets, the reliance on offsets and industry giveaways for emissions credits, and lack of clarity on how the revenue from an emissions cap would be spent, ACES will likely be watered down through negotiation, committee markups and amendments on the House floor. It starts of from a place of compromise and will almost certainly be transformed through further pressure from the fossil fuel industries and the politicians they have in their pockets.

However, ACES includes a remarkable amount of attention towards the transition, including adaptation to the effects of climate change, formally working with developing countries to share low-carbon technologies and insulating American industries from shocks during this transition. While the Green Jobs section is rather wimpy, the final section begins to address the path forward beyond calling for reductions limits.

….Adapting to Global Warming. The draft establishes an interagency council to ensure an integrated federal response to the effects of global warming. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is directed to conduct vulnerability assessments and establish a National Climate Service. Each federal agency is directed to prepare an adaptation plan, review climate impacts on matters within its jurisdiction, and develop plans for addressing those impacts. The draft establishes a climate change adaptation fund to provide federal support for state, local, and tribal adaptation projects and a natural resources climate change adaptation panel to coordinate interagency actions on natural resources adaptation. The draft also requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to promulgate a national strategy for adapting to the public health effects of climate change.

To address international adaptation issues, the draft creates an International Climate Change Adaptation Program within USAID to provide U.S. assistance to the most vulnerable developing countries for adaptation to climate change….

The dome of the US Capitol

A last stand for the cedars of Lebanon

Hamida Ghafour in the National (United Arab Emirates): By this time of year the heavy layers of snow over Mount Lebanon should be beginning to melt into cold springs that nourish the purplish-green cedar cones buried in the dark, damp earth. But something is wrong. Lebanon has experienced an unseasonably warm winter and very little rain or snow has fallen. Instead of the five or six metres of deep snow that should have blanketed the steep mountains of the Shouf region located south-east of Beirut there has been perhaps 5-12cm.

Scientists and nature conservationists blame climate change and are increasingly concerned about the impact of warmer weather on the Lebanese cedar trees which need long, cold winters to survive and thrive.

…[T]he Lebanese cedar is under threat. A combination of little snow, sawfly infestations and forest fires, all blamed on global warming, have thrown the natural rhythm of Mediterranean winters off balance.

“Climate change has a major environmental significance and, of course, the cedar is what makes Lebanon. If you look at a map of the Arab world Lebanon is the only patch of green,” says Wael Hmaidan, executive director of Indy Act, a non-profit organisation in Beirut which examines the impact of climate change on the region.
There are only 2,000 hectares of the Lebanese cedar left in the country, concentrated in the Shouf and the Tannourine area in northern Lebanon. About 90 per cent is protected by law and cared for by the ministry of environment.

…Environmentalists say the government needs to invest more in conserving Lebanon’s natural heritage. There was a public outcry over plans to build a man-made island off the coast of Beirut, near Damour, which will be similar to the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. Inevitably, perhaps, the Lebanese version is called Cedar Island. Noor International Holding, the company behind the US$8 billion (Dh29.38b) project, says on its website it is carrying out an environmental feasibility study. It has not yet received government permission to begin building, but the blogosphere is full of criticism despite the 50,000 jobs that are expected to be created….

Al Shouf Nature Reserve in Lebanon

Havoc from floods in Somaliland

AllAfrica.com via IRIN: Dozens of families were displaced and thousands of livestock killed in three days after torrential rain induced flash floods in the west of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, officials said. Most of the livestock deaths were reported in Tog-Wajale district where the mayor, Omar Aden Gazali, said at least 5,700 animals died after it rained for 72 hours.

Gazali said two people had died in the floods, more than 100 families (600 people) were displaced and homes and business premises destroyed. The mayor said most of the families who lost their livestock came from the eastern parts of Somaliland in search of pasture.

Gazali said a bridge connecting the town to neighbouring Ethiopia was inundated with water and almost destroyed. "The police started to stop people from crossing the bridge between the two sides of the town," he said. Said Mohamed Ahmed, the mayor of Wajale, on the Ethiopian side, said the floods had also affected their part of town. "We sent our teams to survey the problems caused by the rains; there is a lot of damage caused by the floods," he said….

Locator map of Somaliland by Abdullah Geelah, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons 2.5 license

Arctic summer may be ice-free in 30 years

Independent (UK): The frozen ocean of the Arctic might disappear far sooner than scientists have previously predicted with the first ice-free summer occurring within the next 30 years – three times earlier than estimated.

A study of computer models of the Arctic region has found that the vast expanse of floating sea ice that covers the region is far more vulnerable to rapid melting than earlier studies had assumed. The latest analysis found that virtually all the sea ice in the Arctic will have melted during the summer months by 2037, and that it may even disappear as soon as the summer of 2020. Previous studies had suggested that this was unlikely to happen until at least the end of the century.

An ice-free Arctic would spell disaster for the polar bear which uses the summer ice pack to hunt seals. It could also increase regional temperatures because open ocean absorbs more heat from sunlight than the reflective surface of the sea ice.

The latest study was carried out by scientists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Washington in Seattle using the six most sensitive computer models of the Arctic region. The findings, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, found that the ice cover was likely to melt rapidly in the next couple of decades, culminating in an open sea, except for a band of ice bordering the shores of northern Canada and Greenland….

Arctic ice pack from a plane, shot by Ashley Pollak, Wikimeda Commons via Flickr, under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License

Insurer responses to climate change

Ceres.org has just come out with a report written by the indefatigable Evan Mills, a friend of this blog: Hundreds of new insurance initiatives, including coverage for green buildings, renewable energy, carbon risk management, and officers’ liability are being offered to tackle climate change and rising weather-related losses in the U.S. and globally, according to a major new report released today by the Ceres investor coalition.

The report outlines 643 climate-related activities in the US and abroad, including a doubling in new product offerings launched in 2008 alone. Among the newest products and services are coverage for wind and solar production shortfalls, premium discounts for building efficiency renovations, carbon capture and storage insurance, and coverage for humanitarian emergencies prompted by drought. Despite more creative offerings and a deeper institutionalization of climate-related activities within the sector, the report states that progress by the industry as a whole is still in its infancy.

“Insurers are integrating global warming concerns into many products and services, from green home and pay-as-you-drive auto insurance for consumers to renewable energy insurance for companies riding the clean energy wave,” said Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres, a leading U.S. coalition of investors and environmental groups, which commissioned the report. “Still, the scope and breadth of the insurer response fails to match the scale and urgency of the risks—or the opportunities—facing the industry.”

…“A vanguard of insurers is taking bold steps to adapt their business model to the realities of climate change,” said Dr. Evan Mills, the report’s author and scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. “In many ways, insurers are still catching up to their customers, who are rapidly changing the way they construct buildings, design products, and produce energy, in response to climate change.”

The report, From Risk to Opportunity: Insurer Responses to Climate Change, comes on the heels of more than $200 billion in global catastrophic losses in 2008, the third highest losses ever reported, including $40 billion from Hurricanes Ike and Gustav in the U.S. Many of these losses were insured losses….

Floods in Zambia

An editorial in the Times of Zambia, via AllAfrica.com: …Zambia …has not been spared and has had her fair share of changing weather patterns characterised by flooding. Floods have become an annual phenomenon resulting in thousands of people being displaced while their crops have been washed away.

Infrastructure, such as bridges and roads in some parts of the country has been damaged and an ailing economy such as Zambia's cannot afford to allow such a situation to continue. The grim realities of flooding in Lusaka's Kanyama Township and the Barotse plains of Western Province are some of the stark reminders which must jolt the nation to action.

Residents of Western Province ravaged by the floods can take heart that the Government is committed to ensuring the effects of the floods are mitigated. Vice-President George Kunda, in Western Province to commiserate with the people displaced by the floods, said the Government was devising effective strategies to mitigate the effects of the floods.

Mindful that the floods had now become a yearly occurrence, Mr Kunda assured the people that the Government would strengthen the disaster management and mitigation unit to ensure such calamities are handled effectively. Government work can however be made simpler if those Zambians living in such disaster prone areas heed numerous calls for them to relocate to safer zones….

The Victoria Falls Bridge, from the Zambia side, shot by Florence Devouard, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

Collapse of the ice bridge supporting Wilkins Ice Shelf appears imminent

European Space Agency: The Wilkins Ice Shelf is at risk of partly breaking away from the Antarctic Peninsula as the ice bridge that connects it to Charcot and Latady Islands looks set to collapse. The beginning of what appears to be the demise of the ice bridge began this week when new rifts forming along its centre axis resulted in a large block of ice breaking away.

The Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) images acquired on 2 April by ESA’s Envisat satellite confirm that the rifts are quickly expanding along the ice bridge.
Dr Angelika Humbert from the Institute of Geophysics, Münster University, and Dr Matthias Braun from the Center for Remote Sensing, University of Bonn, witnessed the recent development during their daily monitoring activities of the ice sheet using data from Envisat and the German Aerospace Center’s TerraSAR-X satellite.

By having a time series of radar satellite images throughout this event, Humbert and Braun are able to determine how the rifts develop and how the narrowest part of the bridge responds to these changes. Knowing these details allows them to learn more about the behaviour of ice under stress.

Satellite acquisitions of the ice shelf are available to the public via ESA’s ‘Webcam from Space’. The web page will be updated with Envisat images as they are received to allow the public to witness the event…..

Envisat’s Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) captured the early stage of the disruption of the ice bridge that connects the Wilkins Ice Shelf to Charcot and Latady Islands on 2 April 2009 at 05:18 UTC. The new rifts that developed along the length axis of the ice bridge are visible. The first detachment along these new rifts occurred about seven hours later.  Credits: ESA (Annotations by A. Humbert, Münster University)

Hispaniola endured five tropical cyclone hits in 2008

NASA: In 2008, residents of Hispaniola experienced one of their worst hurricane seasons in recent memory. Hispaniola, the Caribbean island containing Haiti and the Dominican Republic, is located directly within the hurricane belt, and was pummeled by five tropical cyclones last year: Fay, Gustav, Hanna, Ike, and low over the Dominican Republic on Sept. 24 what would become Kyle after moving north. More than 800 people were reported dead or missing from these storms.

Haiti occupies the western third of Hispaniola, while the Dominican Republic covers the eastern two-thirds. Hispaniola is the second-largest and most populated island of the Antilles. It's located between Cuba to its west, and Puerto Rico to its east.

Hispaniola, famous as Columbus' first stop in the "New World" in 1492, has often been the target of Atlantic hurricanes. In 1979 Hurricane David claimed more than a thousand lives. On this mountainous island, landslides and flooding are usually the major causes of destruction. "Located right in the center of 'hurricane alley,' Hispaniola has a long and brutal history of hurricane destruction," notes climatologist Bill Patzert, Climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, suffers from severe environmental degradation which makes hurricane landfalls especially damaging and deadly," Patzert added.

…Lake Enriqullo, located in the southwestern corner of the Dominican Republic, increased in size from all of the rainfall from the 2008 tropical cyclones. Two satellite images captured by the Landsat satellite show the lake's increase in size. Landsat is a joint NASA / U.S. Geological Survey series of Earth-observing satellites that's been in operation since 1972. The image above was created by comparing a Landsat 7 image from August 2, 2007 with an image from August 20, 2008. The red area shows where the lake has expanded. The comparison reveals that the lake has increased in size, especially along its eastern- and westernmost edges, and the reduced surface area of Lake Enriqullo's central island indicates greater water volume.

Hurricane Gustav, 2008

Using mathematics to address relocation issues in sea level rise

Science Daily: As sea levels rise in the wake of climate change and semi-arid regions turn to desert, people living in those parts of the world are likely to be displaced. A mathematical approach to planned relocation reported in the International Journal of Mathematics and Operational Research.

Decision scientist Sajjad Zahir at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, and colleagues Ruhul Sarker of the University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia and Ziaul Al-Mahmud of Lethbridge Community Network, have devised a mathematical algorithm to address the problem of population relocation. The team's multi-objective optimization approach will help governments decide what fraction of a population would need to be relocated and how many people could stay behind for effective adaptation to climate change.

The "multi-objective" nature of the calculation takes into account people's preferences, various costs, and planning priorities with the ultimate aim of ensuring that the issue of relocation is addressed fairly and is economically viable.

… They point out that large-scale cross-border migrations may not be a feasible solution to land loss because of the societal costs and the effects on labor. An influx of environmental refugees from the worst affected parts of the developing world is also likely to face opposition from the developed world, they add.

The team's decision analysis factors in the "value" of new opportunities, lost opportunities, transportation costs, adaptation costs and other variables. This allows them to balance the books in terms of how migration would affect a population.
"To make adaptation a success, part of the population must be prepared to adapt to new or different work opportunities and living conditions and others may have to be relocated in a planned way to new locations that require accepting different working and environmental conditions," the researchers conclude, "Our methodology lets us find the fraction of people who would be relocated and who would stay in an optimal manner."….

The sea wall at the naval fortress at Drottningskär on the island of Aspö in the Karlskrona archipelago, Sweden.  Shot by Magnus Bäck, Wikimedia Commons

The climate peril to archaeological sites

Archaeology.org points out the impacts of climate change on vulnerable archaelogical sites, with some compelling examples: Rising sea levels are eating away at coastal sites, increased rainfall is eroding mud-brick ruins, creeping desert sands are blasting the traces of ancient civilizations, and the melting of ice is causing millennia-old organic remains to rot. "With climate change, we're feeling a sense of urgency," says University of Northern Colorado anthropologist Michael Kimball, who organized a panel discussion on climate change and archaeology at the World Archaeology Congress in Dublin last year. "It definitely focuses the mind."

For countless communities, archaeology can be a source of local identity, pride, and even income. "It may be intangible, but when a community loses its connection to history it loses something pretty important," says Kimball.

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of more than 1,000 experts on climate science convened by the United Nations, estimates that the world's temperature has risen about two degrees in the past century, thanks in part to an increase in carbon dioxide that traps heat in the earth's atmosphere. The consequences have already been dramatic. The world's oceans have risen four inches in that time. Weather patterns have also gotten less predictable and more extreme.

Over the next hundred years, the IPCC predicts that sea levels will rise at least another four inches. The worst-case scenario is truly frightening: a 10-degree rise in global temperatures, causing ice caps to melt and sea levels around the world to rise more than three feet.

Archaeologists can't stop global warming, but they can make dealing with it a priority. That may mean documenting sites before they disappear; in some places, simple steps like putting roofs over melting or rain-threatened areas are ways to preserve them. Action, however, must be taken soon. "Our job is not so much to talk about how to get climate change to stop," says Giovanni Boccardi, the chief of UNESCO's Asia and Pacific Unit. "While climate change is global, lots of solutions are local--and within our reach." …

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Egypt.LuxorTemple.02.jpg, Pharaonic statue Photo taken by Hajor, Dec.2001. Released under cc.by.sa and/or GFDL.

Farming could be friend or foe to adaptation

IPS: Don't forget about agriculture in the upcoming global negotiations to combat climate change, experts warn. Not only is farming most at risk in an increasingly variable and tempestuous climate, it is also a major emitter of greenhouse gases. But with the right policies in place, agriculture could both continue to feed the world and play a crucial role in solving the climate problem.

"Agriculture has been missing in the run-up talks to Copenhagen," says Mark Rosegrant of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The nations of the world will meet in Copenhagen this December to hammer out a new climate treaty to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and establish a fund to help poorer countries adapt. The complex process began in 2007 at the Bali talks, continued in Poznan, Poland in 2008 and is ongoing this week in Bonn.

Agriculture accounts for about 15 percent of human emissions of GHGs, IFPRI says, although the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change puts it higher at 25 percent. Much of those emissions come from developed countries that rely heavily on fossil fuels and fertilisers and raise far more methane-emitting livestock.

With climate change the world is facing reduced yields of up to 20 percent in maize and rice by the year 2050, Rosegrant told IPS. Much of that yield decline will be in the developing world, mainly because sub-tropical and tropical regions are expected to be hit hardest by significant changes in water availability and warmer temperatures.

…Countries have been talking about creating an adaptation fund, but agriculture hasn't been a part of that yet. Agriculture is where forests were about 10 years ago - known to be important but peripheral to the actual negotiations, Rosegrant says. "It is going to be very tough to get anything like this (an adaptation fund). Who is going to pay?" he noted.

And pay for what? There is major divide about the direction the next "green" revolution should take. The technology-oriented view sees a future involving genetically engineered seeds, fertilisers and new technologies designed to cope with higher temperatures and drought conditions. The eco-agricultural view sees a knowledge-intensive future applying skilled on-farm management to create resilient, smaller-scale operations…..

Farmers planting rice in Japan in 1890, in a handcolored albumen print

Climate change will hit China hard, says UK scientist

China Daily: Hundreds of millions of Chinese people are likely to face extreme climate change and shortages of water, food and energy in the next few decades unless the emission of carbon dioxide and other polluting chemicals is checked, the UK's chief scientific adviser said in Guangzhou yesterday.

John Beddington, engaged in research of global climate for decades, was concerned about the impact of global warming on the world, especially China, in a seminar, attended by dozens of leading climate scientists based in South China. "China will be hit hard by climate change, as temperature is predicted to rise above the global average," Beddington said. "The worst effects may be avoided by keeping the global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius."

A rise higher than 2 degrees increases the risk of a decline in global food production and is likely to have a major impact on water resources. An additional 1 to 2 billion people, many in China, would be faced with water shortages, partly due to loss of mountain glaciers and the water they provide when melted in summer, he said.

According to his study, temperatures in China could rise by about 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels by 2050, and 4 degrees or more by the end of the century.
The impact of climate change was evident in the blizzards and flood in China last year, and the frequent droughts in Guangdong province, he added. Beddington, who met representatives of the China Academy of Sciences in Beijing on Monday, is seeking cooperation with environmental protection institutes in Guangzhou to fight global warming…..

A dust storm in China, viewed by satellite in 2001

Rising permafrost temperatures raise emission of the climate-relevant trace-gas methane

Environmental Research Web: Investigations of the Alfred Wegener Institute show that methane-producing micro-organisms react to climate changes Higher temperatures in Arctic permafrost soils alter the community of methane producing microorganisms and lead to an increased emission of methane. Microbiologists from the Alfred Wegener Institute come to this conclusion in the current issue of the periodical Environmental Microbiology. The scientists were able to examine permafrost from the ground of the Laptev Sea, a shallow shelf sea close to the coast of Siberia, for the first time. Caused by overflooding with relatively warm sea water, this so-called "submarine permafrost" is about 10°C warmer than the permafrost on land. It is therefore particularly suited to monitor changes in permafrost soils caused by continuing heating of the Earth's atmosphere.

"If the permafrost soils grow warm or even thaw, dramatic consequences for worldwide climate events might occur," illustrates the microbiologist Dr. Dirk Wagner from the Potsdam Research Unit of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association the importance of permafrost research. "They cover about 25% of the earth's land area and store huge amounts of organic carbon."

…"The studies we were conducting during the last ten years in the vicinity of the Russian-German research station Samoilov in the Siberian Arctic show clearly," summarises Wagner the insights of his long years of work "that the communities of microorganisms react flexible to climate change. Even if the soil is still deeply frozen, the metabolic activity of methane producing microbes is increased with rising temperatures. It is definite evidence for us that the atmospheric warming we can observe leads to an increased emission of the climate relevant trace gas methane in earth's vast permafrost regions even today."

A chunk of permafrost, shot by Nick Bonzey from Corvallis, OR, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License

Report outlines possible effects of warming on California

Los Angeles Times: As California warms in coming decades, farmers will have less water, the state could lose more than a million acres of cropland and forest fire rates will soar, according to a broad-ranging state report released Wednesday. The document, which officials called the "the ultimate picture to date" of global warming's likely effect on California, consists of 37 research papers that examine an array of issues including water supply, air pollution and property losses.

Without actions to limit greenhouse gas emissions, "severe and costly climate impacts are possible and likely across California," warned state environmental protection secretary Linda Adams. The draft Climate Action Team Report, an update of a 2006 assessment, concludes that some climate change effects could be more serious than previously thought.

By the final decades of the century, acreage burned across much of the state's northern forests could easily double and under some scenarios quadruple, said Anthony Westerling, an assistant professor of geography and environmental engineering at UC Merced. The reason is simple: As the temperature rises, the fire season lengthens and woodlands get drier, burning more readily.

Moreover, if growth continues at the wild-land edge, more fire will mean mounting home losses -- as high as $14 billion a year by century's end. "If you spread development all through the Sierra foothills over the next 50 years," Westerling said, "you will have a situation like the hills of Southern California or Oakland" -- where wildfire has destroyed thousands of homes at a time.

Flames of the Simi Valley fire ravage a Southern California mountain side. This is one of many catastrophic fires that plauged Southern California. U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules pilots flew eight C-130 cargo airplanes and dropped 129,600 gallons of retardant on the Simi fire during 48 sorties and 32 flying hours as of Oct. 29, 2003

Drought not over yet in Georgia

11 Alive (Georgia, in the US): The Georgia Environmental Protection Division imposed severe outdoor watering restrictions in North Georgia more than a year and a half ago because of the deepening drought. Despite all of the rain over the past few weeks, Lake Lanier still has a ways to go before it gets back to comfortable levels. The state Environmental Protection Division knows that, too.

The person who decides on what to do about outdoor watering restrictions in Georgia has taken our exceptionally wet March into account and has this to say about the drought: "The drought's not busted," said EPD Director Dr. Carol Couch.

Couch says one soggy month does not end the drought. "It's going to take four consecutive months of returning to normal rainfall for conditions to be such that we could declare that a drought was over," Couch said.

Dr. Couch and her team will also be looking at soil moisture and stream levels as drought indicators. They are looking better, but Lake Lanier is healing -- not healed. "Remember that Lake Lanier today, even with this great rain over the weekend, is essentially at the same level it was when we went into the Drought Level Four declaration in September of 2007," Couch said….

River Forks Park on Lake Lanier, near Gainesville, Georgia, shot by Mike Gonzalez, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License.

Adapting to climate change: the European Union must prepare for the impacts to come

Environmental Expert.com: The European Commission presented today a White Paper outlining actions needed to strengthen the Union's resilience in coping with a changing climate. Recent findings indicate that the impacts of climate change will be swifter and more severe than indicated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in their 2007 report. Europe will not escape these effects and must therefore prepare to cope with them. The impact of climate change will have varying regional implications meaning that most adaptation measures will need to be taken nationally and regionally. The framework presented by the Commission sets out a two-phase strategic approach to adapting to the impacts of climate change in the EU which complements actions taken by Member States through an integrated and coordinated approach.

…Over the next 50 years climate change is likely to have profound effects on important economic sectors such as agriculture, energy, transport, ecosystems, tourism and health. It will also affect households and businesses and certain sectors of society, notably the elderly, the disabled and low-income households.

The White Paper presents a framework within which the European Union and its Member States can prepare for the impacts of climate change. A first phase of the strategy will run until 2012 and will lay the groundwork for preparing a comprehensive EU adaptation strategy from 2013 and beyond. It will focus on increasing our understanding of climate change and possible adaptation measures and how adaptation can be embedded in key EU policies. Decisions on how best to adapt must be based on solid scientific and economic analysis, yet information content and availability differs widely across regions. The paper outlines the need for a Clearing House Mechanism in which to exchange information on climate change risks, impacts and best practices….

Playa de la Malvarrosa in Valencia, Spain, shot by Manuel M. Vicente, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License

Potatoes can cope with climate change

Farmers Weekly (UK): Climate change could slash potato yields, but adjustments in agronomy and crop location should more than compensate.
Potatoes are more water-efficient than wheat, rice or maize, so the crop should be key to feeding the world's predicted 9bn people in 2050, delegates at the recent World Potato Congress in New Zealand heard.

"This is a really strong advantage of the potato crop," said the UN's Jim Salinger and principle scientist of New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. "Basically it's a crop adapted to a drier climate."

Only 300-600mm of water was needed per crop, but with water availability set to plummet and temperatures to soar in many production areas, cropping would need to move to higher rainfall zones, and to where temperatures were tolerable.
"It tends to be a crop with temperate characteristics," stressed Prof Salinger, noting that the optimum for plant and shoot emergence was 22C and for tuber initiation and bulking 16-19C….

Census of Marine Life available through Google Earth

Census of Marine Life: Web visitors can now share the excitement of Census of Marine Life explorations as scientists uncover the mysteries of what lives below the surface of the global ocean. A world of marine discoveries including 50 different kinds of Arctic jellies, a colossal sea star, and Antarctica’s biggest-ever amphipod and other interesting, rare, and new marine species can be found at http://earth.google.com/ocean. Or one can follow along on scientific explorations to the coldest, saltiest water on the planet or to a new ocean environment created by an ice shelf break the size of Jamaica or to the hottest hydrothermal vent ever discovered—hot enough to melt lead! These journeys are but a few of the 129 possibilities for learning more about marine life available on the new Census of Marine Life layer in Ocean in Google Earth.

Ocean in Google Earth, which enables user to dive beneath the surface of the sea and explore the world’s oceans, was launched on February 2, 2009 at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, CA. “There’s no better dive than what’s riding along with Census of Marine Life researchers,” says Patrick Halpin, a Census of Marine Life scientist and director of the Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University in Durham, NC. “In eight years of expeditions to remote and unexplored places in the ocean, Census of Marine Life scientists have found new life on nearly every expedition.

In the Census layer of this new feature of Google Earth, we provide rare glimpses of interesting new life forms from some of the most remote places on the planet, with stories of the courageous, inquisitive, and adventurous scientists who set out to find what lives below the surface.”

The Census of Marine Life is a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10-year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans. The world's first comprehensive Census of Marine Life - past, present, and future - will be released in 2010….

Light refracts through the comb rows of a ctenophore