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Michele Kearney's Environmental Blog - Environmental degradation and waning natural resources including energy resources threaten U.S. security. And the loss of renewable natural resources, including forests, fresh water, fish and fertile soils, can drive political instability and conflict in the developing world, and around the globe. In short, natural resoures, energy and the environment are national security issues.
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Saturday, February 26, 2011
Still Waters, The Global Fish Crisis
Global Fisheries Crisis
Still Waters, The Global Fish Crisis
The Mediterranean may lose its wild bluefin tuna. High-tech harvesting and wasteful management have brought world fish stocks to dangerous lows. This story explores the fish crisis—as well as the hope for a new relationship between man and the sea.
Photograph by Brian Skerry
Little Fish Exploding in Number, Models Show
Little Fish Exploding in Number, Models Show
Prey species are growing as predators are wiped out.
Sailfish hunt sardines, one of the prey species that models suggest are expanding in number.
The End of the Line: how a film changed the way we eat fish
The End of the Line: how a film changed the way we eat fish
Tom Levitt and Ali Thomas
18th February, 2011
Report highlights the lasting impact of The End of the Line in raising awareness of unsustainable fishing practices - and illustrates how radical new film funding models can work more...
Friday, February 25, 2011
The 9 billion-people question
The 9 billion-people question
The world’s population will grow from almost 7 billion now to over 9 billion in 2050. John Parker asks if there will be enough food to go round
USDA Approved Monsanto Alfalfa Despite Warnings of New Pathogen Discovered in Genetically Engineered Crops
USDA Approved Monsanto Alfalfa Despite Warnings of New Pathogen Discovered in Genetically Engineered Crops
Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "Just two weeks before the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) fully deregulated Monsanto's Roundup Ready alfalfa, a senior soil scientist alerted the department about a newly discovered, microscopic pathogen found in high concentrations of Roundup Ready corn and soy that researchers believe could be causing infertility in livestock and diseases in crops that could threaten the entire domestic food supply."
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Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "Just two weeks before the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) fully deregulated Monsanto's Roundup Ready alfalfa, a senior soil scientist alerted the department about a newly discovered, microscopic pathogen found in high concentrations of Roundup Ready corn and soy that researchers believe could be causing infertility in livestock and diseases in crops that could threaten the entire domestic food supply."
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Drought rattles farmers in eastern China
Drought rattles farmers in eastern China
February 25, 2011 by Boris Cambreleng
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Villagers are seen carrying bottled drinking water in a drought-blighted region of China. A widespread record drought in the east of the country is threatening to send global food prices even higher as China's key wheat crop falters.
Yu Ruicheng's weathered face creases with worry as she stands on her dry wheat field in eastern China, where a record drought is threatening to send soaring global food prices even higher.
Related Stories
- China's drought may have serious global impact
Feb 04, 2011 - Crop failures set to increase under climate change Oct 07, 2010
- China drought leaves millions short of water Mar 17, 2010
- U.S. drought spreading in South and West Jun 08, 2007
- Scientists to sequence DNA of British wheat varieties Feb 11, 2009
The rise in sea level of the Mediterranean is accelerating
Image via WikipediaThe rise in sea level of the Mediterranean is accelerating
February 25, 2011
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In this image, scientists are collecting samples during the RADMED campaign. Credit: IEO
At the end of the 20th century, the rise in sea level of the Mediterranean sea was lower than in the rest of the world due to atmospheric pressure, but since the start of the 21st century the levels of the Mediterranean have regained pace and seem to be accelerating. This has been demonstrated by the updated results from the second edition of the book Cambio Climático en el Mediterráneo Español (Climate Change in the Spanish Mediterranean).
Related Stories
- Report warns of rise in Mediterranean Jan 20, 2008
- Mediterranean Sea level could rise by 61 cm Mar 04, 2009
- Temperature and salt levels of the Western Mediterranean are on the increase May 21, 2010 yet |
- Mediterranean faces dangerous heat Jun 15, 2007
- Jellyfish counterattack in winter Dec 13, 2010
Rare, unique seeds arrive at Svalbard Vault, as crises threaten world crop collections
Rare, unique seeds arrive at Svalbard Vault, as crises threaten world crop collections
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV) celebrated its third anniversary today with the arrival of seeds for rare lima beans, blight-resistant cantaloupe, and progenitors of antioxidant-rich red tomatoes from Peru and the Galapagos Islands. The arrival of these collections, including many drought- and flood-resistant varieties, comes at a time when natural and man-made risks to agriculture have reinforced the critical need to secure all the world's food crop varieties.
Related Stories
- Thousands of crop varieties from 4 corners of the world depart for Arctic seed vault
- Arctic Seed Vault becomes world's most diverse collection of crop diversity Mar 10, 2010|
- African seed collection first to arrive in Norway on route to Arctic seed vault Jan 30, 2008
- Scientists behind 'doomsday seed vault' ready the world's crops for climate change Sep 17, 2008
- Red hot chili peppers arrive in sub-zero Arctic Seed Vault Jul 11, 2010
Thursday, February 24, 2011
California water future called 'bleak'
 disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only |
Sacramento (UPI) Feb 24, 2011 Scientists say the water situation in California is "bleak" and the state needs to act to bolster its entire aquatic ecosystem. "Our assessment of the current water situation [in California] is bleak," says Ellen Hanak, a Public Policy Institute of California economist. "California has essentially run out of cheap, new water sources."
The institute has released its findings in a publication written by a team of scientists, engineers, economists and legal experts from three University of California campuses and Stanford University, AAA ScienceMag.org reported Thursday.
Their report says water quality is deteriorating, pollution from agricultural runoff is increasing, and efforts to manage water and species recovery are hampered by a fragmented system of hundreds of local and regional agencies responsible for water supply, water treatment, flood control and land-use decisions.
"Today's system of water management, developed in previous times for past conditions, is leading the state down a path of environmental and economic deterioration," Hanak says. "We're waiting for the next drought, flood or lawsuit to bring catastrophe."
To stave off such a catastrophe, the report says, California needs to reform the way it manages water.
However, the study's authors say numerous entrenched interests, such as farmers, utility companies and landowners, have already proven reluctant to make sweeping changes.
"It's not going to be easy," says Jay Lund, a study co-author and director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. "It's not going to be popular."
However, he says, the current system is failing. "This is an approach that is not working. We need to take a longer view of it."
Ancient catastrophic drought leads to question: How severe can climate change become?
Ancient catastrophic drought leads to question: How severe can climate change become?
How severe can climate change become in a warming world? Worse than anything we've seen in written history, according to results of a study appearing this week in the journal Science.Related Stories
- Megadroughts in sub-Saharan Africa normal for the region Apr 16, 2009
- Tropical Atlantic Cooling and African Deforestation Correlate to Drought, Report Scientists Dec 02, 2005
- Ancient drought and rapid cooling drastically altered climate Jun 18, 2009
- Link Between Sunspots, Rain Helps Predict Disease in East Africa Aug 07, 2007
- The North Pacific, a global backup generator for past climate change Jul 08, 2010
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