CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING

Abrupt Environmental Change Sparks Violent Conflicts

Stephen Africa, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ENVIRONMENT, Global Issues and Perspectives, News

Thirstier World Likely to See More Violence
By Stephen Leahy

Mar 16 (IPS) – A strong link between droughts and violent civil conflicts in the developing world bodes ill for an increasingly thirsty world, say scientists, who warn that drought-related conflicts are expected to multiply with advancing climate change.

“Severe, prolonged droughts are the strongest indicator of high-intensity conflicts,” said Marc Levy of the Centre for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University’s Earth Institute in New York.

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Environmental Changes Wiped Out 170 Amphibian Species Over Past 20 years

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, News, WILDLIFE

Frogs Fading Into Silence

By Stephen Leahy

The extinction of amphibians in Latin America has reached alarming proportions: 209 species in Colombia and 198 in Mexico alone are in danger of disappearing forever

Mar 5 (Tierramérica) – Frogs and other amphibians are rapidly becoming extinct around the world and in Latin American countries in particular. In the Caribbean as many as 80 percent of these species are endangered, while in Colombia there are 209 and in Mexico 198 amphibians may soon disappear.

Environmental degradation along with habitat loss, ultraviolet radiation, disease and climate change are all factors involved in these unprecedented losses.

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Response To Global Change Too Slow

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, Global Issues and Perspectives, News, OCEAN, WILDLIFE

 

Paraphrase of the Day:

Institutions are not responding fast enough to the industrial might and scale of change that is happening be it climate change or rapid loss of species or decline in the global fisheries. The rate are which our institutions take action is simply too slow. — Daniel Pauly, director of the Fisheries Centre at the University of British Columbia.

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Heed the Warning of the Frogs

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, Global Issues and Perspectives, News, WILDLIFE

Amphibians are rapidly going extinct around the world — 43 per cent of known species are in decline according to the Global Amphibian Assessment.

Frogs and other amphibians are warning us about environmental deterioration that threatens all species and our own well being, said Alan Pounds an ecologist at the Tropical Science Center, Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve in Costa Rica.

“We should be listening to the message from the frogs.”

Story to be completed and published in a few days.

Melting Ice Offers Window on Polar Ecosystem

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, News, OCEAN

Copyright Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research

By Stephen Leahy

Feb 27 (IPS) – The collapse of Antarctic ice shelves due to climate change is providing the first views of marine life hidden deep under the polar ice for more than 5,000 years.

A 10-week Antarctic international expedition to probe the region’s secrets is also the first major scientific effort of the International Polar Year that was officially launched Monday in Paris and London.

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Global Food Supply Near the Breaking Point

Stephen Agriculture/Food, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, Global Issues and Perspectives, News

Global Food Supply Near the Breaking Point

By Stephen Leahy

[Written last year, this article continues to be re-published frequently and often illegally (sigh) – remember short quote and link is ok but reposting entire articles violates copyright]

May 17 (IPS) The world is now eating more food than farmers grow, pushing global grain stocks to their lowest level in 30 years.

Rising population, water shortages, climate change, and the growing costs of fossil fuel-based fertilisers point to a calamitous shortfall in the world’s grain supplies in the near future, according to Canada’s National Farmers Union (NFU).

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Factory Farms, Bird Flu and Global Warming

Stephen BIRDS, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, Global Issues and Perspectives, Health

Report Blames Factory Farms for Bird Flu
By Stephen Leahy

Feb 20 (IPS) – Factory farms are responsible for both the bird flu and emissions of greenhouse gases that now top those of cars and sport utility vehicles (SUVs), according to a report released Monday.

Sixty percent of global livestock production, including chicken and pig “confined animal feedlot operations” (CAFOs), now occur in the developing world. Unregulated zoning and subsidies that encourage these CAFOs or factory farms are moving closer to major urban areas in China, Bangladesh, India, and many countries in Africa, said the report, “Vital Signs 2007-2008” by the Worldwatch Institute.

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Global Warming Connection to Outdated Technology

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, Science/Tech

Paraphrase of the Day:

 

In era of rapid scientific development, cars and trucks still use an internal combustion engine developed 100 years ago and much of the world’s electricity comes from coal-fired power plants first developed in the 17th century.

— Andrew Weaver, a climatologist at the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences in University of Victoria, Canada.

Excerpt from article Massive Ecological Impacts Coming with New ‘Hothouse’ Climate