Climate-Friendly Rice: End of the Paddy Field?
hanging the way rice is grown, from planting it in flooded paddy fields to drier soil cultivation, is dramatically increasing yields and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The results of trials in eleven countries show that yields increased by an average of 60%, although they varied sharply between states, from an 11% increase to 220%. A paper … Read More
NASA Probes Show ‘Alarming’ Water Loss in Middle East
Parts of the Middle East are losing groundwater reserves at “an alarming rate,” according to a new analysis of NASA satellite data. From the beginning to 2003 to the end of 2009, portions of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria that lie within the Tigris and Euphrates river basins shed 117 million acre-feet of water. That’s roughly equivalent to the… Read More
NASA to Launch New Earth-Observing Satellite
If the weather holds, NASA will launch its newest Earth-observing satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California late Monday morning. An Atlas V rocket is scheduled to carry Landsat 8 into space just after 11 a.m. Pacific time. Once in orbit, the $855 million probe will begin capturing detailed images of Earth’s surface, adding to… Read More
Scientists Find Bacteria Survive at High Altitudes
The presence of microorganisms such as bacteria in the upper atmosphere is important because the concentration of microbial cells is known to affect the formation of clouds, whether they be comprised of water droplets, ice crystals, or both.… Read More
Thousands of Crocodiles on the Loose After Floods
Thousands of crocodiles are on the loose in South Africa after heavy rains and flooding forced a tourist attraction to open its gates, according to a newspaper report. Around 15,000 crocodiles made the great escape from the Rakwena crocodile farm near the border with Botswana on Sunday, according to the newspaper Beeld. Although "a few thousand" h… Read More
Low Snowfall Raises Concerns About Drought Recovery
The total extent of the persistent national drought receded slightly during the past week, but in many places, conditions look no better now than they did when winter began. In particular, thin snow cover in some Western states is raising concerns that the drought’s impacts in some of the hardest-hit regions will only get worse when temperatures… Read More
Energy, Water, Land Intertwined & Threatened, Says Report
Water resources, energy and land use are so mutually dependent that climate-related disruptions to any one of them could lead to economically devastating ripple effects — especially as a growing population puts increasing strains on all three. That’s one conclusion of a recent report issued by a federal advisory committee charged with assessing how… Read More
Southwest Faces Looming Threats From Climate Change
The American Southwest, which is already the hottest and driest region of the nation, is likely to become even hotter and drier in the next few decades thanks in part to the ongoing effects of human-generated greenhouse gases. That’s the verdict of the draft National Climate Assessment report, the product of a federal advisory committee charged … Read More
