London and climate change
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Chronic Arsenic Poisoning:BANGLADESH
Arsenic poisoning has emerged as a fresh blow to Bangladesh, a country of 130 million population, known as a land of frequent natural calamities. Recent surveys showed that about 80 million people of the country are living under the risk of Arsenic poisoning as the groundwater of a vast region contaminated with Arsenic the Arsenic pollution is not only causing serious health hazard to the people, but also affecting the environment and creating social problems.
Arsenic poisoning was first detected in Bangladesh in 1993 by the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE). But the fact remained behind the screen till 1996. According to the latest surveys conducted at both Government levels, at least 53 out of the total 64 districts of Bangladesh are affected with Arsenic pollution
Friday, 27 March 2009
Thirst refusal | Environment | The Guardian
The destruction of nearly 182,000 hectares (450,000 acres) and the displacement of a million people by the worst Californian fire-storms in decades are focusing attention on what may, over the next 50 years, become the most pressing environmental issue in the US - the south-western states are drying up.
Diary: Colorado River drought
The south-western US is suffering its eighth consecutive year of drought. There are concerns that the Colorado River, which has sustained life in the area for thousands of years, can no longer meet the needs of the tens of millions of people living in major cities such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
The BBC's Matthew Price is travelling along the river to investigate the scale of the problem and is sending a series of diary items from there.
BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Ethiopia dam: Background
The Gibe III dam is under construction on the Omo River, approximately 300km southwest of Addis Ababa. It is the third in a series of cascading hydroelectric projects in the region.The first, the Gilgel Gibe dam (also called Gibe I), was completed north of the Gibe III dam site in 2004. The Gibe II project is a power plant associated with the Gibe I dam that is still under construction. The new Gibe III dam is expected to produce 6500 GWh of energy a year, and surplus energy is expected to create 300 million euros (£282m; $407m) in revenue, according to the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), the sole provider of power in Ethiopia. Ethiopia's neighbours, such as Djibouti, Yemen, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Egypt, would all be in a position to purchase the excess energy.
Acute Water Shortage May Cause Beijing Exodus
Chinese officials may be forced to resettle some of Beijing’s new arrivals over the next 5 to 10 years due to a population boom that accompanied both a rapid economic expansion and a decade-long stretch of yearly droughts. Probe International, an independent environmental advocacy group, advised Chinese officials that Beijing faces economic collapse as the capital begins to run out of water during that period.
The official Xinhua news agency reports that Beijing and the surrounding region have suffered drought every year since 1999. To deal with the changing climate, the country is building a multibillion-dollar scheme known as the North-South Water Diversion Project. Xinhua says that once completed, the project will divert one billion cubic yards of water to Beijing annually, mostly from the Yangtze River.
About 40 prcent of the water Beijing uses each year is normally extracted from the Miyun reservoir, an hour and half drive north of the capital. But the water stored behind its dam is now clearly depleated by a decade of drought.
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Mexican Border
A recently constructed section of the controversial US-Mexico border fence expansion project crosses previously pristine desert sands at sunrise on March 14, 2009 between Yuma, Arizona and Calexico, California. The new barrier between the US and Mexico stands 15 feet tall and sits on top of the sand so it can lifted by a machine and repositioned whenever the migrating desert dunes begin to bury it. The almost seven miles of floating fence cost about $6 million per mile to build.
A Mexican soldier walks near a U.S.-Mexico border crossing in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
Monday, 23 March 2009
Sunday, 22 March 2009
AQUASTAT - FAO's Information System on Water and Agriculture
The information system consists of:
Databases - The AQUASTAT main country database; Databases on African dams, on institutions, on river sediment yields, and on investment costs in irrigation
Countries and regions - Standardized text by country and by region on the state of water resources and agricultural water use
Climate information tool - A tool to provide climate estimates for the land surface of the globe
Water resources - Review of the statistics of renewable water resources by country
Agricultural water use - Review of agricultural water use by country
Global irrigation map - Global map of irrigated areas, which is a spatial dataset on areas equipped for irrigation
Maps and tables - A selection of downloadable maps and datasets on water and agriculture
AQUASTAT - FAO's Information System on Water and Agriculture
Circle of Blue | WaterNews
Circle of Blue is the international network of leading journalists, scientists and communications design experts that reports and presents the information necessary to respond to the global freshwater crisis. It is a nonprofit affiliate of the internationally recognized water, climate and policy think tank, the Pacific Institute.
Water themes and data — EEA
Clean fresh water is essential to life. Unfortunately, since the Industrial Revolution, most of Europe's rivers have been treated unwisely as a convenient way of transporting waste to the sea, affecting the biodiversity of thousands of kilometers of waterways, harming human health, and in the end polluting coastal and marine waters.
Thursday, 19 March 2009
DROUGHT
The countries that make up two thirds of the world’s agricultural output are experiencing drought conditions. Whether you watch a video of the drought in China, Australia, Africa, South America, or the US, the scene will be the same: misery, ruined crop, and dying cattle.
China
The drought in Northern China, the worst in 50 years, is worsening, and summer harvest is now threatened. The area of affected crops has expanded to 161 million mu (was 141 million last week), and 4.37 million people and 2.1 million livestock are facing drinking water shortage. The scarcity of rain in some parts of the north and central provinces is the worst in recorded history.
The drought which started in November threatens over half the wheat crop in eight provinces - Hebei, Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi and Gansu.
Henan China's largest crop producing province, Henan, has issued the highest-level drought warning. Henan has received an average rainfall of 10.5 millimeters since November 2008, almost 80 percent less than in the same period in the previous years. The Henan drought, which began in November, is the most severe since 1951.
Anhui Province issued a red drought alert, with more than 60 percent of the crops north of the Huaihe River plagued by a major drought.
Shanxi Province was put on orange drought alert on Jan. 21, with one million people and 160,000 heads of livestock are facing water shortage.
Jiangsu province has already lost over one fifth of the wheat crops affected by drought. Local agricultural departments are diverting water from nearby rivers in an emergency effort to save the rest.
Hebei Over 100 million cubic meters of water has been channeled in from outside the province to fight Hebei’s drought.
Shaanxi 1.34 million acres of crops across the bone-dry Shanxi province are affected by the worsening drought.
Since last November, Shandong province has experienced 73 percent less rain than the same period in previous years, with little rainfall forecast for the future.
Relief efforts are under way. The Chinese government has allocated 86.7 billion yuan (about $12.69 billion) to drought-hit areas. Authorities have also resorted to cloud-seeding, and some areas received a sprinkling of rain after clouds were hit with 2,392 rockets and 409 cannon shells loaded with chemicals. However, there is a limit to what can be done in the face of such widespread water shortage.
As I have previously written, China is facing hyperinflation, and this record drought will make things worse. China produces 18% of the world's grain each year.
Australia has been experiencing an unrelenting drought since 2004, and 41 percent of Australia's agriculture continues to suffer from the worst drought in 117 years of record-keeping. The drought has been so severe that rivers stopped flowing, lakes turned toxic, and farmers abandoned their land in frustration:
A) The Murray River stopped flowing at its terminal point, and its mouth has closed up.
B) Australia’s lower lakes are evaporating, and they are now a meter (3.2 feet) below sea level. If these lakes evaporate any further, the soil and the mud system below the water is going to be exposed to the air. The mud will then acidify, releasing sulfuric acid and a whole range of heavy metals. After this occurs, those lower lake systems will essentially become a toxic swamp which will never be able to be recovered. The Australian government's only options to prevent this are to allow salt water in, creating a dead sea, or to pray for rain.
The link
provides information on the following locations
The United States California Texas Augusta Region (Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina) Florida
South America Argentina Brazil Paraguay Uruguay Bolivia Chile
Africa faces food shortages and famine. Kenya Tanzania Burundi Uganda South Africa
Middle East and Central Asia Iraq Syria Afghanistan Jordan
Google Image Result for http://www.greatdreams.com/climate/Countries_by_agricultural_drought.png
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