drought

hydropower in China

Reuters reports that China’s environmental ministry has okayed the construction of a new hydroelectric dam on the Dadu River in the Sichuan province, which when completed will be the country’s largest.[read more]

Nasa Climate projection video

In response to carbon dioxide-induced warming, the global water cycle undergoes a gigantic competition for moisture resulting in a global pattern of increased heavy rain, decreased moderate rain, and prolonged droughts.[read more]

wildfires

Wildfires in the U.S. will be at least twice as destructive by 2050, burning around 20 million acres nationwide each year, according to a federal report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.[read more]

US drought

Seasonal water supply projections indicate worsening drought conditions across the western half of the US. Farmers and ranchers need to have drought management plans in place.[read more]

Photo by Lars Plougmann via Flickr

It was bound to happen. As long as US corn output continued to climb year after year, the federal mandate to blend steadily increasing quantities of ethanol into gasoline could be accommodated without creating a shortage of this staple grain. Unfortunately, crops are subject to all sorts of uncertainties, including the severe...[read more]

"A Great Aridness:  Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest", the recent book written by William deBuys, is getting some attention. The NYTimes summed up the book by quoting the author:  "The story of the West is essentially a story about water".  The reporter paused then quoted deBuys again:  "and its...[read more]

A new EPA web tool documents global warming pollution from about 6,700 facilities across the United States, filling a critical gap in the public's right to know about pollution. Polluters have been required to report on toxic chemical emissions for years, but in 2010, for the first time, big industrial polluters were asked to provide...[read more]

While candidates on the GOP campaign trail continue to pretend climate change doesn’t exist, communities across the nation are already being pummeled by a hallmark of climate change: extreme weather events. A new extreme weather mapping web tool produced by NRDC maps out more than 2,900 record-breaking events that took place in 20011....[read more]

This guest post, from Heather Libby in Durban, South Africa, provides a window in thinking as to the gap between the negotiating halls and people suffering from climate chaos a few miles away, the gap between putting happy faces on a problem and choosing to address climate change in a way to reduce its catastrophic impacts....[read more]

 “The drought conditions should sure that have plagued farmers this growing season have taken a toll on the area’s peanut crop. Withered blooms, burned pods and few undeveloped peanuts define this year’s peanut crop for many area farmers.” (Photo/Jaine Treadwell) First, we heard that climate change could decimate the chocolate...[read more]

John Nielsen-Gammon, our Texas State climatologist came up with this scary image that most of you have seen, and that everyone in Texas ought to take a good long look at. I was one of the first to reproduce it, but I've seen in lots of places since, and with good reason.[read more]

A massive dust storm has swept into the Phoenix area and drastically reduced visibility across the valley. The wall of dust moved across the desert from the south on Tuesday and descended on the valley by nightfall. KSAZ-TV reported the storm appeared to be roughly 50 miles wide. A 2-mile high, 50-mile wide Dust Storm enveloped Phoenix...[read more]

This blog before noted that over the last decade the Southwest U.S. has suffered the sharpest temperature increase on the continent. Brad Johnson now reports on a dust storm up to 50 miles wide and a mile high that “descended on the Phoenix area. “We heard from a lot of people who lived here for a number of storms and this was...[read more]

When The Water Ends: Africa’s Climate Conflicts: For thousands of years, nomadic herdsmen have roamed the harsh, semi-arid lowlands that stretch across 80 percent of Kenya and 60 percent of Ethiopia. Descendants of the oldest tribal societies in the world, they survive thanks to the animals they raise and the crops they grow, their...[read more]

Probably the hardest single category of concepts to communicate in energy and enviro issues involve the interconnected nature of the Earth System. The primary example of this is the energy water nexus, something I’ve written about numerous times, because I’m convinced it’s a gigantic problem and is also still poorly understood by many...[read more]