Never mind that East Africa is reeling from drought and famine, if you’re with Greenpeace and you have an anti-GMO tic, this is what you worry about: Olivia Langhof of Greenpeace Africa, based in Johannesburg, echoes the concerns of other critics in saying that even in the face of a dire need to feed human beings,…Continue Reading…
Drought by area impacted is worst ever–though majority of US still drought free From the Dept of Silver Linings
This nuanced statement by Tom Kenworthy, a former reporter, was spot on until the very end (my emphasis): The reasons that the desert Southwest is having another extreme fire season are complex. They include decades of poor forestry and livestock grazing practices, misguided federal firefighting efforts that have prevented low-intensity fires in Ponderosa pine forests…Continue Reading…
A few weeks ago, I mused that the American Southwest may be on borrowed time. Forget that. The Southwest is toast. A new paper in Nature spells doom. From the abstract: The potential for increased drought frequency and severity linked to anthropogenic climate change in the semi-arid regions of the southwestern United States is a…Continue Reading…
Drought, like global warming, is a slow motion event that humans can’t get seem to get ahead of. Or properly grasp. For a good historical case study examining how the Maya, the Vikings, and the U.S. (in the lead-up to the Dust Bowl) each responded to drought, see this paper by Ben Orlove, who observes:…Continue Reading…
This article by Roger Webster, a South African historian, is intriguing on several levels. I was drawn in by this opening: One of the many aspects of history and archaeology that fascinates me is that, in many respects, archaeology becomes the verifier, or the destroyer, of history. Be sure to read it all the way…Continue Reading…
The indispensable Jeffrey Gettleman has a heart-wrenching dispatch on Dot Earth: We walked through a camp for displaced people, absorbing the human wreckage all around us. There were stick-skinny children with horrible, rattling coughs that sounded like an old Chevy Nova trying to start up on a cold morning. Emaciated goats snacked on piles of…Continue Reading…
The tragedy of Kenya’s latest drought is captured in all its complexity by Jeffrey Gettleman. His deeply contextual story won’t lend itself to climate advocates who’d probably like nothing better than to tag it as another cautionary tale of global warming. As Gettleman explains, The aid community here has been predicting a disaster for months,…Continue Reading…
Turkey is playing a high-stakes game with Iraq, using water to advance its national security interests. Will Rogers at the Natural Security blog has nicely sized up this fascinating new wrinkle–yet another example of the emerging nexus between between international relations and environmental resources: If Turkey is successful in getting Iraq to crack down on…Continue Reading…
The dominant framing of the water/drought issue in California is quite similar to that of the emerging climate change/developing world meme. In California, drought is simplistically blamed for the state’s water woes and economic plight of farmers. Similarly, venerable authorities claim that climate change is responsible for 300,000 annual deaths and much misery in developing…Continue Reading…