droughts

Desert Droughts Shorten Mountain Snow Cover, Reveals Study

A new study by American geologists has indicated that wind blown dust from drought-stricken and disturbed lands in the Southwest can shorten the duration of mountain snow cover hundreds of miles away in the Colorado mountains by roughly a month. The study found that seasonal snow coverage ...

What if New Mexico doesn't address climate change?

... amid prolonged heat waves, significant reductions in precipitation except for northern regions where increases are anticipated and increased seasonal droughts and floods. Hotter weather -- with summer temperatures rising up to 12.6 degrees Fahrenheit over current averages by 2080 -- would increase air-condit...

What if Oregonians decline to address climate change?

...el, not as a recommendation of cost-sharing. Based on the conclusions of three recent international reports, researchers project increased seasonal droughts and floods, higher air-conditioning costs to cope with higher temperatures, higher incidence of climate-associated health problems and deaths, more fr...

UNICEF Ambassador Clay Aiken Visits North-West Somalia

...rmanent central government has contributed to Somalia's status as one of the poorest and most volatile countries in the world. One of the most serious droughts since the 1970s has affected large parts of the country, exacerbating hardships for rural populations. About UNICEF For more than 60 years, UNICEF...

Drew Barrymore Announces US$1 Million Donation on Oprah

...ood prices, increased energy costs, competition between biofuels and food, escalating demand from countries such as China and India, and more frequent droughts and floods are affecting millions of people -- hitting those on the poverty line hardest. A 40 percent rise in commodity prices alone since mid 2007 i...

Rich nations' environmental footprints tread heavily on poor countries

... by the rest of the world," Srinivasan said. Climate change is expected to increase the severity of storms and extreme weather, including prolonged droughts and flooding, with an increase in infectious diseases. Ozone depletion mostly impacts health, with increases expected in cancer rates, cataracts and b...

Live Earth: How Global Warming Became Cool

...ven the backlash against environmentalism in the era of former US president Ronald Reagan. Things changed in 1988, a summer of record heat and droughts in the United States, when James Hansen of the Goddard Institute of Space Studies at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) delivere...

Climatic Change Cause of Dafur Conflict-UN

... Climate change is partly to blame for the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, where droughts have provoked fighting over water sources, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in an editorial published Saturday. "Almost invariably, we...

Global Warming Disaster Closer Than Thought, Says NASA

...ASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. The forecast effects include "increasingly rapid sea-level rise, increased frequency of droughts and floods, and increased stress on wildlife and plants due to rapidly shifting climate zones," according to the NASA announcement. By heraldi...

Asian Business Executives Urged to Be Eco-friendly

... face is "how to factor in climatic change," Steiner said. Looking ahead, he cited the predictability of biofuels. "We are seeing rising waters, droughts and floods chasing each other and diseases," Steiner said. "It can never be too late" to tackle the environmental concerns. A regulatory framewo...

droughts in Biological News

Sequence matters in droughts and floods

When extremes of drought and flood come in rapid succession, the extent of damage to vegetation may depend in part on the sequence of those events, according to a new study published in The American Naturalist . The study, which focused on tree species common to the Everglades in Florida, fou...

Past droughts geographically widespread in the West, according to tree-ring data

When it's dry, it's dry all over, according to a new analysis of more than 400 years of annual streamflow in the Upper Colorado and Salt and Verde river basins. By using data from tree rings, University of Arizona researchers conclude that water supply for those western rivers fluctuated in synch...

MU researchers create drought conditions to unearth solutions

... COLUMBIA, Mo. droughts have devastating effects on farmers. In most of the world, droughts are the leading cause of crop failure. droughts increase consumer costs, kill livestock, reduce cr...

Ozone, nitrogen change the way rising CO2 affects Earth's water

...stem modeler at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. "More runoff could mean more contamination and flooding of our waterways. It could also mean fewer droughts than predicted for some areas and more water available for human consumption and farming. Either way, water resource managers need more accurate runof...

NASA uses satellite to unearth innovation in crop forecasting

... Soil moisture is essential for seeds to germinate and for crops to grow. But record droughts and scorching temperatures in certain parts of the globe in recent years have caused soil to dry up, crippling crop production. The falling food suppl...

WWF study says climate change could displace millions in Asia's Coral Triangle

...se scenario however, communities in the region can expect to experience dramatic losses of coral, rising sea level, increased storm activity, severe droughts and reduced food availability from coastal fisheries. But effective management of coastal resources would mean the communities would remain reasonably...

Better water use could reduce future food crises

...n water can form the basis for a new green revolution. It may also provide the basis for building resilience towards more frequent and intense floods, droughts and dry spells under human-induced climate change. "We show that investments in current technologies and improved green water use can promote more...

Indigenous peoples at world summit to share climate change observations, coping techniques

...pendent solely on rainfall; Kenya: Protracted droughts are killing livestock on which the Samburu People ... economic survival; Nepal: Intense rainfall and droughts have become common, having severe crop effects. ...ed events such as sea level rise and crop-damaging droughts reside in: The Arctic, The Caribbean The ...

Research to secure a safe water supply

...Day on Sunday, 22 March aims to raise public awareness of the increasing scarcity of clean drinking water on our planet. In a densely populated world, droughts and floods are causing more damage than ever before. Helmholtz scientists in the research field Earth and Environment are working on solutions to p...

Amazon carbon sink threatened by drought

...e sensitivity of the Amazon to warming and drought. If repeated, Amazon droughts will accelerate climate warming and make future droughts even more damaging. ...