Agriculture46
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Climate News Roundup: Week of 3/13
Untapped crop data from Africa predicts corn peril if temperatures rise, EurekAlert, Mar. 13 Stanford agricultural scientist David Lobell and researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center have found that data from 20,000 experimental crop trials in sub-Saharan Africa show a clear negative effect of warming on corn production. Their research indicates that even…
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Why is Your Nitrogen Footprint Important?
While most people today are aware of the importance of reducing their carbon footprint, far fewer understand the harmful effects of nitrogen pollution. Yet many scientists believe that man’s disruption of the natural nitrogen cycle is a potential global tipping point and a serious threat to biodiversity.
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Irrigation Management and Global Water Supply
The Columbia Water Center hosted Marshall English last week to talk about the role crop irrigation plays in water resource planning and problem solving.
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Wild Oysters Deemed ‘Functionally Extinct’
A recent Valentine’s Day-inspired article in the Grist pointed out that oysters are the only delicacy that enhances The Mood and water quality. Don’t get too excited, though: a new study published this week in BioScience revealed that oysters are “functionally extinct” in many parts of the world where they were once abundant, and nothing…
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Finding Answers to the Worsening Water Crisis in Gujarat, India
As explained in a recent blog post, falling groundwater levels in the Northern regions of the state of Gujarat, India, are reaching dramatically dangerous proportions. Columbia Water Center (CWC), however, believes that there are numerous technologies and practices that could save significant amounts of water and energy. Farmers have shown interest in applying them, but…
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Despite Grim Water Futures, China and US Discuss Everything but Water
Notably absent from this week’s program is any planned dialogue regarding energy demand and water supply, two issues whose inverse trajectories are threatening the environmental and economic futures of both nations.
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The Worsening Water Crisis in Gujarat, India
For more than three decades, the farmers in Northern Gujarat State, in India, have produced abundant food crops, and have had a thriving dairy industry. In order to make that happen, they have been using once plentiful underground water resources. Because local aquifers are being replenished more slowly than the water is being withdrawn, groundwater…
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Helping Water Work for Women in Mali
Last month I went to visit our Mali project site with two other Water Center staffers. We visited the village and garden where we worked last year (Koila Markala and Tibibas, respectively) and many other gardens where we hope to work in the future.
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E.P.A. Sued for Trying to Protect the Environment
Early last month, Florida sued the US Environmental Protection Agency in an effort to block new clean water regulations that the agency announced last month and which it plans to begin enforcing in 2012.
By studying thousands of buildings and analyzing their electricity use, Columbia Climate School Dean Alexis Abramson has been able to uncover ways to significantly cut energy consumption and emissions. Watch the Video: “Engineering a Cooler Future Through Smarter Buildings“