Articles by Alister Doyle | Manitoba Co-operator

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, built in Norway in 2008, is the world’s largest secure seed storage site. (Matthias Heyde photo courtesy Government of Norway via Flickr)

‘Doomsday’ seed vault entrance repaired after thaw of Arctic ice

Oslo | Reuters — Norway is repairing the entrance of a “doomsday” seed vault on an Arctic island after an unexpected thaw of permafrost let water into a building meant as a deep freeze to safeguard the world’s food supplies. The water, limited to the 15-metre entrance hall in the melt late last year, had

Weather

Last five years were hottest on record

By Alister Doyle, GFM Network News November 8, 2016

Morocco/Reuters – The past five years were the hottest on record with mounting evidence that heat waves, floods and rising sea levels are stoked by man-made climate change, the United Nations weather agency said on Tuesday. Some freak weather events would have happened naturally but the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said greenhouse gas emissions had

The Paris Agreement seeks to phase out greenhouse gas emissions this century. Photo: Thinkstock

Weather

Ignoring Trump, UN talks seek to turn climate pledges into action

By Alister Doyle, GFM Network News November 7, 2016

Morocco/Reuters – Almost 200 nations began work on Monday to turn promises for fighting climate change into action at a UN conference that played down threats to a 2015 global agreement if Republican Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidency. At the start of two-week talks in Morocco, many delegates wore badges with a smiling picture

A portion of a melting glacier calves off into the ocean. Photo: Thinkstock

Weather

Arctic sea ice retreat pinned to individuals’ emissions-study

By Alister Doyle, GFM Network News November 7, 2016

Morocco/Reuters – Drive your car 4,000 km and its greenhouse gas emissions will melt three square metres (32 square feet) of ice on the Arctic Ocean, according to a new study that found a direct link between carbon dioxide and the shrinking ice. Examining long-term trends for ice floating on the ocean since the 1950s,

A supercomputer-modeled simulation showing the expected impact of global warming on Earth’s surface temperatures. (Photo courtesy NASA)

Crops, Weather

Man-made warming dates back almost 200 years, study says

By Alister Doyle, GFM Network News August 25, 2016

Oslo | Reuters — Man-made greenhouse gases began to nudge up the Earth’s temperatures almost 200 years ago, as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace, far earlier than previously thought. Greenhouse gas emissions from industry left their first traces in the temperatures of tropical oceans and the Arctic around 1830, researchers wrote in a recent journal

Livestock, Weather

After scorching heat, Earth likely to get respite in 2017

By Alister Doyle, GFM Network News August 17, 2016

Oslo | Reuters — The Earth is likely to get relief in 2017 from record scorching temperatures that bolstered governments’ resolve last year in reaching a deal to combat climate change, scientists said Wednesday. July was the hottest single month since records began in the 19th century, driven by greenhouse gases and an El Nino

Crops

Doomsday Vault keepers move to lock up more funding

By Alister Doyle, GFM Network News April 17, 2016

Oslo | Reuters — The Crop Trust, which runs a so-called doomsday seed vault in the Arctic, secured a doubling of its core funds on Friday and urged the private sector to do more to safeguard commercial food production. Friday’s pledges totalling about $150 million were mainly from governments, including the U.S., Germany and Australia,

An apiarist covers beehives on a truck after his bees completed pollinating a blueberry field near Columbia Falls, Maine in June 2014. Honeybees are estimated to pollinate plants that produce about a quarter of the food consumed by Americans, including apples, watermelons and beans.

News

Vital to food output, pollinators face rising risk

A new global study explores the concerns over pesticides and loss of habitat

By Alister Doyle March 15, 2016

Bees and other pollinators face increasing risks to their survival, threatening foods such as apples, blueberries and coffee worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year, the first global assessment of pollinators showed on Feb. 26. Pesticides, loss of habitats to farms and cities, disease and climate change were among threats to about 20,000 species

Cereals, Crops, Forages

Syrian war spurs first withdrawal from doomsday seed vault

By Alister Doyle, GFM Network News September 21, 2015

Oslo | Reuters –– Syria’s civil war has prompted the first withdrawal of seeds from a “doomsday” vault built in an Arctic mountainside to safeguard global food supplies, officials said Monday. The seeds, including samples of wheat, barley and grasses suited to dry regions, have been requested by researchers elsewhere in the Middle East to

Livestock

Tiny number of bees account for most crop pollination, study finds

By Alister Doyle, GFM Network News June 17, 2015

Oslo | Reuters — Just two per cent of wild bee species do almost 80 per cent of their work in pollinating crops, according to a study on Tuesday that outlined simple measures for farmers to attract star insects to safeguard food production. The international report, based on 90 studies in five continents, said governments

Feed weekly outlook: Drought, demand deplete southern Alberta stocks

U.S. grains: Corn futures pierce eight-year peak

U.S. livestock: Cattle, hog futures rise with wholesale meat prices

GFM Network News

Feed weekly outlook: Drought, demand deplete southern Alberta stocks

U.S. grains: Corn futures pierce eight-year peak

U.S. livestock: Cattle, hog futures rise with wholesale meat prices

Author Archives Alister Doyle

‘Doomsday’ seed vault entrance repaired after thaw of Arctic ice

Last five years were hottest on record

Ignoring Trump, UN talks seek to turn climate pledges into action

Arctic sea ice retreat pinned to individuals’ emissions-study

Man-made warming dates back almost 200 years, study says

After scorching heat, Earth likely to get respite in 2017

Doomsday Vault keepers move to lock up more funding

Vital to food output, pollinators face rising risk

Syrian war spurs first withdrawal from doomsday seed vault

Tiny number of bees account for most crop pollination, study finds

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