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
‘Doomsday’ seed vault entrance repaired after thaw of Arctic ice
Last five years were hottest on record
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
Ignoring Trump, UN talks seek to turn climate pledges into action
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
Arctic sea ice retreat pinned to individuals’ emissions-study
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,
Man-made warming dates back almost 200 years, study says
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
After scorching heat, Earth likely to get respite in 2017
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
Doomsday Vault keepers move to lock up more funding
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,
Vital to food output, pollinators face rising risk
A new global study explores the concerns over pesticides and loss of habitat
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
Syrian war spurs first withdrawal from doomsday seed vault
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
Tiny number of bees account for most crop pollination, study finds
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
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
