Federal climate change report paints grim picture for Midwest - Chicago Tribune

Rising temperatures in the Midwest are projected to be the largest contributing factor to declines in U.S. agricultural productivity, with extreme heat wilting crops and posing a threat to livestock, according to a sweeping federal report on climate change released Friday.

Midwest farmers will be increasingly challenged by warmer, wetter and more humid conditions from climate change, which also will lead to greater incidence of crop disease and more pests and will diminish the quality of stored grain. During the growing season, temperatures are projected to climb more in the Midwest than in any other region of the U.S., the report says.

John Kiefner checks soybean plants on his farm near Manhattan, Ill., on July 24, 2018. Midwest farmers will be increasingly challenged by warmer, wetter and more humid conditions from climate change, according to a federal report released Nov. 23, 2018. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune)

Federal climate change report paints grim picture for Midwest - Chicago Tribune

World's Water Could Become Scarce if the Amazon Rainforest Is Destroyed

The Amazon rainforest is home to 10% of the world’s species, generates 20% of global oxygen, and creates half of its own rain through an intricate water cycle dynamic.

It’s a natural system that’s a world unto itself — and it faces potentially catastrophic levels of deforestation under the new administration of Brazil’s president-elect Jair Bolsonaro, who has vowed to allow industrial interests to have more access to the forest.

If that happens, the effects would be felt far beyond Brazil. In particular, countries around the world could face droughts and water shortages, according to National Geographic.





World's Water Could Become Scarce if the Amazon Rainforest Is Destroyed

The other COP: the plan to save the world’s biodiversity - Unearthed

COP14 opens this week, but these global talks aren't about climate change. Parties to the Global Convention on Biodiversity are meeting in Egypt to prepare for a potential landmark biodiversity deal in two years time.

Aerial views of the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns, Australia. Reefs are facing extinction within a few decades. Photo: Phil Walter/Getty

The other COP: the plan to save the world’s biodiversity - Unearthed

Yards With Non-Native Plants Create ‘Food Deserts’ for Bugs and Birds | Audubon

One reason to plant native plants and not showy gardening varieties - as supported by most garden clubs...Add the support of our struggling pollinators - it becomes a no-brainer...

New research finds that Carolina Chickadees require a landscape with 70 percent native plants to keep their population steady.

A nesting Carolina Chickadee will collect more than 400 caterpillars each day. The bugs are packed with nutrients like carotenoids that growing chicks need to thrive. Photo: Douglas Tallamy


Yards With Non-Native Plants Create ‘Food Deserts’ for Bugs and Birds | Audubon

Stop a Climate-denier from Distorting Our Energy Future! | Help Wildlife, Protect the Environment, Support Nature Conservation, Save the Planet

Last month, Donald Trump nominated Bernard McNamee to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), an independent regulatory body that's meant to ensure reliable and affordable energy for people across the country. But McNamee, a former Trump administration Energy Department official and fossil fuel industry insider, is the wrong person to fill an open seat on the commission charged with being non-partisan on directing our energy future. Next week, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee could vote on McNamee's nomination. We must demand our senators make the right choice for our climate and our communities by rejecting this nomination.







Stop a Climate-denier from Distorting Our Energy Future! | Help Wildlife, Protect the Environment, Support Nature Conservation, Save the Planet

How Extreme Weather Is Shrinking the Planet | The New Yorker

With wildfires, heat waves, and rising sea levels, large tracts of the earth are at risk of becoming uninhabitable. But the fossil-fuel industry continues its assault on the facts.

By Bill McKibben

California is currently ablaze, after a record hot summer and a dry fall set the stage for the most destructive fires in the state’s history. Above: The Woolsey fire, near Los Angeles, seen from the West Hills. Photograph by Kevin Cooley for The New Yorker

How Extreme Weather Is Shrinking the Planet | The New Yorker

Germany Has a Major Dirty Coal, and Climate, Problem | Sierra Club

The Hambach coal mine, largest of its kind in Europe, is ground zero for the German climate movement: The mine produces 44 million tons of lignite coal per year. In terms of carbon emissions, lignite is one the dirtiest fossil fuels. Widely hailed for its “energy transition,” Germany has actually failed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions for nearly a decade, and lignite is one of the biggest reasons. Now activists have resorted to civil disobedience in response to the lack of government climate action.

PHOTO BY MAURICE FRANK

Germany Has a Major Dirty Coal, and Climate, Problem | Sierra Club