The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.
Rachel Carson
(via iandmyamandalee)
Source: greenpeace
12 Ways To Combat Drought’s Effect On Food Prices
Think food prices are painfully high? Wait a few weeks. The U.S. Drought Monitor reports that 88 percent of this year’s corn crop and 77 percent of the soybean crop are now affected by the most severe drought since 1988.
Corn is currently selling at around $9 a bushel, a 50 percent increase from June, while soybeans are selling at a record high of $17 a bushel as a result of drought-related losses in crop yields. Nearly half of all domestic corn production is used as livestock feed, a trend that is now encouraging larger livestock producers to import corn from Brazil while smaller farmers must reduce herd sizes by sending more animals to the market. Most immediately, poultry prices are expected to rise 3.5 to 4.5 percent due to the animals’ more rapid growth and therefore more sudden response to higher feed prices. The price of beef is projected to rise the highest — 4 to 5 percent by November — but at a slower rate, reflecting the longer growth period and higher feed requirements of beef cattle.
“The increased prices may benefit farmers in the short run,” said Danielle Nierenberg, director of the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet project, ”but consumers will experience the aftermath of price increases in the form of more money spent on poultry, beef, pork, and dairy products.”
But according to the researchers at Worldwatch, it doesn’t have to be this way. The Project highlights 12 agricultural innovations that can help make U.S. and global agriculture more drought resilient, as well as sustainable. What do you think of this list? And more importantly, do you think the U.S. will implement even one of these ideas on a large enough scale to save our food system?
1. Agroforestry: Planting trees in and around farms reduces soil erosion by providing a natural barrier against strong winds and rainfall. Tree roots also stabilize and nourish soils. The 1990 Farm Bill established the USDA National Agroforestry Center with the expressed aim of encouraging farmers to grow trees as windbreaks or as part of combined forage and livestock production, among other uses.
Here are 7 diseases that are getting a helping hand from climate change. Happy Monday!
oh yeah: all those diseases that can only thrive in the tropics, AKA the worst diseases on the planet (think: Ebola), are going to be spreading as the temperature rises…
Help the earth and progressive non-profits. Recycle your phone.
Each year, millions of old mobile phones are replaced. Many end up polluting our landfills with toxic chemicals. That’s why we’ve teamed up with our new phone recycling partner, Eco-Cell, to make it easy for you to recycle your old phones and accessories.
It’s fast an easy:
- Wrap your old phone and any accessories you no longer need in newspaper or bubble wrap.
- Seal the items in the recycling envelope included with your CREDO phone. Don’t have the envelope? Simply print a prepaid label and attach it to your own packaging.
- Drop the package in the mail.
Shocking Forecast: A Century-Long Megadrought
The Insurance Bureau of Canada’s (IBC) new study warns Canadians “the frequency and severity of severe weather is on the rise,” and we had better prepare for it. “Telling the Weather Story” confirms the recent landslides, fires and drought are becoming the new norm.
Another study, this one published by Nature Geoscience, confirms the prediction. A team of Canadian and American scientists studied the drought of 2000 to 2004 and found it was the worst since the one that lasted from 1146 to 1151. They warn a “megadrought” could parch the planet through the entire 21st century.
Insurers have been hit hard by the impacts of catastrophic events. IBC reports insured losses internationally reached $10 billion to $50 billion a year over the past decade and exceeding $100 billion in 2011. In Canada alone insurers were on the hook for roughly $1.6 billion in 2011 and close to $1 billion annually in the previous two years. Aging infrastructure contributed to the losses, as older sewer systems are unable to handle the increased precipitation.
Cyborgs, Sewers, and the Sensing City | Sustainable Cities Collective
Cities have long been seen as the antithesis – or, at least, the absence – of nature. Yet in recent years, environmentalists started rethinking their long-held prejudices against urban areas. The rise of neighborhood-based environmental justice movements, beginning in the 1980’s, forced us to confront the human side of pollution and its relationship to urban poverty. The evolution of green building standards and advances in sustainable design helped us imagine an environmentally enlightened future for our offices and homes. The growing number of city-dwellers across the planet may have played the biggest role in our shifting perceptions of cities and nature. Moving “back to the land” and “living off the grid” could never be a tenable option for three and a half billion people. The result would end up closer to an explosion in suburban sprawl than a no-impact return to simpler times. Like it or not, we’ve realized that cities will have to figure into our schemes for a sustainable planet.
The poop on dog poop and the environment.
Infographic: Dog poop, our overlooked environmental hazard
that’s a lot of poop
Source: mothernaturenetwork
