2008 – Page 160 – Rising Tide North America

Climate Change, Gardening, and Eco-Restoration

By postMigrator May 4, 2008 May 4, 2008 Uncategorized

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“If you are planting long-lived plants like trees then you might want
to choose a species that can cope with hotter, drier, summers and
warmer, wetter, winters,” said Vicky Pope, the Met Office’s head of
climate change. The decision to take the message to gardeners
reflects concern among researchers that the public has still not
understood the threat of climate change.”
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Times Online
From The Sunday Times
May 4, 2008

Park the mower: climate change to kill off lawns
Jonathan Leake, Environment Editor

THE Met Office is to warn gardeners to plan for a
warmer climate by cultivating drought-tolerant
plants such as palms, olives and Mediterranean
herbs and to resign themselves to the death of
the traditional lawn.

It believes this year will be one of the hottest on record.

China Logs, Mines, and Farms the World

By postMigrator May 4, 2008 May 4, 2008 RT Newswire

International Herald Tribune

China farms the world to feed a ravenous economy

The Associated Press
Sunday, May 4, 2008
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/04/asia/AS-FEA-GEN-China-Farming-the-World.php

CHALEUNSOUK, Laos: The rice fields that blanketed
this remote mountain village for generations are
gone. In their place rise neat rows of young
rubber trees – their sap destined for China.

All 60 families in this dirt-poor, mud-caked
village of gaunt men and hunched women are now
growing rubber, like thousands of others across
the rugged mountains of northern Laos. They hope
in coming years to reap huge profits from the
tremendous demand for rubber just across the
frontier in China.

As Beijing scrambles to feed its galloping
economy, it has already scoured the world for
mining and logging concessions. Now it is turning
to crops to feed its people and industries.
Chinese enterprises are snapping up vast tracts
of land abroad and forging contract farming deals.

Climate Change and Global Food Production

By postMigrator May 4, 2008 May 4, 2008 RT Newswire

Farmers face climate challenge in quest for more food
Sun May 4, 2008 4:10am EDT By David Fogarty

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – If farmers think they have a tough time producing enough rice, wheat and other grain crops, global warming is going to present a whole new world of challenges in the race to produce more food, scientists say.

In a warmer world beset by greater extremes of droughts and floods, farmers will have to change crop management practices, grow tougher plant varieties and be prepared for constant change in the way they operate, scientists say.

“There certainly are going to be lots of challenges in the future. Temperature is one of them, water is another,” said Lisa Ainsworth, a molecular biologist with the United States Department of Agriculture.

Tropical Cyclone Punds Mayanmar; Over 350 Dead

By postMigrator May 4, 2008 May 4, 2008 RT Newswire

-Over 350 dead as cyclone pounds Myanmar
Sun May 4, 2008 4:00pm EDT
Cyclone devastates Myanmar

Myanmar damage will take days to assess: U.N.
3:48am EDT By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) – A cyclone killed more than 350 people in military-ruled Myanmar, ripping through Yangon and the Irrawaddy delta where it flattened at least two towns, officials and state media said on Sunday.

The death toll is likely to climb as the authorities manage to contact outlying islands and villages that felt the full force of Cyclone Nagris, a Category 3 storm packing winds of 120 miles per hour when it hit early on Saturday.

State television, which was still off air in Yangon more than 36 hours after Nagris slammed into the city of 5 million, reported 20,000 homes destroyed on one island alone, a government official in the remote capital, Naypyidaw, said.