Reading Time: 2 minutes 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 […] Read more
‘Doomsday’ seed vault entrance repaired after thaw of Arctic ice
Is climate change making leaf diseases worse?
Durum quality took a beating last year, and climate change could see more of the same
Reading Time: 3 minutes It is difficult — even impossible — to define the precise relationship between climate change and disease incidence and severity in Western Canada. But new research from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Swift Current Research and Development Centre is contributing a few pieces to the puzzle. Research scientist Myriam Fernandez says breeding for resistance to the […] Read more
Last five years were hottest on record
Reading Time: 2 minutes 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 […] Read more
California to limit pollutants from diesel exhaust to cow gas
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — California on Monday moved to restrict air pollutants from sources as diverse as diesel trucks and cow flatulence, the latest of several efforts in the most populous U.S. state to reduce emissions leading to climate change. Under a bill signed Monday by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, the state will cut emissions of methane […] Read more
Man-made warming dates back almost 200 years, study says
Reading Time: 2 minutes 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 […] Read more
After scorching heat, Earth likely to get respite in 2017
Reading Time: 2 minutes 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 […] Read more
Okanagan producers adopt climate adaptation strategy
Reading Time: 2 minutes Agricultural producers and local governments in the Okanagan region are getting ready for the possibility of hotter, drier summers and different pest pressures under climate change. The B.C. Agriculture and Food Climate Action Initiative (CAI) brought agricultural producers together with local governments and provincial agencies to identify collaborative solutions and actions to adapt to the […] Read more
Globalized economy seen more susceptible to weather extremes
Reading Time: 3 minutes Barcelona | Thomson Reuters Foundation — The globalization of the world’s economy this century has made it far more vulnerable to the impacts of extreme weather, including heat stress on workers, scientists said Friday. A study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Columbia University showed production losses caused by high temperatures, predicted […] Read more
Stocking rates key to climate change adjustment
Low defoliation rates and leaving lots of litter are best for coping with weather variations from year to year
Reading Time: 4 minutes Fast and hard? Slow and easy? And how many animals per acre? Stocking and defoliation rates are a complex and even controversial issue, and depend a lot on the weather. Climate change could make them even more complex. To get a better idea on how producers should respond, Edward Bork and a team from the […] Read more
Growing concerns for a world in flux
In Central America, where so many Canadian farmers vacation in winter, a changing climate means its farmers need more than tourist dollars
Reading Time: 9 minutes Trenia Arana speaks of the knot she feels in the back of her neck, caused by the tension of trying to figure out what to do about her family’s situation in the midst of a drought dragging through its second year in western Nicaragua. For the past decade, Arana has been farming full time, but […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
