Agriculture

05/12/24
Author: 
Heather Stewart
Arabica coffee beans, orange crops and olive oil are among the foodstuffs affected by climate-induced price increases. Photograph: Enrico Mantegazza/Alamy

Dec. 1, 2024

Policymakers must act as extreme weather events put more pressure on food inflation and production worldwide

Your morning – and afternoon – coffee is the latest staple threatened by climate chaos: the price of quality arabica beans shot to its highest level in almost 50 years last week amid fears of a poor harvest in Brazil.

13/11/24
Author: 
Andrew Kurjata
The Site C dam pictured on Wednesday. (B.C. Hydro)

Nov. 8, 2024

Generating power but flooding land loved by locals

After 11 weeks, the Site C dam reservoir in northeastern B.C. is now fully filled.

B.C. Hydro announced the process was complete on Nov. 7, having started in August.

One electricity generating unit has already started feeding into B.C.'s power grid, and another five are set to come online between now and the fall of 2025, increasing the province's power production capacity by an estimated eight per cent.

23/10/24
Author: 
Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, Edited by Chris McDermott
A woman from the Maasai tribe collects water in Kenya, Africa to carry back to the village. hadynyah / E+ / Getty Images

Oct. 18, 2024

If there is one natural resource that all life on Earth depends on, it’s water.

18/10/24
Author: 
Fiona Harvey Environment editor
A child drinks from a plastic container in Gaza. More than 2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water. Photograph: Abed Zagout/Anadolu via Getty Images

Oct. 16, 2024

Landmark review says urgent action needed to conserve resources and save ecosystems that supply fresh water

More than half the world’s food production will be at risk of failure within the next 25 years as a rapidly accelerating water crisis grips the planet, unless urgent action is taken to conserve water resources and end the destruction of the ecosystems on which our fresh water depends, experts have warned in a landmark review.

13/10/24
Author: 
Frances Vinall and Allyson Chiu
A male Guam kingfisher is seen in an enclosure at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita. The species is native to Guam, but an invasive snake has made the bird endangered. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Oct. 9. 2024

The Living Planet Index tracks thousands of vertebrate species globally and found the worst declines were in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Earth’s wildlife populations have fallen on average by a “catastrophic” rate of 73 percent in the past half-century, according to a new analysis the World Wildlife Fund released Wednesday.

13/09/24
Author: 
Climate and Capitalism
Methane emissions

Sept. 10, 2024

Atmospheric concentrations of methane are now the highest they’ve been for at least 800,000 years

The Global Methane Budget 2024 shows a 20 per cent increase in methane emissions from human activities in the past two decades.

07/09/24
Author: 
Edward Carver
Bats fly above a road in California. (Photo: Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Sept. 6, 2024

Experts hailed the study as "groundbreaking" and "sobering" for the connections it draws between ecosystem and human health.

Bat die-offs in the U.S. led to increased use of insecticides, which in turn led to greater infant mortality, according to a "seminal" study published Thursday that shows the effects of biodiversity loss on human beings.

22/08/24
Author: 
Raluca Besliu, Katharina Wecker
worker in greenhouse - Copyright Raluca Besliu/Katharina Wecker

Aug. 18, 2024

Europe’s seeds being privatised by patents - and it could threaten food security

A silent battle is brewing over the control of our food supply's very foundation: seeds.

Europe has one of the most diverse seed industries in the world. In Germany, the Netherlands and France alone, hundreds of small breeders are creating new varieties of cereals, vegetables and legumes. 

13/08/24
Author: 
Rosa Saba
A head of wheat is silhouetted by the sun in a wheat crop near Cremona, Alta., on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. File photo by The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

Aug. 12,2024

Extreme weather events like fires, floods, heat waves and droughts pose an increasing risk to Canada’s food supply chain, putting pressure on prices all the way to the grocery store shelf, say experts.

“Anytime you have major weather-related events, it tends to increase costs,” said Frank Scali, vice-president of industry affairs at Food, Health & Consumer Products Of Canada. 

21/07/24
Author: 
Marty Hart-Landsberg
STOP -  heat danger

July 21, 2024

We are in real trouble. Global carbon dioxide emissions (the main cause of global warming) continue to rise, hitting a new high in 2023. Last year was also the hottest in recorded history and, year by year, more Americans are feeling the consequences. Yet, we have seen only modest attempts to bring emissions down.

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