climate change

Unlike other countries, including the United States, Australia does not provide subsidized insurance against drought. A newly released study, commissioned by the state of New South Wales after three years of drought across the nation's East coast, rejected any change in policy, says Reuters.

More than 60 million people worldwide, including 40 million in eastern and southern Africa, are at risk of hunger due to the El Niño weather pattern that is now waning, said leaders of three UN agencies.

Tea plants around the world are getting too much rain, says Eater. The excessive precipitation is lowering the number of secondary metabolites they produce—the chemicals responsible for caffeine, antioxidants and flavor .

The 15 nations of the Caribbean, an array of islands and coastal nations, experiences drought-like weather every year and can expect droughts to be increasingly frequent and intense due to climate change, says an FAO report. "Agriculture is the most likely sector to be impacted, with serious economic and social consequences," said the UN agency.

With lucrative species like clams and lobsters moving northward to find cooler waters, climate change could be the final blow for East Coast fishermen, says The Associated Press. The industry has already been battered by overfishing, pollution, regulations, and foreign competition, but climate change is another level of challenge altogether.

It’s no secret that good compost improves soil, but many urban juice joints don’t bother getting licenses to cart their leftover peels and pulp to local composters, either because it’s too expensive or because the scraps are too “wet and heavy” to be useful, says FERN contributing editor Elizabeth Royte in Modern Farmer.

The author of a UN report on food production and the environment says governments should tax meat production to slow the global rise in consumption and the accompanying environmental damage, says the Guardian. "If we are all to copy-cat the way in which we feed ourselves in North America or Europe, the planet would be in deep trouble," said Maarten Hajer, a member of the International Resource Panel.

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology says one of the strongest El Niño weather patterns in history is over, and it gives a 50-percent chance that a La Niña pattern will be upon us by the end of this year, reports the Financial Times. La Niña "typically brings cooler and wetter conditions in the Pacific and more storms in Europe and the United States."

For the first time, scientists have found methane-producing microbes living near the earth's surface, rather than in volcanic vents in the ocean floor, says the American Geophysical Union. The study "also shows the newly-discovered microbes are likely capable of using carbon dioxide to produce methane — a finding that could have implications for future carbon sequestration projects."

Scientists say that antibiotics in cattle "boost methane production in cow pats — apparently by favoring antibiotic-resistant, methane-producing organisms in the gut," says the BBC. "The researchers say it’s proof that antibiotic use on farms has unintended, cascading effects on the environment."

A report by the United Nations Environment Program says drought and higher temperatures, forecast as part of climate change, can trigger a build-up in crops of chemical compounds that are toxic to animals and humans. Nitrates can accumulate to dangerous levels in grain during drought, while carcinogenic fungal aflatoixins are expected to become an increasing risk in higher latitudes as average temperatures rise.

Farms outweigh all other human sources of fine-particulate air pollution in much of the United States, Europe, Russia and China, says a study by the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

Feeding cows oregano oil may help cut back on their methane-laced belching, says NPR. Bovine belching accounts for one third of global methane emissions, and methane is 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a $72.3 million allocation within the cost-sharing Environmental Quality Incentive Program for activities that boost carbon storage in healthy soil. Vilsack unveiled the initiative during a one-year review of USDA's Climate Smart program to help meet U.S. pledges to mitigate climate change.

Vast swathes of coffee-growing territory in Central and South America may become too hot for the comfort of coffee trees in coming decades, thanks to global warming, says Eater, warning "coffee is under threat."

In FERN’s latest story, published with Switchyard Magazine, reporter Robert Kunzig takes us to the upper Mississippi River Delta, where the idea of growing more fruits and vegetables — to ease the burden on California in the climate-change era — is taking root.