climate change

Once hunted as nuisances, beavers "are being welcomed into the landscape as a defense against the withering effects of a warmer and drier climate" in the U.S. West, says the New York Times.

Milk production at the average U.S. dairy farm could fall by as much as 1.4 percent due to the addition heat stress on dairy cows from global warming in 2030 when temperatures could be 2 degrees Fahrenheit higher, says an Agriculture Department study.

"There is no greater challenge" than climate change to the chore of growing enough food to feed a world population forecast to reach 9 billion in 35 years, say Obama administration officials. "Feeding them will require at least a 60 percent increase in agricultural production," say the officials - Secretary of State John Kerry, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and USAID chief Rajiv Shah - in a USDA blog that marks the launch of the Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture.

President Obama announced a series of U.S. steps to spur global efforts to slow climate change and to assist adaptation to it, including in food production. In a speech at the United Nations, Obama said the United States will take part in a dozen climate change partnerships being launched this week. In a fact sheet, the administration said "we continue to press the scientific and economic case for strong climate action."

The period of peak tornado activity in the southern and central Plains occurs up to two weeks earlier than it did 60 years ago, says a study by Montana State University. The authors of the study say documentation of the shift could help residents of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and northern Texas prepare for the destructive storms. Peak activity in "Tornado Alley" runs from early May to early July. That's seven days earlier than in the mid-1950s. Aside from Nebraska, the shift was nearly two weeks.

A National Audubon Society report says shrinking and shifting habitats due to climate change could imperil 314 species of birds, half of the species in the United States. Endangered species range from the bald eagle and the osprey to the common loon and ruffled grouse. The report is based on annual bird counts and scenarios of a warmer climate on bird ranges. The study looked at 588 North American species. "Our models indicate that 314 species will lose more than 50 percent of their current climatic range by 2080," says Audubon.

The chances of the U.S. Southwest suffering a decade-long drought are at least 50 percent, thanks to climate change, says a team of researchers.

The World Bank's special envoy on climate change says global warming could disrupt the food system "potentially within the next decade," said the Sydney Morning Herald.

The Lovin' Spoonful song, which appropriately hit No 1 on Billboard in August 1966, irresistibly comes to mind while perusing the "Summer in the City: Hot and getting hotter" report from Climate Central.

The world's largest cereal maker, Kellogg Co, said it will reduce energy and greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2020 to combat climate change.

Farm leaders in Ohio say producers have worked for years to reduce their use of fertilizer and to reduce runoff through using no-till cultivation and planting filter strips near waterways, says AgWeb.

During a speech to the U.S.-Africa Business Forum, President Obama summarized $33 billion in new investment in the continent and said stable societies with forward-looking governments would be the foundation for economic growth.

The administration will hold four workshops in the coming week with a focus on helping the farm sector prepare for climate change and build its resilience to the hotter weather and more intense storms that are forecast.

Satellite images show California turning brown from its three-year drought, says Weather.com, which posted pictures taken by NASA's Aqua satellite in mid-2011 and this summer. "In the animated image, California's Central Valley appears to have lost much of its plant life, as the green portion in the middle of the image has thinned in the last three years.

A White House report from the Council of Economic Advisors says that delaying action on climate change becomes increasingly expensive as time passes. The report says a meta-analysis of 16 studies found that total mitigation costs rise by 40 percent for each decade of delay.

The odds of a production slowdown for corn and wheat over the next two decades are 20 times higher with climate change than without, say researchers from Stanford University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Research into the grain, water and other material needed to produce food says that eating beef is 10 times more costly to the environment as other food derived from animals, such as pork or poultry, says the Weizmann Institute of Science, based in Israel. "Cattle require on average 28 times more land and 11 times more irrigation water, are responsible for releasing 5 times more greenhouse gases, and consume 6 times as much nitrogen, as eggs or poultry," says the Institute in a statement.

President Obama announced a series of steps to help states and communities prepare for climate change and to speed recovery from storms and other adverse impacts. The steps range from three-dimensional mapping of the country as a way to deal with flooding to funds for management of coastal zones. The package included $236.3 million to improve the rural electric infrastructure in eight states.