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China may become top wheat importer after crops ruined

Niu Shuping & Naveen Thukral
Reuters
Tue, 16 Jul 2013 11:41 UTC
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China's wheat crop has suffered more severely than previously thought from frost in the growing period and rain during the harvest, and import demand to compensate for the damage could see the country eclipse Egypt as the world's top buyer.

Interviews with farmers and new estimates from analysts have revealed weather damage in China's northern grain belt could have made as much as 20 million metric tons (22.05 million tons) of the wheat crop, or 16 percent, unfit for human consumption. That would be double the volume previously reported as damaged.

Higher imports, which have already been revised upwards on initial damage reports, will further shrink global supplies and support prices, fuelling new worries over global food security.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday raised its forecast for China's imports in 2013/14 to 8.5 million metric tons from 3.2 million metric tons in the previous year, prompting U.S. wheat prices to rally to more than two-week highs.
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Sun

Heatwave: city centre road melts and wildfires blaze across Britain

Daniel Johnson, Rosa Silverman, and George Ryan
Source
Fri, 19 Jul 2013 09:39 UTC
With wildfires spreading across the country and even some roads melting, the death toll from Britain's heatwave continues to rise.


A 15-year-old boy is thought to have drowned in a river in the latest heatwave water death.

The teenager was airlifted to hospital after the incident in Roe Valley Country Park near Limavady, Northern Ireland, yesterday afternoon, but died in hospital.

It takes the death toll of water-related deaths to 14 since Britain's longest heatwave for seven years began.

According to Public Health England, 650 people died in the hot weather from July 6 to July 14, with more deaths likely to have added to that tally in recent days.
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Cloud Lightning

More heat, drought and floods in 2013 as weather becomes more extreme year after year

Christa Marshall
Scientific American
Fri, 19 Jul 2013 09:10 UTC
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The U.S. government continues to see more extreme weather year after year

Global average temperatures in June were the fifth highest on record, as above-average heat conditions continued a multidecade streak, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported yesterday.

June marked the 340th consecutive month -- a span of time more than 28 years -- that global temperatures surged above the 20th century average, according to the agency.

"The last below-average June temperature was June 1976 and the last below-average temperature for any month was February 1985," NOAA said in a release.

At the same time, it is too early to determine whether the stifling heat wave bringing misery to much of the eastern United States for the past week is unusual.

"This heat wave is still unfolding, so it's kind of hard for us to put it into a perspective of past heat waves," said Jake Crouch, a climatologist at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.
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Sun

Great American drought of 2012-2013 grows for fifth week straight

Christine Stebbins
Scientific American
Thu, 11 Jul 2013 09:03 UTC
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US Drought Map as of July 16, 2013, released by US Drought Monitor on July 18, 2013.
U.S. drought conditions expanded for the fourth week in a row as dryness persisted in the western half of the country, including key crop states of Kansas and Nebraska, while conditions in the South reached their driest in two months, according to a weekly drought report.

In contrast, the eastern half of the United States remained out of drought, given steady summer rains and cool temperatures.

The U.S. Drought Monitor, issued by state and federal experts, said on Thursday that drought areas in the "moderate to exceptional" range reached 44.85 percent, up from 44.06 percent a week ago.

"Dry conditions persisted across most of the southern Great Plains and Lower Mississippi River Valley," the online U.S. Drought Monitor said.

While temperatures there were still generally below normal for the week, they were still warm, it said. "Accordingly, the coverage of drought conditions was increased across the Southern Great Plains."

Comment: Although the above Reuters article describes the drought's growth entering its 4th week, it has since entered its 5th week...

U.S. Drought Expands for 5th Straight Week

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Info

Monsanto gives up on new GM crops grown in EU

Bryan McManus
newsdaily.com
Sat, 20 Jul 2013 07:37 UTC
Faced with widespread concerns in Europe over its genetically modified foods, US agro-chemicals giant Monsanto said Thursday it was giving up on plans to grow new GM crops in the EU, which has held up approval for years.

"We will no longer be pursuing approvals for cultivation of new biotech crops in Europe," Monsanto said, adding that it would now focus on its conventional seeds business.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said it "took note of the decision" by Monsanto which produces a whole stable of GM crops and in wide use in the United States and elsewhere.

In Europe, however, suspicion about the use of GM food products is widespread, with many fearing their use is a health hazard.
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Bizarro Earth

New Zealand shaken by dozens of earthquakes in 24 hour period


The Extinction Protocol
Fri, 19 Jul 2013 10:31 UTC
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© Geonet
This Geonet map shows quake felt reports across New Zealand. Yellow is strong, green is moderate and blue is light.
A 4.3 quake hit the east coast of New Zealand tonight, following a 4.5 magnitude quake in central New Zealand this afternoon, and a 5.7 earthquake that rattled people in Wellington and Blenheim this morning. Geonet reported tonight's quake was 20 km east of Te Araroa, a settlement on the east coast of the north island, near the southern edge of the Bay of Plenty. The quake was 62 km deep and hit at 11.42pm. GeoNet reported this afternoon's was of a "strong" intensity, 35 km east of Seddon, at a depth of 15 km. The quake hit at 3.21pm.

The first quake struck at 9.06 am and was centered 30km east of Seddon, south of Blenheim, at a depth of 8 km. Rated as severe, it turned Wellington office workers white-knuckled as it swayed high-rises in the capital, with buildings also being rocked in Blenheim. The shallow tremor was felt as far away as Christchurch and New Plymouth. In Wellington it was felt as one jolt, gradually picking up in intensity, while those in Blenheim felt two shakes. GeoNet said it received more than 6000 reports after the jolt. It said the fact it struck off the South Island spared the region from its full force, though there were a few reports that it had a damaging intensity.
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Question

Woman recovering after 'vicious' OTTER attack in West Yellowstone, Montana


Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 19 Jul 2013 10:28 UTC
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Shock: Sydney Sainsbury describes the 'terrifying' and 'unprovoked' otter attack
Otters have the popular reputation of being kind, playful and friendly animals, but one Montana woman found to her painful cost that this is not necessarily the case.

Sydney Sainsbury of West Yellowstone was 'viciously' attacked by an otter on July 9, leaving her needing serious medical attention, including an arm brace and eight stitches to her head.

Sainsbury was tubing on the Madison River when she says she saw the animal about 20 feet away. She says that the animal then launched a sudden and unprovoked attack.
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Attention

Rising food prices and social unrest: NECSI report predicts world will reach its food price threshold in August 2013

Keshia Pendigrast
Nourishing The Planet
Wed, 18 Jul 2012 04:33 UTC
Image
© New York Times
A recent report highlights the connection between food price increases and social unrest.
In August 2011, Marco Lagi, Yaneer Bar-Yam, and K.Z Bertrand released a report through the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI). The report, "The Food Crises and Political Instability in North Africa and the Middle East," reveals a link between the background trend of rising global food prices and riots around the globe using data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) Food Price Index.

"When you have food prices that peak, you have all these riots. But look under the peaks, at the background trend. That's increasing quite rapidly, too," said Yaneer Bar-Yam, president of NECSI, in an interview with Wired Science. "In one to two years, the background trend runs into the place where all hell breaks loose."

Social unrest, the NECSI report explained, often reflects severe cases of poverty, unemployment, and injustice. While food prices might not be the primary cause of protests, it provides a platform for populations to revolt.
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Bizarro Earth

'Rainbow cloud' appears in the sky over Wilsonville, Oregon

Janna Sondenaa
Fox12 Oregon/KPTV
Tue, 16 Jul 2013 05:10 UTC
Rainbow Cloud_1
© Fox12 Oregon/KPTV
Did you see a strange rainbow-like cloud in the sky on Friday? You weren't alone. A number of FOX 12 viewers shared their photos of the rainbow cloud. Most of the reports centered in the Wilsonville area.

FOX 12 meteorologist Stephanie Kralevich said it's a fragment of a circumhorizontal arc, which is an optical phenomenon formed by plate-shaped ice crystals in high cirrus clouds. The clouds are common this time of year when the sun is high in the sky and high, thin clouds move by.
Rainbow Cloud_2
© Fox12 Oregon/KPTV
More photos here.
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Bizarro Earth

Major sinkhole forms in Atlanta, Georgia in Cherokee County

John Spink and Cailin O'Brien
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thu, 11 Jul 2013 07:01 UTC
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y residents woke Thursday morning to find a sinkhole that had formed over night on East Cherokee Drive
A water main break in Cherokee County caused a major sinkhole to form under East Cherokee Drive at Holly Springs Road early Thursday morning.

Cherokee County Sheriff spokesman Lt. Jay Baker said that the water main break was called in a little after 2 a.m., on Thursday morning. As deputies closed the road, the asphalt began to sink.

Then the road collapsed.

"Fortunately, we were getting calls about it when water was coming through the road," Baker said. "If it had just happened, it could have been deadly for somebody who drove into it."

The Cherokee County Water and Sewage Authority turned off water for about five houses in the area. Spokesman Dwight Turner said a 20-foot section of PVC pipe had split under East Cherokee Drive, causing water to leak out of the road.

"[The pipe] is probably 30 years old or older," he said. "We've been replacing PVC pipe with ductile iron pipe for many, many years and we will continue to. But we haven't gotten it all done yet. And that's just one of the things that happens."

Ductile iron pipes are thought to last for several decades, Turner said.
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