California Towns With Highest Job Losses From Drought To Receive Food, Water & Other Aid

With California experiencing its driest year ever on record, so far, the state is now in emergency mode, and trying to get out as many relief services as possible to the public as quickly as it can.

Among these services will be food assistance for families that have been directly affected by the drought through unemployment from agriculturally-related jobs; temporary drinking water replacement for economically disadvantaged communities; statewide water conservation measures; new irrigation measured for famers; and water diversion projects for habitat preservation for wildlife.

The California Department of Social Services announced that food banks in 24 drought-affected counties will begin receiving the first in $5.1 million in food assistance, with food hitting the food bank shelves soon this month.

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Alliance Receives $10 Million To Research The Viability Of Using Beetles-Killed Trees As Biofuel

The Bioenergy Alliance Network of the Rockies (BANR)– a consortium of academic, industry, and government organizations led by Colorado State University – has been awarded $10 million by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to research the viability of using beetle-killed trees in the Rockies as a sustainable source for creating biofuels.

Beetle damage in West Elk Mountains, Colorado. Photo by Jimmy Gekas.

Among the benefits of this plan would be the culling infested forests. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said earlier this month that, “Infestation of pine and spruce bark beetles have impacted over 42 million acres of U.S. forests since 1996, and a changing climate threatens to expand the threat from the bark beetle on our forest lands .”

This isn’t a new concern, and warming winters over the last several seasons have greatly exacerbated the growth of beetle populations and forest destruction.

In 2009, Matt Skoglund, director of the Natural Resource Defense Council’s (NRDC) Northern Rockies office , talked about “the tragic demise of whitebark pine trees in the Northern Rockies, primarily caused by the mountain pine beetles,” which he added were “thriving with a warmer climate.”

Skoglund continued that “the destructive paths of both the spruce  beetle in the boreal forests of Canada  and the mountain pine beetle in the Rockies, both of which, thanks to warming temperatures [were] wreaking havoc on coniferous forests and leaving millions of acres of dead trees in their wake.”

Skoglund also added that the worst case scenario was already unfolding, saying that warmer temperatures were “enabling beetles to survive at ever higher elevations” and that as a result, the whitebark pines without natural defenses, were “being slaughtered by beetles across the Northern Rockies.”

Colorado State University explained the role of extreme cold in controlling beetle populations, saying, “For winter mortality to be a significant factor, a severe freeze is necessary while the insect is in its most vulnerable stage, i.e., in the fall before the larvae have metabolized glycerols, or in late spring when the insect is molting into the pupal stage.

“For freezing temperatures to affect a large number of larvae during the middle of winter, temperatures of at least 30 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit) must be sustained for at least five days.”

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World Bank Approves Almost $94 Million For Rural Sustainable Development In West Africa

Burkina Faso, West Africa. Photo courtesy of kinderpate.at/blog.

Where fertile land and clean water are scarce resources, the World Bank has approved $93.41 million to support the West African country of Burkina Faso in its rural development efforts and sustainable land and forestry management programs.

While the country might not be familiar to most people, it’s landlocked inside six neighboring countries that we do know well, which are: Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Ivory Coast.

Map of Burkina Faso. Image courtesy of aobf.solidairesdumonde.org.

Madani M. Tall, World Bank County Director for Burkina Faso said that “the funds provided will benefit 13 regional communities, reaching over 302 rural communities and encourage participatory local development.”

Explaining the current conditions in the region, Emmanuel Nikiema, World Bank Task Team Leader, said, “Significant flooding followed by localized drought in recent years has negatively affected the agricultural harvest, leaving people with little affordable food to eat.”

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The United States Experiencing The Second Widest Spread of Severe Drought in 12 Years

It’s getting hotter and hotter, and drier and drier for most parts of the world, and the United States is especially feeling it.

Photo by Mashid Mohadjerin from The New York Times.

The U.S. Drought Monitor has released mapping analysis for July, showing the month to have the “second largest” geographic expanse in severe to worse drought conditions,  since the mapping began about 12 years ago.

Many of us, especially if we live in metropolitan areas, don’t usually think about water until there is very little of it. In these times, we remember that it’s our most important resource for drinking, cooking, bathing, washing, etc.

In agricultural communities, water takes on the added importance of sustaining livestock and crops – and this is important to everybody because they feed us.

To understand the significance of the different drought terms, the drought monitor explains that, “Moderate drought’s telltale signs are some damage to crops and pastures, with streams, reservoirs or wells getting low.”

“At the other end of the scale, exceptional drought includes widespread crop and pasture losses, as well as shortages of water in reservoirs, streams and wells, creating water emergencies,” the monitor adds.

To give an understanding of the numbers we are dealing with, the monitor said, “The July 10 map shows 37 percent of the contiguous (adjoining) 48 states in severe drought or worse.” This is the second largest expanse since Sept. 10, 2002, when the drought area was at 38 percent.

Looking beyond the most severe conditions to the overall drought conditions, it’s a worse picture with the monitor saying, “Looking only at the 48 contiguous states (on the July 10 map), 61 percent of the country’s land area was in moderate drought or worse, up from 56 percent the week before. The previous record was 55 percent on Aug. 26, 2003.”

Michael Hayes, director of the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, expressed concern, saying that, “The recent heat and dryness is catching up with us on a national scale.”

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Drought In The South Central U.S. Expected To Persist Through October, Says Climate Experts

This summer, we’ve all felt at least a few days of scorching 100 degree heat, but nowhere in the United States has it been felt more than in the country’s south central region.

 Earlier this week, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that, “Persistent, scorching heat in the central and eastern regions of the United States shattered long-standing daily and monthly temperature records last month.

“The South climate region – Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas – had the warmest single calendar month for any region on record. Dallas exceeded 100° F on 30 of the 31 days in July. ”

While many states are beginning to feel a relieving cooling this month, experts are unfortunately predicting that states in the Texas and Oklahoma region will have to endure this roasting until mid-fall.

The U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook came out last week with data from NOAA, saying that, “Climate anomalies attributed to the Summer 2010 – Spring 2011 La Niña event prompted widespread drought development and intensification across the southern tier of the United States.

“In many locations, significant deterioration occurred, with the Great Plains experiencing the worst impacts. Apart from the relief afforded by isolated thunderstorms, or a tropical system, drought conditions are anticipated to persist over the south central states through the August – October period.”

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