NOAA, the USFWS, and the NY State Dept. of Environmental Conservation (representing all state and wildlife agencies) released on Jan. 19, 2012, a draft of the first national strategy for responding to climate change effects on plants, fish and wildlife. The public comment period is open until March 5, 2012, and public meetings and a webinar will occur until Feb. 22, 2012.
Finally, after numerous delays amid allegations of political interference by people who don't want to see documented evidence of climate shifts, the wait is over. The new detailed interactive map is based on data from 1976-2005, and is the first official revision since the 1990 update.
The American Horticultural Society and the National Arbor Day Foundation offer generalized hardiness maps as a starting point, until the US Department of Agriculture gets around to unveiling its own update.
"The rapid increase in the number of cities home to more than 10 million people will bring huge challenges … and opportunities."
Detroit, one of the birthplaces of American industrial capitalism, has also been in many ways one of its earlier deathplaces -- an urban landscape where many houses and lots are abandoned. A conversation with civil rights legend Grace Lee Boggs and people she inspires offers a key example of how the urban agriculture movement is reclaiming post-industrial America both physically and spiritually.
Christa Tippett hosts this episode of American Public Media's On Being January 19, 2012.
"A review suggests that the Amazon rainforest may be changing, courtesy of human impacts on the region's weather."
Changes in federal flood insurance policy, along with increased flood risks from global warming, may encourage development in the wrong places.
Author Cynthia Barnett explains water-use truths and fallacies, offers tips for investigating water projects proposed for your audience area, and reports how some of the country’s most progressive engineers and local governments are showing that it’s absolutely possible to live with far less water.
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