A plume of smoke from wildfires burning in the Angeles National Forest is seen from downtown Los Angeles on Aug. 29, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images
California is bracing for rare January wildfires this week amid damaging Santa Ana winds coupled with unusually hot and dry winter weather.
<p>High winds, gusting up to 80- to 90 miles per hour in some parts of the state, are expected to last through Wednesday evening. Nearly the entire state has been in a <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drought">drought</a> for months, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, which, alongside summerlike temperatures, has left vegetation dry and flammable.</p>
<p>Utilities Southern California Edison and PG&E, which serves the central and northern portions of the state, warned it may preemptively shut off power to <a href="https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/video/5210115-windy-day-leads-to-power-outages-across-socal/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=107179902&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9JllK1SZVMaOyTcSPMtz2yTJMEzjA1-ewH0jlXS8ErQfBGoYoUQzLkgsQ2XdiSXPB__KPOEPr6jKlzvPlIHE-DRQks1w&utm_content=107179902&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hundreds of thousands of customers</a> to reduce the risk of electrical fires sparked by trees and branches falling on live power lines. The rare January fire conditions come on the heels of the <a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/top_story/us-wildfire-record/?swcfpc=1&utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=107179902&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8J34_XzeF9edIHUyWCob9FzH21HcdNtnGEzKe57FhbzP1j06o2GW8tHYO1xN1bTsoE4CtXCt9eZX9OTs0VazLQF-EdXw&utm_content=107179902&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">worst wildfire season ever recorded in California</a>, as climate change exacerbates the factors causing fires to be more frequent and severe.</p>
<p>California is also experiencing the most severe surge of COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, with hospitals and ICUs over capacity and a stay-at-home order in place. Wildfire smoke can <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/covid-19/reduce_exposure_to_wildfire_smoke_covid-19.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=107179902&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8pwsakJDXRpqNUYp2rUNBxpRo6yWEGZWgqUDq0B3umewiF90tjbzeY8jzM7OGOp3JavCAnHMGKSiwcLSzXisrxrDvNSA&utm_content=107179902&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">increase the risk</a> of adverse health effects due to COVID, and evacuations forcing people to crowd into shelters could further spread the virus. </p>
<p>As reported by <a href="https://www.accuweather.com/en/severe-weather/widespread-high-winds-to-rattle-california-raise-wildfire-danger/884509?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=107179902&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_Eax-LVSHD77m31Q-7Uuc8YeOXmdnOVHbYcDVQEHXlJj0O_xrW2EyGYPCtTbzR77x96FRkz9ZfUcFKg0fKaniMj94SJA&utm_content=107179902&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">AccuWeather</a>:</p><blockquote>In the atmosphere, air flows from high to low pressure. The setup into Wednesday is like having two giant atmospheric fans working as a team with one pulling and the other pushing the air in the same direction.<br></blockquote><blockquote>Normally, mountains to the north and east of Los Angeles would protect the downtown which sits in a basin. However, with the assistance of the offshore storm, there will be areas of gusty winds even in the L.A. Basin. The winds may get strong enough in parts of the basin to break tree limbs and lead to sporadic power outages and sparks that could ignite fires.</blockquote><blockquote>"Typically, Santa Ana winds stay out of downtown Los Angeles and the L.A. Basin, but this time, conditions may set up just right to bring 30- to 40-mph wind gusts even in those typically calm condition areas," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Mike Doll.</blockquote>
<p> <strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/mountains-fires-california-wildfires-8ba368f1df8f3b8b86cd4383fb07d3e2?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=107179902&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_2TsBvEuOAjOUeIXd5QR7BG1qL_yPgPNfHrgmk1VzhBRLtsAY0SxGZofngcMaFvqzffLIkaA_Y5DqRkmXeYqVU_FKVyQ&utm_content=107179902&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AP</a>, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-16/strong-potentially-damaging-winds-possible-for-l-a-region-early-next-week-forecasters-say?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=107179902&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9UI-jgYPhwU5v-5DrnU5pOlW3eMYXNzTE5NEqI7vFqstbf8QHFdViaothnL4Mygy9w_j-qHEwqNAjicAzbotGbguPB9w&utm_content=107179902&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LA Times</a>, <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Fire-weather-in-January-Red-flag-warning-coming-15879766.php?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=107179902&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8-1w5paD4uknirx8pjc5dFWN0wwlFwy3JAA1K0JzJpgQbaDFWAxz7LkSRHD9YJPFuAnBar3w1sxgdqHsreRk8qgvfzWg&utm_content=107179902&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/01/18/los-angeles-high-winds-wildfires/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=107179902&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8HEUcGj2kafFgLH0pfa_nZcE2SfFK81KjUTDmZFX5Ula889Ce3j7wPMGbwjzpspDzFxHeOo6fMlCGV3wPQIONKox0pyA&utm_content=107179902&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Washington Post</a>, <a href="https://weather.com/news/news/2021-01-18-california-high-winds-impacts-power-shutoffs?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=107179902&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8am47ZGT4AXeHDSux4Qe5BYM0CPpYZUUu9o4umO9MwD-FeAhgda_Z3wpikOFfZ-AHKreYOneNPaa1kCR09tjgzkXWSDg&utm_content=107179902&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Weather Channel</a>, <a href="https://www.accuweather.com/en/severe-weather/widespread-high-winds-to-rattle-california-raise-wildfire-danger/884509?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=107179902&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_Eax-LVSHD77m31Q-7Uuc8YeOXmdnOVHbYcDVQEHXlJj0O_xrW2EyGYPCtTbzR77x96FRkz9ZfUcFKg0fKaniMj94SJA&utm_content=107179902&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AccuWeather</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/realestate/california-wildfires-rebuild.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=107179902&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--7pE4Jx7sSztHhqcJfdQkj7RR25etHYD7zb8PaTYkfNTpmF6w4E5Ze8hkm64Pk7kPTVt9jXUSg2FXnf0JCTkrOYMosEA&utm_content=107179902&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New York Times</a>, Slideshow: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2021/01/15/realestate/california-wildfires-housing.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=107179902&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9uC-_9KXNyR0mHuU2fz6-EwNsNTmRwH0ULGVFeXjtbQxTbLI6lXG5HKOqhhSdp9zwd_yE2r52o6n0_FMC2Qi9PAHSzsQ&utm_content=107179902&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New York Times</a>; Climate Signals Background: <a href="https://www.climatesignals.org/climate-change-wildfires?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=107179902&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8osQfRMRxXDwJ3trP4wTKPA-Zk7vfEugJXrCJZ2g2rdaxsUYl75_F-t27gOEEobPTTPR2dQnUt9Se3KdPrCUtv5lapLg&utm_content=107179902&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Wildfires</a>, <a href="https://www.climatesignals.org/node/10048?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=107179902&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_Xo0epd5mwYleW7xliwO7gmsg7yA6dHJNBJfmINkX2Edh4XQ-oMAhx-xrgNKq9d_B31Xl3j5uTWMKH2LRxDU5jawBP9Q&utm_content=107179902&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2020 Western wildfire season</a></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, sign up for daily </em><a href="https://www.linktrack.live/hot-news-sign-up" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>, and visit their news site, </em><a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Nexus Media News</em></a><em>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Climate Crisis Will Shift Tropical Rain Belt and Create Food Insecurity for Billions, Study Finds
19 January
Climate
Madagascar has been experiencing ongoing droughts and food insecurity since 2016. arturbo / Getty Images
Nearly 1.6 million people in the southern part of Madagascar have faced food insecurity since 2016, experiencing one drought after another, the United Nations World Food Program reported.
<p>A <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-00963-x" target="_blank">study</a> published Monday found billions more could face food insecurity as Earth's tropical rain belt shifts in response to climate change, causing increased drought stress and intensified flooding.</p>
<p>"Our work shows that climate change will cause the position of Earth's tropical rain belt to move in opposite directions in two longitudinal sectors that cover almost two thirds of the globe, a process that will have cascading effects on water availability and food production around the world," lead author Antonios Mamalakis, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, told <a href="https://news.uci.edu/2021/01/18/uci-researchers-climate-change-will-alter-the-position-of-the-earths-tropical-rain-belt/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UCI News</a>. </p>
<p>Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions analyzed how the tropical rain belt would respond to a future where greenhouse gas emission continued to rise through 2100, UCI News reported. Their <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-00963-x#Abs1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">findings</a>, published in Nature Climate Change, revealed the rain belt will shift northward over the Eastern Hemisphere, impacting countries in southeastern Africa. </p>
<p>In Madagascar, these impacts are already being felt. </p>
<p>"We only had one day of rain in December in the whole region. And the thunderstorms have been blasting… and destroying and burying the crops that were there," Lola Castro, the United Nations World Food Program regional director for Southern Africa and Indian Ocean States, <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/01/1081892" target="_blank">told UN News</a>. "The result is famine-like conditions."</p><p>Madagascar's vulnerability to the climate crisis, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, has left people with little to eat, Castro said. "Cactus mixed with mud, roots, whatever they can find, leaves, seeds, whatever is available."</p><p>The rain belt is projected to shift toward a warming atmosphere, co-author James Randerson, UCI's Ralph J. & Carol M. Cicerone Chair in Earth System Science, explained. "In Asia, projected reductions in aerosol emissions, glacier melting in the Himalayas and loss of snow cover in northern areas brought on by climate change will cause the atmosphere to heat up faster than in other regions," he told UCI News. </p><p>Since 2000, glaciers in the Himalayas are losing more than a vertical foot and half of ice every year, <a href="https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2019/06/19/melting-himalayan-glaciers-doubled/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Columbia University's Earth Insititute</a> reported, double the amount from 1975 to 2000. </p>
<p>"We know that the rain belt shifts toward this heating, and that its northward movement in the Eastern Hemisphere is consistent with these expected impacts of climate change," Randerson told UCI News.</p>
<p>In the Western Hemisphere, the rain belt is expected to move in the opposite direction by shifting southward, the study found. This will cause greater drought stress to Central America, a region which is experiencing more than five years of recurring drought, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-central-america-drought-migration/hunger-driving-migration-in-drought-hit-central-america-u-n-idUSKCN1V423J" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reuters</a> reported.</p>
<p>By combining an engineering approach to both climate science and data analytics, the team of researchers found previously unknown consequences associated with global warming. They also saw how much more there is to learn.</p>
<p>"The complexity of the Earth system is daunting, with dependencies and feedback loops across many processes and scales," author Efi Foufoula-Georgiou, UCI Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, told UCI News.</p><p>Determining how these changes will impact flooding, droughts, infrastructure and ecosystems can inform adaptation strategies and policies, Foufoula-Georgiou told UCI News. But time may be running out. </p>
<p>"What we are saying here is that the situation we're facing in southern Madagascar is not normal," Lola Castro told UN News, regarding the humanitarian crisis. "It's very different to any normal year of crisis and that we really need to act immediately." </p>
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Like many other plant-based foods and products, CBD oil is one dietary supplement where "organic" labels are very important to consumers. However, there are little to no regulations within the hemp industry when it comes to deeming a product as organic, which makes it increasingly difficult for shoppers to find the best CBD oil products available on the market.
<p>Here you can learn about the importance of organic hemp oil, why it's better for the environment, and which CBD companies actually make trustworthy products with sustainable farming processes. origins which weigh heavily on many consumers who want to buy a product that's produced in the best way possible for not only themselves to ingest, but for the environment as well through sustainable farming methods. </p><h2>What Is CBD Oil?</h2><p>First things first, CBD stands for cannabidiol, and it's a cannabinoid found within cannabis sativa plants. This plant compound is believed to have many potential benefits, and it is primarily derived from hemp plants via a CO2 extraction process. </p><p>Since CBD is extracted from industrial hemp, which contains only trace amounts of THC (the psychoactive component in cannabis plants), this means that CBD won't make you feel high like marijuana, which has much higher levels of THC that causes psychoactive effects. Instead, the effects of CBD are much more subtle and promote a general sense of calm and relaxation in most users.</p><h2>What Makes a CBD Oil Organic?</h2><p>In terms of organic labels, perhaps the most important (and prominent) certification comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This government organization has been labeling foods as "organic" for many years, but what exactly does this certification entail? Essentially, a label indicating that a product is "USDA Organic" or "Certified Organic" means that at least 95% of the ingredients are obtained from organic sources.</p><p>For a crop to be considered organic by the USDA, it must be grown without the use of industrial solvents, irradiation, genetic engineering (GMOs), synthetic pesticides, or chemical fertilizer. Instead, farmers rely on natural substances and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mechanical, physical, or biologically based farming</a> techniques to cultivate healthy and organic crops.</p><p>Before the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, no hemp-derived products could be dubbed as "certified organic" since the hemp plant and its extracts were still categorized as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. However, it's still difficult for CBD companies to obtain a USDA certified organic label for their products due to the legal grey area that still surrounds CBD extracts. </p><p>Because of these challenges, and due to the fact that industrial hemp has only recently become an agricultural crop, very few CBD oils are USDA certified organic. Rather, many CBD products contain hemp extracts from plants that were grown in organic conditions but may not be federally certified.</p><h2>What are the Best Organic CBD Oil Brands?</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p><em><br></em>
<h2>Why Organic Hemp Oil Matters</h2><p>Hemp is a unique plant, not only for its rich cannabinoid content, but also for its ability to absorb a wide variety of components in soil. But this trait poses great risks when it comes to the creation of CBD products derived from hemp.</p><p>Because hemp has a high capacity for compound uptake, this means that the plants can retain <a href="https://www.remedyreview.com/industry/lab-test-results/" target="_blank">harmful chemicals like pesticides</a>, heavy metals, and other residual solvents. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic chemicals that are more toxic to humans, and difficult to remove once they have been absorbed by the hemp plant.</p><p>Organic farming practices help reduce the risk of hemp crops absorbing harsh chemicals that may later end up in CBD oil after extraction. When you're taking CBD as a wellness supplement to help alleviate your symptoms or improve your overall well-being, the last thing you want is to ingest compounds that might negatively outweigh the benefits of CBD. This is an important reason to look for third party lab test results when shopping for CBD products since these certificates of analysis can show the full cannabinoid and terpene profile of a hemp extract, as well as test results that search for the presence of any residual solvents.</p><p>In addition to creating a better end product, organic farming practices are also better for the environment. Sustainable and organic farming methods may <a href="https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/organic-foods.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy</a>. The use of natural pest deterrents as opposed to chemical pesticides is also better for nearby animal populations and ecosystems.</p><h3>Organic vs. Natural</h3><p>While there are only a select few companies offering certified organic ingredients in their products, almost every brand in the CBD market creates "natural" products. The term "all-natural" or "plant-based" does not mean that a product is organic, and since hemp oil is a natural derivative of hemp plants, these products are often referred to as all-natural. However, there are some synthetic CBD oils that should be avoided because they are chemically constructed and may produce unwanted side effects that are not caused by naturally derived CBD extracts.</p><h2>What are the Benefits of Organic CBD Oil?</h2><p>There's a long list of potential CBD oil health benefits, and some of the most common wellness advantages include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503660/" target="_blank">Chronic pain relief</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/" target="_blank">Anti-anxiety effects</a></li><li>Better sleep</li><li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inner-source/201901/cbd-oil-mental-health-should-you-take-it-too" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Improvements in mood</a></li><li>Internal balance and regulation</li></ul><p>When dealing with pain, inflammation, sleep issues, and mental health struggles, it can be hard to find sufficient treatment options. The use of certain prescriptions can cause unwanted side effects, yet they are often the only solution for patients with these medical conditions. In search of other therapies, people have started to flock towards CBD oil as an alternative remedy for a variety of conditions. However, it should be noted that CBD products are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and you should seek your doctor's advice before using CBD if you have a serious medical condition.</p><h2>Look at the Labels Before You Buy CBD Oil</h2><p>When you go online to buy CBD oil, you'll quickly realize there is an overwhelming number of brands that are saturating the market. It can be difficult to determine which products are truly as good as they make themselves out to be. Always look for up-to-date third-party lab tests so you know you are getting a great product, and don't hesitate to contact the brand if you have any additional questions. And if you're intent on purchasing 100% organic CBD oil, it's best to look for certified products or brands that are held to strict regulatory standards.</p><p><strong>Melena Gurganus </strong>is the Reviews Editor at EcoWatch. She is passionate health and wellness and her writing aims to help others find products they can trust. Her work has been featured in publications such as Health, Shape, Huffington Post, Cannabis Business Times, and Bustle.<br></p>
Spruce
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjI3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTM2NzgzOX0.axY0HjeqRctJsR_KmDLctzDpUBLBN-oNIdqaXDb4caQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="774be" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8379f35b1ca8a86d0e61b7d4bfc8b46e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="spruce organic cbd oil" data-width="710" data-height="959" /><p>As one of the best brands in the business, Spruce CBD is well-known for its potent CBD oils that feature many additional beneficial phytocannabinoids. This brand works with two family-owned, sustainably focused farms in the USA (one located in Kentucky and one in North Carolina) to create its organic, small product batches. The max potency Spruce CBD oil contains 2400mg of full-spectrum CBD extract, but the brand also offers a lower strength tincture with 750mg of CBD in total.</p>
$89
CBDistillery
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjkzNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTU4OTM4Nn0.ypRdeDSBcE87slYrFfVrRwtJ2qGIK6FD5jBB4pndTMo/img.jpg?width=980" id="b473b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9930b53c9d58cb49774640a61c3e3e75" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="cbdistillery cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>All of the products from CBDistillery are <a href="https://ushempauthority.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Hemp Authority Certified</a>, and for good reason. The company only uses non-GMO and pesticide-free industrial hemp that's grown organically on Colorado farms. Its hemp oils are some of the most affordable CBD products on the market, yet they still maintain a high standard of quality. CBDistillery has a wide variety of CBD potencies across its product line (ranging from 500mg to 5000mg per bottle) and offers both full-spectrum and broad-spectrum CBD oils to give customers a completely thc-free option.</p>
$35
FAB CBD
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIyNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDIwOTEyMn0.MlTjz096FJ0ev_-soK7_Z-FeQeJczWoeh9Qi9SSkHsY/img.jpg?width=980" id="04b26" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="76aa4862f44603242e318982acea6646" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="fab cbd oil" data-width="800" data-height="800" /><p>For an organic CBD oil that has it all, FAB CBD offers plenty of variety for any type of consumer. All of its products are made with zero pesticides and extracted from organically grown Colorado industrial hemp. FAB CBD oil comes in five all-natural flavors (mint, vanilla, berry, citrus, and natural) and is also available in four strengths (300, 600, 1200, and 2400mg per bottle).</p>
$39
NuLeaf Naturals
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzExNTgyMX0.D6qMGYllKTsVhEkQ-L_GzpDHVu60a-tJKcio7M1Ssmc/img.jpg?width=980" id="94e4a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3609a52479675730893a45a82a03c71d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="nuleaf naturals organic cbd oil" data-width="600" data-height="600" /><p>As an industry-leading brand, it comes as no surprise that NuLeaf Naturals sources its CBD extract from organic hemp plants grown on licensed farms in Colorado. The comany's CBD oils only contain two ingredients: USDA certified organic hemp seed oil and full spectrum hemp extract.</p><p>NuLeaf Naturals uses one proprietary CBD oil formula for all of its products, so you will get the same CBD potency in each tincture (60mg per mL), but can purchase different bottle sizes depending on how much you intend to use.</p>
$38.50
Charlotte's Web
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piyaset / iStock / Getty Images Plus
In an alarming new study, scientists found that climate change is already harming children's diets.
<p>It has long been understood that climate change will impact diet and food security globally. But up until now, little research proved how diet diversity is impacted by climate change outcomes, like warmer temperatures and increased precipitation, over a span of geographical areas.</p><p>Led by researchers at the University of Vermont, the study surveyed the diets of more than 107,00 children under the age of five, across 19 countries in Asia, Africa, and South America, with 30 years of precipitation and temperature data, according to the <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/abd0ab" target="_blank">study</a>.</p>
<p>Higher, long-term temperatures were associated with decreased diet diversity among children. "It surprised us that higher temperatures are already showing an impact," Meredith Niles, the study's lead author and an assistant professor of Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of Vermont, said in an <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/gund/news/climate-change-hurting-childrens-diets-global-study-finds-0" target="_blank">article</a>.</p><p>In 2019, over 144 million children under the age of five were malnourished, <a href="https://data.unicef.org/topic/nutrition/malnutrition/#:~:text=In%202019%2C%2021.3%20per%20cent,5%20worldwide%20had%20stunted%20growth.&text=Between%202000%20and%202019%2C%20stunting,199.5%20million%20to%20144.0%20million." target="_blank">according to data by the UNICEF</a>. This number could have grown by an additional 6.7 million in 2020 alone, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a <a href="https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-additional-67-million-children-under-5-could-suffer-wasting-year-due-covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">report published in July</a>.</p>
<p>In the study, researchers used a scale developed by the United Nations to understand intakes of micronutrients like iron, folic acid, zinc and vitamins A and D.</p><p>On average children ate 3.2 out of 10 food groups. But in "emerging economies" like in China, children ate 6.8 out of 10 food groups, more than doubling the overall average, according to the <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/gund/news/climate-change-hurting-childrens-diets-global-study-finds-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">University of Vermont</a>. Household wealth, consequently, was the biggest factor in children's diet diversity, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/global-climate-food/scientists-warn-climate-change-is-harming-childrens-diets-idUSL8N2JO4P4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reuters reported</a>.</p><p>"These results suggest that, if we don't adapt, climate change could further erode a diet that already isn't meeting adequate child micronutrient levels," Brendan Fisher from UVM's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/gund/news/climate-change-hurting-childrens-diets-global-study-finds-0" target="_blank">said</a> about children's diets in developing countries.</p>
<p>Although the study proved what researchers had long expected regarding warming temperatures, they did find surprising results on how precipitation alters diet diversity.</p><p>Higher precipitation, linked to countries in West and Southeast Africa and Central America, was associated with higher diversity in children's diet, the University of Vermont <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/gund/news/climate-change-hurting-childrens-diets-global-study-finds-0" target="_blank">reported</a>.</p><p>"Higher rainfall in the future may provide important diet quality benefits in multiple ways, but it also depends on how that rain comes," Molly Brown, a co-author of the study <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/gund/news/climate-change-hurting-childrens-diets-global-study-finds-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a>. "If it's more erratic and intense, as is predicted with climate change, this may not hold true."</p><p>Changes in the agriculture and the food industry can also be linked to worsening diets, Paolo Vineis of Imperial College London, who studies the effects of climate change on the disease, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/global-climate-food/scientists-warn-climate-change-is-harming-childrens-diets-idUSL8N2JO4P4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told Reuters</a>.</p><p>By 2050, global demand for food may increase by 59 to 98 percent from a larger population. Although this will require major agricultural and food industries to rapidly expand their production, droughts and higher temperatures will threaten their ability to do so, <a href="https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2018/07/25/climate-change-food-agriculture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Columbia University's Earth Institute reported</a>.</p>
<p>In the United States alone, for example, the production of corn, which is used to feed livestock, could decrease by 50 percent if the planet warms by four degrees Celsius, <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/115/26/6644" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a study found</a>, a likely temperature increase predicted for 2100.</p><p>So what kind of solutions can help?</p><p>Educating investors on the financial risks and potential opportunities of the climate crisis could help the food industry adapt to the climate impacts already being felt, Columbia University's Earth Institute <a href="https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2018/07/25/climate-change-food-agriculture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a></p><p>"Food security is going to be one of the most pressing climate-related issues, mainly because most of the world is relatively poor and food is going to become increasingly scarce and expensive," Peter De Menocal, founding director of Columbia's Center for Climate and Life, <a href="https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2018/07/25/climate-change-food-agriculture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told Columbia's Earth Institute</a>.</p><p>As for improving diets globally, researchers at the University of Vermont <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/abd0ab" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stress</a> the need for more research aimed at protecting children's nutrition especially for "vulnerable populations in low and middle-income countries across the tropics where the most profound climate changes are expected."</p>
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Drought-Stricken Colorado River Basin Could See Additional 20% Drop in Water Flow by 2050
12 January
Climate
The Lake Mead area of the Colorado River basin on Aug. 19, 2019. Udo S / Flickr
By Jan Ellen Spiegel
Colorado is no stranger to drought. The current one is closing in on 20 years, and a rainy or snowy season here and there won't change the trajectory.
<p>This is what climate change has brought.</p><p>"Aridification" is what Bradley Udall formally calls the situation in the western U.S. But perhaps more accurately, he calls it hot drought – heat-induced lack of water due to climate change. That was the core of research released in 2017 by Udall, a senior climate and water scientist at Colorado State University's Colorado Water Center, and Jonathan Overpeck at the University of Michigan.</p>
<p>Their revelation was that the heat from climate change was propelling drought. "Previous comparable droughts were caused by a lack of precipitation, not high temperatures," the study said. And all the factors at play were having compounding effects on each other that made the situation even worse. Those impacts were being felt most acutely on the biggest water system in the West – the Colorado River Basin.</p><p>Without a dramatic and fast reversal in greenhouse gas emissions to slow climate change, Udall and Overpeck said, the additional loss of flow in the basin could be more than 20% by mid-century and 35% at the century's end – worse than currently assumed.</p>
<p>"I always say climate change is water change," says Udall, whose father was Arizona congressman Morris (Mo) Udall, an iconic environmental activist. "It means too much water, not enough water, water at the wrong time. It means reduced water quality. You get all of these things together as the earth warms up."</p><p>In Colorado it's all pretty much coming true. The drought is the second worst 20-year period in the past 1,200 years, according to Udall. This summer/fall alone had some of the hottest spells on record and the worst wildfire season ever. On the other hand, 2013 brought catastrophic floods to the Front Range. "I got 17 inches of water in my house here in four days. It's all part of the same change," Udall says.</p>
<p>It's forced Colorado to start facing the reality that its perpetual struggle for water can no longer be written off as cyclical weather that will all balance-out over short periods of time. It's climate change at work, and it requires long-term planning and likely fundamental changes to the paradigm of how the state gets, uses, and preserves its water.</p><p>The state and individual municipalities are beginning to address their new reality with policies that range from the obvious – conservation, just using less water, to the more innovative – considering using beaver dams to restore mountain wetlands and generally remediating the landscape to better handle water.</p><p>But all those actions and more must face the political reality of the longstanding way water-sharing is handled in the basin. It pits state against state, rural against urban, agriculture against, well, everyone.</p>
<h4>The Colorado River Compact</h4><p>The Colorado River Basin provides water to a massive swath of the Rocky Mountain and western states. The Compact that rules it dates to 1922, with California, Nevada and Arizona – the lower basin states – essentially getting first dibs on water that flows from upper basin states – Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Utah – with secondary access to the water, so they generally absorb the brunt of water losses.</p><p>Colorado is a headwaters state – where the river flows down from the continental divide. It relies on whatever falls out of the sky: It does not have the luxury of access to whatever water may flow in farther downstream.</p><p>A process to re-evaluate aspects of the Compact is underway with a 2026 deadline. No one expects the basic structure to change, though other contingencies are likely to be layered on, as has happened a number of times in the intervening years.</p><p>River levels are off some 20% since the Compact was initiated, compounding the water crunch while the region's population has grown dramatically, especially in Colorado. That combination of factors have many water experts and administrators convinced any new strategy has to do more than divvy-up the water differently.</p><p>That's because it's climate change and not cyclical weather causing the problems, Udall says emphatically: "Yup. Yup. Yup." He notes that scientists already see impacts they hadn't expected to see until 2050.</p>
<p>"I think some of the predictions about reduced flows in the Colorado River based on global warming are so dire it's difficult to wrap your brain around them. We have no operating rules for that kind of reduction in supply," says Anne Castle, a senior fellow at the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources at the University of Colorado. "Even with these discussions that will be taking place over the next five years for the Colorado River system, I'm not sure that they will be able to get to an agreement about what would happen if flow is reduced by 50%."</p><p>The critical climate change impacts seem to act in a loop: heat causes more evaporation of surface water. The resulting lower water level means water will warm more easily, and in turn evaporates more readily.</p>
<p>Global warming is also changing the dynamics of snowpacks. They melt faster and earlier and don't regularly continue to slowly dissipate, creating a gradual runoff that is more beneficial and sustaining to the water supply. Udall notes that on April 1, 2020, there was 100% of normal snowpack above Lake Powell, which with Lake Mead are the two enormous reservoirs in the system. In a normal year that would provide 90-110% of runoff. But it provided only 52% in 2020 as a result of dry warm weather through fall.</p><p>Sustainable water supplies are also threatened as weather events occur more often as extremes: major rains in a short period of time sandwiched by extended dry periods. Torrential rains that follow a long drought may help the soil, but runoff may never make it to the water supply.</p><p>Wildfires, in recent years larger and longer, complicate matters by dumping ash and crud into water bodies, which results in less water and contamination that can render unusable what water there is. And if difficult climate conditions keep trees from growing back after fires, the resulting ecosystem changes could further damage water supplies.</p>
<h4>Big Ideas in Place</h4><p>"This is not your average variability," says Andy Mueller, general manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District, which covers most of the water used by the state. "Cooperative management of water resources can really help in these hot dry summers," he says.</p><p>Mueller says the district tried releasing additional water from a reservoir that also creates hydropower. The extra water helps cool the river it flows into – slowing evaporation and allowing fishing and other activities often stopped when the water gets too warm and low to resume. That same water was also used for other hydropower plants downstream. Some then continued to other river areas. And some was diverted for crop irrigation, important given that farming and ranching are the biggest consumers of water in the state.</p><p>Basic conservation – just using less water – is always the first step, but even Colorado Water Conservation Board senior climate specialist Megan Holcomb admits: "We're definitely beyond that conversation."</p><p>The Board is considering systems that employ the technique of demand management: finding ways to use minimal water to allow for storage for dry years. So far, the thinking involves a voluntary program.</p><p>Already in place is an online tool called the Future Avoided Cost Explorer or <a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/4e653ffb2b654ebe95848c9ba8ff316e" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">FACE: Hazards</a>. It helps quantify impacts of drought and wildfires on sectors of the Colorado economy.</p><p>"We know these hazards are going to continue to impact our economy, but we have no numbers to even say how much we should invest now so that we don't have financial impacts in the future," Holcomb says.</p><p>Castle talks about ideas such as consideration of water footprints on new developments and re-developments; integrating land use planning with water planning including things such as landscaping codes; and use of technology at various levels of water monitoring.</p>
<h4>In Search of More Equitable Sharing of Water</h4><p>She notes also a drought contingency plan adopted in 2019 by the Compact states calling for reductions in deliveries to the lower basin. It's pointed in the right direction, she says. "At the same time pretty much everyone involved in those discussions and that agreement also agreed that it was not sufficient," Castle says.</p><p>Many experts have called for more equitable sharing of water reductions. But ideas on what is fair differ from state-to-state and also among different groups within a region where some interests are pitted against agriculture, which accounts for 80% of the water usage in the basin.</p><p>"I think people look at that huge volume of water being used in irrigated agriculture as a place where there's flexibility. And when you get to the politics of working through that in an equitable way, it gets really complicated," says Jennifer Pitt, Colorado River program director for the National Audubon Society.</p><p>The suggestions have included crop switching or alternative transfer mechanisms that call on farmers to periodically grow less water-intensive crops, or pay them not to grow, as a way to make water available for municipal use or storage.</p><p>"From a pure economic perspective, it may seem like you pay them and they're whole," Udall says. "There are actually a lot of things where they don't get whole. They potentially lose a market that they've established over years and a great relationship with a buyer. And if that goes away for a year, that buyer may not come back."</p><p>In the end, experts say people in the Southwest should definitely not count on more precipitation arriving to bail them out. "I would disabuse people of the idea that you're going to get more water," Udall says. "I think it's pretty clear you're going to have less water." So for folks who think building more reservoirs is a solution, Udall says: "It's not at all clear to me that that works."</p><p>But less conventional strategies just might.</p>
<h4>Beaver Dams to the Rescue?</h4><p>Beaver dams are a water management technique that has worked in nature for eons – at least for beavers. Sometimes for people? Not so much.</p><p>But the thinking is they could help slow water loss from high-elevation wetlands. That includes the real deals built by beavers or human-constructed beaver dam alternatives.</p><p>"We think there's a possible synergy there that helps to improve water supply for water users and helps to improve habitat conditions for species – birds in particular – that depend on that kind of wetlands being around," Pitt says.</p><p>The goal would be to protect remaining ones, help establish new ones, and do the same for high-elevation meadows.</p><p>A lot of research is still needed, Pitt says. "There's all kinds of instrumentation that has to go into place to understand the groundwater, the surface water, evaporation, the water balance, what it does to your river downstream," she says. There are water law considerations. And then the inevitable pilot projects.</p><p>Overall, she says, this type of holistic approach to water through natural ecosystem restoration could become a component of water-sharing agreements as have already been done with Mexico. In exchange for getting river areas restored to better flow, Mexico agreed to a sharing agreement it might not otherwise have.</p>
<h4>More People, Less Water, and a Touch of Johnny Appleseed</h4><p>More people and less water has forced Denver Water to work with uncertainties not previously considered. "Variability is the name of the game in Colorado," says lead climate scientist Laurna Kaatz. "And that variability's going to increase over time. That makes it incredibly challenging to continuously provide high-quality drinking water when you're not sure what's coming around the corner."</p><p>The situation calls for adaptive capacity, she says, to provide technical and legal flexibility to adjust for changing circumstances.</p><p>Kaatz pointed to the <a href="https://denverwatertap.org/2018/07/25/how-much-water-will-we-need-in-the-future-just-one-water/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">One Water</a> project that pairs water with usage. For instance, treated wastewater could be used to water a golf course, saving the purest water for drinking.</p><p>Another project is called <a href="https://www.denverwater.org/your-water/water-supply-and-planning/watershed-protection-and-management" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">From Forests to Faucets</a>, which works on watersheds as natural infrastructure to optimize water flow. It has already proved successful at keeping a wildfire in 2018 from encroaching on a reservoir. In April, Denver Water plans to expand its Airborne Snow Observatory, which uses technology developed by NASA to track snow availability, but now it can be deployed above an altitude of 8,000 feet.</p><p>Together the efforts seem to be working – since the 2002 drought, Denver Water has maintained a 22% per-person reduction in water usage from pre-drought levels.</p><p>Steamboat Springs is opting for tree-planting. The idea is that trees will help cool down the Yampa River, which is part of the Colorado River Basin. Hot, dry seasons had been pushing stream temperatures so high that part of the river wound up on EPA's impaired waterbody list.</p><p>"That was a call to action," says Kelly Romero-Heaney, Steamboat Springs' water resources manager.</p>
<p>The timing also dovetailed with the 2015 release of a <a href="https://www.colorado.gov/cowaterplan" target="_blank">Colorado Water Plan</a> that included goals for stream management. Steamboat Springs did a streamflow management plan – released in 2018. In it was the idea of shading the Yampa.</p><p>"What we learned was that flow alone cannot overcome the thermal load for the solar radiation, as strength of that radiation increases over time," she says. "The more that we can prepare the river for that, the better it will buffer against the impacts of climate change."</p><p>They joined forces with the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council's <a href="http://www.yvsc.org/programs/retree-steamboat/" target="_blank">ReTree program</a> that began in 2010 as a reforestation effort to counteract trees killed by pine beetle infestations. It morphed into a three-year Yampa River restoration.</p><p>"That work also increases resilience to future changes," says Michelle Stewart, the council's executive director. "We're really learning the important role soil moisture plays in resilience."</p><p>ReTree planted 200 narrow leaf cottonwoods in 2019 and another 350 this past October. This coming October, its plans are for 450 cottonwoods and 150 mountain alders. All were raised at the Colorado State Forest Nursery from Yampa Valley clippings. "We're using local trees that are already kind of adapting to big swings in temperature and probably have a little bit more of that hardiness that we need and drought readiness," she says.</p><p>It's too early to know how the shading is working but there are plans for citizen help to monitor that and to implement a soil moisture monitoring network in the Yampa Basin.</p><p>"This is a Johnny Appleseed project," says Romero-Heaney. "We plant today and hopefully my children will get to enjoy it."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/01/drought-stricken-colorado-river-basin-could-see-additional-20-drop-in-water-flow-by-2050/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A home burns during the Bear fire, part of the North Lightning Complex fires in Butte County, California on September 9, 2020. Josh Edelson / AFP / Getty Images
Wildfires burned more acres this year in the U.S. than ever before in modern records, E&E reports based on data published by the National Interagency Fire Center.
<p>Extreme heat, fueled by climate change caused by extracting and burning fossil fuels, dries vegetation and turns vast swaths of forest into a tinderbox. </p><p>"In 2020 we saw some of the hottest months on record, and large portions of the western U.S. were in severe drought," University of Colorado fire scientist Jennifer Balch told E&E. </p><p>California, also hit by two exceptionally severe heat waves this year, more than doubled its previous record of acreage burned and its ecosystems will likely be changed for centuries. </p><p>"We can no longer ignore the link between warming and wildfires. We will see more fire seasons like 2020 in the future," Balch told E&E. </p>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p>National record: <a href="https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2020/12/22/stories/1063721269?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=104109244&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_dSsiWevat5tQoh4RR94AyJNygqvnOLRtpj8bu0avKAdXXS6BQCmevXm-o1eiuc8FSEMyCA0Y2n4agiqS_jqHGbaKnqeSkQBhWz0r5S5UMC75Y6qE&utm_content=104109244&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">E&E;</a> California future: <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-12-21/worst-california-wildfire-season-has-altered-forests-for-centuries-to-come?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=104109244&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_UmBJzs4IFz8ZjWoLpXqLOO60dqrAObwVzcgt2EEC49PRPehJ-Lyezq6F7ZbOdXyQjEvQo8FMlFxVoZ6OZJVtrhQAtj8eDmJJti-kmZRiyA3xLDeM&utm_content=104109244&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">LA Times</a>; Climate Signals background: <a href="https://www.climatesignals.org/climate-change-wildfires?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=104109244&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--Ggr5dWFtsPI1VZCxeNbMQ0vWyHk8BUfumwyTDeef4JG8vCHIJtxVFqflPNftOwJNiX5M2UHAjc6aW5esfl_k20H927H3PBrph6Axp4_QYwANjEhg&utm_content=104109244&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Wildfires</a>, <a href="https://www.climatesignals.org/events/western-wildfire-season-2020?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=104109244&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9PGLNy8YV5zwvLWOBYCNxwMMdPTEUI_AN61JCsnc-q-RrKP2KOxjxi8wSUkacIwzFnBful1f-MQRkIjA5x3haIRJbicZHBX4_cgli3wdvLCQKRf-g&utm_content=104109244&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">2020 Western wildfire season</a>, <a href="https://medium.com/i-heart-climate-voices/living-with-smoke-and-fire-in-the-era-of-climate-change-87713856f271" target="_blank">Living with Smoke and Fire Webinar</a><br/></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, sign up for daily </em><a href="https://www.linktrack.live/hot-news-sign-up" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>, and visit their news site, </em><a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Nexus Media News</em></a><em>. </em></p>From Your Site Articles
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One of the beavers released into England's Somerset county this January, which has now helped build the area's first dam in more than 400 years. Ben Birchall / PA Images via Getty Images
England's Somerset county can now boast its first beaver dam in more than 400 years.
<p>The dam is the work of Eurasion beavers who were reintroduced to the <a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/" target="_blank">National Trust</a>'s <a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/holnicote-estate#Overview" target="_blank">Holnicote Estate</a> in <a href="https://www.exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk/" target="_blank">Exmoor National Park</a> at the start of 2020, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/beavers-exmoor-somerset-rewilding-b1763855.html" target="_blank">The Independent reported Monday</a>. The beavers began to build the small structure in October, and video cameras caught them gnawing on trees and gathering vegetation for the dam.</p><p>"It might look modest, but this beaver dam is incredibly special – it's the first to appear on Exmoor for almost half a millennium and marks a step change in how we manage the landscape," National Trust project manager Ben Eardley told <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-55125932" target="_blank">BBC News</a>. "What's amazing is that it's only been here a few weeks but has created an instant wetland."</p><p>The beavers weren't just re-released for the cute factor. These <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/rivers" target="_self">river</a>-dwelling rodents are also a natural solution to the twin crises of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate change</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity" target="_self">biodiversity</a> loss.</p>
<p>Beaver dams both hold water during <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drought" target="_self">droughts</a> and help prevent <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding" target="_self">flooding</a> by slowing its flow downstream during wet periods, the <a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/beavering-away-natures-heroes" target="_blank">National Trust explained</a>. They also create pools that provide a habitat for other <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/animals/" target="_self">animals</a>.</p><p>"We've already spotted kingfishers at the site, and over time, as the beavers extend their network of dams and pools, we should see increased opportunities for other <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a>, including amphibians, insects, bats and birds," Eardley said in a National Trust update. "The recent rain we've had is a reminder of the significant role beavers can play in engineering the landscape. As we face the effects of climate change and more frequent <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/extreme-weather" target="_self">extreme weather</a> events, natural interventions like this need to be part of the solution."</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Rewilding Britain</a> has also argued that beavers can provide habitat and wildlife corridors for animals forced to migrate as their range changes because of the climate crisis, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/30/beavers-build-first-dam-exmoor-400-years-national-trust-animals?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR0kDsKVSzl_7xR6xFLgiPIv8hi-IbtBliX3XWL_jf4rsDng8o4XLmsgBJg#Echobox=1606739317" target="_blank">The Guardian explained</a>.</p><p>Beavers have also been touted as a climate solution outside the UK. Jen Vanderhoof of Washington State's King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/beavers-climate-change-adaptation-2645854054.html" target="_self">has argued</a> that beaver dams could help mitigate the climate-driven cycle of drought and flooding in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., as well as help slow wildfires by acting as natural fire breaks.</p><p>However, the UK faces a special challenge in working with beavers, because the animals were hunted to extinction in the country in the sixteenth century, BBC News explained. They were sought after for their meat, water-resistant pelts and a substance called castoreum that they excrete, which was used in food, perfume and medicine.</p><p>Beavers have begun to be reintroduced into Britain beginning in the 2000s. The Exmoor beavers were brought over from wild populations along the River Tay in Scotland. Their introduction marks the first time in the National Trust's 125-year history that it has reintroduced beavers to a river ecosystem. They were originally introduced into a 2.7 acre enclosure on the Holnicote Estate, according to The Guardian.</p>
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<p>The beavers' introduction is part of the National Trust's £13 million project to restore the health of rivers and streams.</p><p>"Although we're introducing a species that used to live here in the wild, this project is all around creating our landscapes of the future, helping us respond to the challenges the landscape and communities now face," Eardley told the National Trust.</p><p>In a separate project, the UK government has completed a five-year trial of reintroducing beavers to the River Otter in Devon and is considering developing a national plan to reintroduce the animals, The Independent explained.</p>
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Hopi blue corn is being affected by climate change. Abrahami / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 3.0
Climate change is making ancient Hopi farming nearly impossible, threatening not just the Tribe's staple food source, but a pillar of its culture and religion, the Arizona Republic reports.
<p>A two decades-long "megadrought" across the American West as severe as any in the last 1,200 years, has made Hopi lands even dryer than the arid environment in which they have lived for centuries, and heat waves made worse by climate change intensify evaporation, robbing the corn of even more precious water. </p>
<p>Beatrice Norton, 69, is a member of the matrilineal Young Corn Clan responsible for the tribe's food. </p><p>"This is our way of life. We are dependent on this corn for our ceremonies, our way of life, to be complete," she said. </p><p>"But eventually, if this is the way and the direction that this is going to go, our weather and then the environment, global heating and no rain, sooner or later we're going to be missing a big piece of what is a part of our life as Hopi."</p>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.azcentral.com/in-depth/news/local/arizona-environment/2020/11/30/hopi-tribe-withering-corn-crops-show-impact-climate-change/5931561002/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=101464952&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9y8D3XTXSFwLwANv9QSBuZGtBI7yTIw4i6Bram56CIhxz9T1-yn3F4XNruO6STzdw3jToKLwOY392vKXbVTGPdfLEKHEz3tuJov4Aaoh9euz9HfEY&utm_content=101464952&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Arizona Republic</a>; Climate Signals background: <a href="https://www.climatesignals.org/climate-change-drought?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=101464952&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9TbYuQOYNDvdnvSxALM83Y-zV5ts7wFnmf9CXh3vPEruqdfiipuGmwSklaBekdnFV8rDLYzYuZhZ3bOYfkUSUcEao5-SWkG7QyAcb7-gsi0KbTDj4&utm_content=101464952&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Drought</a><br/></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, and sign up for daily </em><a href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7c84c08aaa" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>.</em></p>
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A boy plays in the rubble of his Nicaragua home, destroyed by Hurricane Eta, as Hurricane Iota approaches on Nov. 15, 2020. Maynor Valenzuela / Getty Images
Hurricane Iota, the 30th named storm and 13th hurricane of a record-breaking season, is now bearing down upon Central America less than two weeks after Hurricane Eta devastated the region.
<p>Iota was a Category 1 storm 10 a.m. Sunday, with winds of around 90 miles per hour, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/world/americas/tropical-storm-iota.html" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>. However, it strengthened rapidly overnight and is now a Category 4 storm with winds up to 155 miles per hour, according to a 7 a.m. EST update from the <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT1+shtml/161143.shtml" target="_blank">National Hurricane Center (NHC)</a>.</p><p>"Iota could be a catastrophic category 5 hurricane when it approaches Central America tonight," the NHC warned.</p>
<div id="e8da5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="85d3970ca495adbd4306b0ba7a8d156b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1328306057060380672" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">#Hurricane #Iota has rapidly strengthened overnight and now has 155 mph (245 km/h) sustained winds. It could reach… https://t.co/WFgoTuDwGH</div> — National Hurricane Center (@National Hurricane Center)<a href="https://twitter.com/NHC_Atlantic/statuses/1328306057060380672">1605527817.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Iota is expected to make landfall in northeastern Nicaragua or eastern Honduras Monday night. It threatens a storm surge of up to 12 to 18 feet above normal tide levels, as well as "catastrophic wind damage" as it moves onshore. The NHC predicts it will dump eight to 16 inches of rain on Honduras, northern Nicaragua, Guatemala and southern Belize, with some parts of Nicaragua and Honduras seeing up to 20 to 30 inches.</p><p>"This rainfall will lead to significant, life-threatening flash <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding" target="_self">flooding</a> and river flooding, along with mudslides in areas of higher terrain," the NHC warned.</p><p>The situation will likely be made worse by the after-effects of Hurricane Eta, the NHC noted Sunday night.</p>
<div id="958f5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="136b1132034320ef357f580bf11232cf"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1328166233796210694" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Hurricane #Iota continues to strengthen. Forecast to become a dangerous category 4 hurricane before it reaches Cen… https://t.co/g2KjzL18DD</div> — National Hurricane Center (@National Hurricane Center)<a href="https://twitter.com/NHC_Atlantic/statuses/1328166233796210694">1605494480.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The fact that the soil has not yet dried out after the earlier storm could make landslides and floods even more likely, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/hurricane-iota-central-america-nicaragua-honduras-b1723521.html" target="_blank">The Independent explained</a>.</p><p>"Our ground is already saturated, so it's to be expected that we have more farming and infrastructure damage," Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said, as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-54941826" target="_blank">BBC News reported</a>.</p><p>Hurricane Eta killed at least 200 people in Central America. One of the worst tragedies occurred in Guatemala, when mudslides in the village of Quejá buried dozens of homes and likely killed around 100 people. Overall, the storm displaced thousands of people after it made landfall as a Category 4 storm Nov. 3, as <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/16/weather/hurricane-iota-monday/index.html#:~:text=(CNN)%20Hurricane%20Iota%20has%20rapidly,Category%204%20storm%20Monday%20night.&text=The%20storm%20is%20moving%20west,of%20Isla%20de%20Providencia%2C%20Colombia." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CNN reported</a>. More than 3.6 million people in the region were impacted by the storm in some way, the Red Cross said.</p><p>Now, Central Americans face further evacuations to prepare for Iota. There are around 63,000 hunkering down in 379 shelters in northern Honduras, The Independent reported. In Nicaragua, 1,500 people were evacuated from low-lying areas as of Sunday afternoon, but 83,000 people in the area were actually in danger.</p>
<p>Both Iota and Eta rapidly intensified, something <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricanes-and-the-climate-crisis-2640136387.html" target="_self">made more likely</a> by the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>, since warmer water fuels more intense storms.</p><p>"In a 36-hour period [Eta] went from a depression to a very strong category 4," Climate Adaptation Center CEO Bob Bunting told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/15/scientists-link-record-breaking-hurricane-season-to-climate-crisis" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>. "That is just not normal. Probably it was the fastest spin up from a depression to a major hurricane in history."</p><p>2020 overall has been a record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season, with 30 named storms, the most ever in a single season. But it is less the number of storms that scientists attribute to climate change than their power and substantial rainfall.</p><p>The back-to-back attack of Eta and Iota has put Central America in the crosshairs of climate change, but the storms are not the only way that global warming has impacted the region. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drought" target="_self">Drought</a> in an area known as the dry corridor, which stretches from northern Costa Rica to southern Mexico, has devastated subsistence farmers and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-implications-migrant-caravan-2616282125.html" target="_self">been linked</a> to migration away from the region.</p><p>"Central America is one of the regions where climate change is felt the most," Guatemala's Giammattei said, as BBC News reported.</p>
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Soybean crops affected by a drought near Navasota, Texas on August 21, 2013. Bob Nichols / USDA / Smith Collection / Gado / Getty Images
By Keith Schneider
In many ways, the story of Texas over the last century is the state's devout allegiance to the principle that mankind has dominion over nature.
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic shut down that idea in 2020. By 11 October, nearly 800,000 people had been infected in Texas and over 16,000 died.</p><p>The sharp and irrepressible rise in virus cases and mortality adds to the intensifying view among Texans that far from living in a place distant from the vagaries of nature, Texas has become a national and global epicenter of natural calamity.</p><p>More people and businesses in Texas are in the way, as booming population and economic growth this century have written a much different story of vulnerability – to nature's bullying and to government's uncertain capacity to adjust. The state's principal <a href="https://texasstatewaterplan.org/statewide" target="_blank">water research agency projects that demand for fresh water</a> will increase dramatically by mid-century as supplies steadily drop, precipitating what looks like an inevitable supply crisis. In short, the second- largest American state and one of the world's largest economies looks a lot like China, India, Australia, South Africa and every other place in the world contending with the confrontation between diminishing water supply and increasing demand.</p><p><span></span>"Texas does not understand shortages," said Dr. Larry McKinney, one of the state's top water researchers and the former director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, a unit of Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi. "It's the Texas mentality. Texas is so big we've had a hard time coming to grips that resources are finite. We really never had to deal with that. Frankly, we're reaching that point."</p>
Rising Demand Confronts Lower Supplies
<p>There are a couple of ways to examine the coming hardship. The first is in numbers. The <a href="https://www.twdb.texas.gov/waterplanning/data/projections/index.asp" target="_blank">Texas Water Development Board found</a> that by 2070 the state's population will grow to 51 million people, 22 million more than today. The state's annual demand for water, the State Water Board projects, will climb to 21.6 million acre-feet (27 trillion liters), up from 18.4 million.</p><p>At the same time, a severe drought will bring increasing constraint. <a href="https://texasstatewaterplan.org/statewide" target="_blank">State authorities project</a> that in a drought comparable to the most severe on record, water supplies will fall over the next 50 years from 15.2 million acre-feet to 13.6 million acre-feet (17 trillion liters). During the driest periods, more people will have considerably less water.</p><p>Here's how that confrontation is playing out in the Hill Country, a region of rapid population growth and uncertain water supply west of Austin, Texas' capital city.</p><p>Two generations ago, about 40,000 people made their homes in Hays County, an epic, rural, rolling masterpiece of space and sky close to Austin and San Antonio. Authorities in Hays counted 14,000 homes that were supplied with water from the Trinity Aquifer, a giant freshwater reserve that lay below. <a href="https://www.circleofblue.org/2020/world/when-it-rains-texas-forgets-drought-and-worsening-water-scarcity/" target="_blank">In both wet years and dry, water was readily available</a>.</p><p>Four decades later, Hays County has grown to 222,000 residents and 75,000 housing units. The Trinity Aquifer is tapped out. Since 2003, a pipeline from Lake Travis, a reservoir near Austin, has provided developers with sufficient water to continue building big subdivisions.<br></p><p>But <a href="https://gato-docs.its.txstate.edu/jcr:04bd3fbb-54df-4be7-bd27-265778ff134f/Mitchell2014%20-%20updated.pdf" target="_blank">a study</a> by the Hill Country Alliance and the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University in San Marcos found that the piped water encouraged more drilling fo water wells into the aquifer. In one area, they found that pumping jumped from just over 3 million gallons annually to 90 million gallons (409 million liters).</p><p>The idea of the sanctity of economic expansion produces all manner of conflict and turmoil about water throughout Texas. The annual <a href="https://www.forbes.com/places/tx/" target="_blank">$1.89 trillion Texas economy,</a> the second-largest state economy and <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?most_recent_value_desc=true" target="_blank">ninth-largest in the world</a>, is entirely dependent on access to adequate supplies of water.</p><p>The 2011 drought <a href="https://agrilifetoday.tamu.edu/2012/03/21/updated-2011-texas-agricultural-drought-losses-total-7-62-billion/#:~:text=Updated%202011%20Texas%20agricultural%20drought%20losses%20total%20%247.62%20billion,-March%2021%2C%202012&text=COLLEGE%20STATION%20%E2%80%93%20Texas%20agricultural%20losses,Texas%20AgriLife%20Extension%20Service%20economists." target="_blank">caused more than $7 billion in agricultural losses</a>, and indirect costs of $16.9 billion. From 1980 to 2018, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Texas also led all states, by far, in losses from severe storms and flooding. In 2017 alone, Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm that stalled near Houston, caused <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2018/01/08/hurricane-harvey-was-years-costliest-us-disaster-125-billion-damages/" target="_blank">$125 billion in damages</a>.</p>
<p>"Water is the economy in Texas," said McKinney. "It drives everything, particularly as you get less of it."</p><p>Sound familiar? It should. Struggles over water occurring across Texas are essentially the same as those unfolding in places where growth is highest and water resources are under the most stress. In the United States that means California, the Southwest and the Rocky Mountain West.</p><p>The same two trends are unfolding around the planet, most notably in China and India. In 2011, China discovered that its program of energy development, grain production, and construction of new cities was using so much water that <a href="http://en.pkulaw.cn/display.aspx?cgid=3256f00ff8d269babdfb&lib=law" target="_blank">by 2020 it would be 20 to 25 trillion liters</a> in deficit, a shortage so dire it could wreck China's booming economy.</p><p>A command-and-control society, China aggressively set out to shrink the deficit by quickly acting on three big initiatives. It moved much of its grain production from the dry Yellow River Basin to the wet northeast provinces. It closed water-thirsty coal mines, coal-washing stations, and water-cooled coal-fired power stations. And it<a href="https://www.circleofblue.org/2011/world/choke-point-chinaconfronting-water-scarcity-and-energy-demand-in-the-worlds-largest-country/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> built the largest water-conserving solar and wind electrical generating industry on Earth</a>.</p>
<p>India is having less success. Groundwater levels are steadily declining in the northwest states that produce much of country's rice, wheat, and sugarcane. But the state and national governments encourage the trend. In a nation that has known pervasive hunger, food production is a paramount cultural objective. Keeping the 700 million Indians who are involved in agriculture happy is another prime objective. That's why farmers pay nothing for water. They can use what they like. And they <a href="https://www.circleofblue.org/2013/world/choke-point-india-the-leopard-in-the-well/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pay nothing for electricity to run ever-more powerful pumps needed to pull water to the surface that lies ever-deeper below ground</a>.</p><p>Texas is Texas. Texas is big, rich, growing, impulsive and impressive. The significant question Texas hasn't answered is where it will find enough water by 2070 – 10 trillion liters, according to the Texas Water Development Board, or about half the Chinese water deficit – to keep over 50 million people safe, satisfied and thriving during deepening droughts.</p><p>There are two ways to look at the challenge. The most optimistic view is so Texas. The Water Board, with its process of reviewing and revising the State Water Plan every five years, lays out steps that are meant to give Texas guidance and time to figure it out. The more realistic and accurate assessment is that as Texas pursues its steep growth vector, the hardships of serious droughts will grow worse.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/10/texas-water-supplies-running-dry/" target="_blank">World Economic Forum</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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An aerial view shows drought conditions in the Amazon rainforest on Feb. 20, 2015 in Brazil. Lena Trindade / Brazil Photos / LightRocket / Getty Images
By Jennifer Ann Thomas
For the first time, researchers have developed a model capable of anticipating drought periods in the Amazon up to 18 months in advance. The study was conducted by scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), in Germany, as part of the Tipping Points in the Earth System (TiPES) project, led by physicist Catrin Ciemer and published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
<p>The model was developed based on surface temperature analysis of the Atlantic Ocean. The relation between the humidity of the oceans and the rainfall regime in the Amazon is part of the intrinsic functioning of the biomes. Any variation in temperature, as a result of global warming, is enough to trigger a series of consequences.</p><p>According to physicist and study co-author Niklas Boers, the early-warning system developed by the group is based on a very simple mechanism: "We discovered that every two years the surface temperatures in the north and south tropical Atlantic develop a dipole, a phenomenon that occurs when temperatures increase in one region and decrease in another."</p><p>The drought forecast alert is issued when this pattern begins to develop. "The dipole modifies the direction of the trade winds, which take moisture from the Atlantic Ocean to South America. This change of direction is responsible for causing droughts mainly in the center-south of the Amazon," Boers said. From the model they developed, the researchers were able to trace back six of the seven main drought events that have occurred in the Amazon since the 1980s.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDU5MDk1Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MTEyOTM5MX0.6RM-Ryoiz3vfY9Dx2ocN14yrDAN91nn3Yk0okz-s0YI/img.jpg?width=980" id="ca886" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e04a515f2eb64460d1cc274c685bbc02" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1425" data-height="1123" />
Average monthly sea surface temperature (in degrees Celsius, red scale) and average continental rainfall in South America (in millimeters/month, blue scale) from 1981 to 2016. Sea surface temperatures and precipitation are generally higher around the equator. On the left, the area where El Niño – Southern Oscillation (ENSO) occurs; dotted lines indicate the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) in January and July, responsible for transporting heat and humidity from the oceans around the tropics.
<p>Carlos Nobre, a renowned Brazilian climate scientist who was not involved in the study, said global warming is making the northern cycle of warmer waters stronger and more present. In the future, he said, we should expect the southern Amazon to become less humid. "The mega droughts of 2005, 2010 and the ongoing one are directly associated with the increase in temperatures in the north tropical Atlantic Ocean," Nobre said.</p><p>"However, unlike in previous years, the current mega drought began in May and June, not interfering in the rains during the summer season. It is too early to say that the warmer waters will continue throughout the months and if they will cause a continued drought until the next rainy season."</p><p>In a context of global warming, there is a close connection between rising ocean temperatures and environmental balance, and the repercussions are felt deep into the forest: what happens on the high seas can impact life in the Amazon.</p><p>Janaína Bumbeer, an oceanographer and science and conservation analyst with the Boticário Group Foundation for Nature Protection, said it's not enough to only understand a single aspect of ecology — it's necessary to understand phenomena in a systemic way. "The relation between the ocean temperature, the climate and the winds is very delicate," said Bumbeer, who was not involved in the new study. "Any increase of 1° Celsius [1.8° Fahrenheit] affects the rainfall regime on the continent." The greater the frequency of anomalies in the seas, she said, the more recurrent the extreme climatic events.</p>
<p>Faced with the effects of climate change, there is a risk that the Northern Hemisphere will heat up faster than the South, which would stimulate the occurrence of the Atlantic dipole and lead to a more intense frequency of droughts in the Amazon.</p><p>Even with the possibility of predicting a drought period in the region, there is little to be done to actually mitigate the direct impacts on the forest. People who live in the Amazon, especially rural farmers, traditional communities, Indigenous people, and those who depend on river transportation to get around (water levels can become so low that navigability becomes impossible) will be the ones who will benefit from the information, the researchers say. "Indirectly, [with the drought forecast alert] it is possible to have a positive influence on the Amazon ecosystem. The more in advance farmers and traditional communities can plan, the less traumatic the interference of the climate will be," Boers said.</p><p>With drought comes another concern: an increase in fires, directly associated with illegal deforestation. According to data from Brazil's National Space Research Institute (INPE), in September of this year, 31,017 hot spots were recorded, the second-worst September in a decade and a 60% increase from the same month last year. Because the Amazon is a humid tropical forest, fire is not part of the biome's natural dynamics, as it is in the temperate forests of the U.S. West Coast. In the Amazon, fires are usually associated with human actions. And in periods of drought, hotspots have the right conditions to grow in extent and to cause greater impacts on the ecosystem.</p><p>"There are innumerous evidence on the possibility of the forest becoming a savanna through the effects of human action," Boers said. "The biome is already very close to the <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/the-tipping-point-is-here-it-is-now-top-amazon-scientists-warn/" target="_blank">tipping point</a>."</p><p>Such a large-scale effect would lead to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, which would further accelerate global warming. The study's underlying message is that all natural phenomena are interconnected. And it demonstrates that as humanity persists on the current economic model of consumption, the effects on the planet will only get worse, to the point of endangering the world's largest tropical forest and its rich biodiversity.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/atlantic-trends-can-predict-amazon-drought-18-months-away-study-finds/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Smoke from the East Troublesome fire in Colorado on Oct. 22, 2020. RubyT / Flickr
Thousands of homes were evacuated Wednesday after a Colorado wildfire exploded in size, growing at a rate of 6,000 acres per hour.
<p>The East Troublesome fire had been burning since Oct. 14, but suddenly took off Wednesday in a more erratic manner than even worst-case-scenario predictions had anticipated, Grand County Sheriff Brett Schroetlin said, as <a href="https://coloradosun.com/2020/10/22/east-troublesome-fire-grand-lake-destruction/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Colorado Sun reported</a>. The fire had grown to 125,600 acres by Thursday morning and 170,163 acres by Thursday evening, making it the second-largest wildfire in Colorado history. It is only five percent contained, according to <a href="https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7242/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">InciWeb</a>.</p><p>"The growth that you see on this fire is unheard of," Schroetlin said during a Thursday press conference reported by <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/10/22/926838887/colorado-fire-grows-by-over-100-000-acres-in-1-day-hits-rocky-mountain-national-" target="_blank">NPR</a>. "We plan for the worst. This is the worst of the worst of the worst. And no matter how we look at it, we can't control Mother Nature."</p>
<div id="85e11" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3577a8e0d4e8a731bf0b62ac772fc8c1"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1319181412315107333" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Heartbreaking video of homes burning in the #EastTroublesomeFire overnight. Listening to scanners right now and fir… https://t.co/y82wWnmchu</div> — Emily Allen (@Emily Allen)<a href="https://twitter.com/EmilyAReports/statuses/1319181412315107333">1603352332.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Schroetlin said Thursday morning that there was "lots of structure loss," according to The Colorado Sun, though no official tally of damage has been reported. As many as five people were unaccounted for by Thursday evening. However, there have been no reports of deaths or injuries.</p><p>The fast-moving fire was first driven by high winds into the town of Grand Lake Wednesday night, <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/10/22/grand-county-braces-for-another-large-growth-day-for-the-east-troublesome-fire/" target="_blank">Colorado Public Radio (CPR) reported</a>.</p><p>"It was basically out of a movie," retired newscaster Ernie Bjorkman told CPR. "It was a firestorm in downtown Grand Lake. Smoke and embers flying around. It was just a chaotic scene. We locked the door and said, 'hopefully, house, we'll see you when we get back.' "</p><p>As of Thursday, town manager John Crone told CPR that the town's historic Grand Lake Lodge and downtown area had not burned.</p><p>The fire then crossed the Continental Divide by 1:15 pm Thursday, according to The Colorado Sun. It also entered Rocky Mountain National Park, forcing it to close.</p>
<div id="0784c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="083c554cdc624bc22b52ef91e2646fb9"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1319357789836353544" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Latest satellite info shows increased fire intensity on the #EastTroublesomeFire early this afternoon. The fire has… https://t.co/GZC77SWXqB</div> — NWS Boulder (@NWS Boulder)<a href="https://twitter.com/NWSBoulder/statuses/1319357789836353544">1603394384.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The flames also menaced the park gateway town of Estes Park, filling it with smoke Thursday morning.</p><p>"The air quality has just decreased to a level that's almost unsafe to go outside," resident Alec Rogers told CPR.</p><p>Estes Park was also put under an evacuation order Thursday, and traffic stalled as people tried to leave.</p>
<div id="93884" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="87faed3af4a1f8c5665138a79cb37558"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1319381273757028375" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">PHOTOS: The sky has gone from yellow to orange. There is a long line of cars waiting to leave Estes Park.… https://t.co/tsKRcONrNk</div> — Matthew Jonas (@Matthew Jonas)<a href="https://twitter.com/photojmatthew/statuses/1319381273757028375">1603399983.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>However, incident commander Noel Livingston said Thursday that a cold front had checked the fire somewhat as it burned inside Rocky Mountain National Park and that it was no longer headed towards Estes Park, The Colorado Sun reported.</p><p>The concern is now that the fire will merge with the Cameron Peak fire, the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/colorado-wildfire-cameron-peak-2648215765.html" target="_self">largest fire in Colorado history</a>, which is burning only 10 to 12 miles away. Livingston said he thought a merger was unlikely, but not impossible.</p><p>"This year has been one of those years when low-potential events seem to be happening with high frequency," Livingston said, as The Colorado Sun reported.</p><p>Officials are hopeful that snow forecast for this weekend will help them to get the fire under control, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/22/us/colorado-evacuations-west-coast-fires/index.html" target="_blank">CNN reported</a>.</p>
<p>The rapid growth of the East Troublesome fire is only the latest development to scorch the fire-weary Western U.S. this year. Its explosion to the second-largest fire in state history means that three of Colorado's five largest fires have now ignited in 2020.</p><p>The fire was driven quickly east by a combination of high winds, dry air and the fuel provided by lodgepole pines killed by beetles, InciWeb said. However, the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> is creating ideal conditions for fire across the West. Almost all of Colorado was experiencing <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drought" target="_self">drought</a> by the end of September, according to NPR. Fire scientists told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/us/colorado-wildfires.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> that fires burning so close to winter in Colorado show how the season has grown because of changing conditions.</p><p>"People have built and developed in these areas without recognizing the hazard they're in, and climate change is notching that up every year," University of Montana fire ecologist Philip Higuera told The New York Times. "It has me concerned for communities across the West that are in increasingly flammable landscapes."</p>
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted a mild winter for most of the U.S. Thursday, forecasting that the drought that now covers nearly half the country will get worse, according to The New York Times.
<p><br/></p>
<p>NOAA's <a href="https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Climate Prediction Center</a> released its winter outlook for 2020-2021 Thursday and predicted that much of the South and Southwest will remain dry this winter, while areas in the Pacific Northwest and the Upper Plains will have the opposite problem — they will have a wetter than average winter, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/15/weather/2020-winter-forecast-noaa-outlook/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>That means that the current drought that blankets just under 47 percent of the continental U.S. will only get worse during the months that usually bring relief. The country is currently in its most widespread drought since 2013.</p>
<p>NOAA's <a href="https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/seasonal.php?lead=2" target="_blank">prediction model</a> said that this year's La Niña will drive warmer and drier weather through the southern part of the country this winter. This zone includes areas where wildfires are currently burning, like Southern California and Colorado.</p><p>"With La Niña well established and expected to persist through the upcoming 2020 winter season, we anticipate the typical, cooler, wetter North, and warmer, drier South, as the most likely outcome of winter weather that the U.S. will experience this year," said Mike Halpert, deputy director of NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/us-winter-outlook-cooler-north-warmer-south-with-ongoing-la-nina" target="_blank">in a news release</a>, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/10/15/noaa-winter-outlook/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p><p>The model splits the lower 48 states into three stripes. One massive stripe runs coast-to-coast from Southern California to North Carolina. It will see a dry winter. A band that encompasses Oregon and Washington and runs along the northern part of the country to Michigan will see a wet winter. The rest of the country will see fairly normal conditions, as the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-news-weather-united-states-1e67f7a2fa8093c748a8741dad55ca84" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AP</a> reported.</p>
<p>Halpert added in a call with reporters that La Ninas, which are periodic cooling of waters in the tropical regions of the Pacific Ocean, usually reduce the odds of large snowstorms on the East Coast. However, the model cannot predict extreme events months ahead of time, according to the AP.</p><p>The climate prediction model is also forecasting above average temperatures for much of the country, with the largest spikes above the average in southern Texas. However, each month may see fluctuations that differ from the overall trend toward warming, as <a href="https://weather.com/forecast/national/news/2020-10-14-winter-2020-2021-temperature-outlook-united-states" target="_blank">The Weather Channel</a> reported.</p><p>"The typical La Niña response is for warm November, cold December, and warm January/February; however, January and February can have significant volatility depending on if high-latitude blocking occurs," said Todd Crawford, chief meteorologist at The Weather Company, as The Weather Channel reported. High-latitude blocking stymies the flow of La Niña from west to east and allows cold air from the Arctic to make its way south.</p>
<p>Studies show that the Southwest, which has been in a drought for the past two decades, is in the grips of its worst megadrought in 1,200 years, as <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/southwest-drought-climate-crisis-2645742986.html" target="_self">EcoWatch</a> reported.</p><p>Halpert said the high likelihood of a worsening drought in the region this winter is directly linked to La Niña, which started in August and is expected to continue through December, as The New York Times reported.</p><p><span>Halpert also emphasized that the prediction is based on mathematical models and that sometimes the impacts of La Niña and El Niño systems do not play out.</span></p>
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