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Lake
Michigan. Photo © J. Carl
Ganter / Circle of Blue
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YOUR
GLOBAL RUNDOWN
- Water
levels in Lake
Michigan
and Huron
are still
dangerously high,
despite dropping
this month.
- A new
report calls for
more funding to
small-scale
farmers around the
world
that are
disproportionately
affected by
climate change.
- A proposal
from an oil
company to dump
millions of
gallons of oil and
gas wastewater
into a Wyoming
aquifer was
accepted.
- An
environmental
coalition in Oregon
sues a water
district over an
aging dam that
they say is the
cause of a number
of environmental
concerns.
An
agricultural project
in the United
Kingdom
aims to adapt to a
climate where rain
and flooding will be
more common.
“We’re
not pretending
we’re farmers,
this is just a
shop window, a
conversation
starter.” – Lorna
Parker, the
restoration
manager for the
wider Great Fen
project. The Great
Fen project is
part of an
initiative to
introduce
paludiculture, or
wet farming, to
the U.K., the
Guardian
reports.
It uses plants
that thrive in
saturated soil
that could suit
the future climate
in the U.K., when
weather events are
expected to be
more extreme and
rainfall could be
excessive. The
project takes
place in
Cambridgeshire, an
area where much of
the farmland lies
as low as four
meters (13 feet)
below sea level.
Paludiculture
could stop soil
erosion, stop
carbon from
escaping from the
ground and boost
biodiversity in
the area.
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Overlooked
Army Corps
Rulemaking Would
Shrink Federal
Stream
Protections
Earlier this year,
the Trump
administration
secured one of its
signature
environmental
legacies when it
completed a rule
that reduced federal
protections for
wetlands as well as
for streams that
flow only following
rainfall.
Now, the Army Corps
of Engineers, with
much less fanfare
and in the final
months of the Trump
administration, is
considering another
rule change that
would also shrink
federal protection
of small streams,
ecologists and
lawyers say. The
Corps said in its
proposal that it is
acting in response
to the president’s
order to review
regulations that
burden energy
development.
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New Report Stresses Need For Financial
Assistance To
Small-Scale
Farmers Amid
Climate Crisis
A new
report
from the U.N.
International Fund
for Agricultural
Development (IFAD)
and Climate Policy
Initiative
think-tank found
that less than two
percent of climate
finance goes to
small-scale farmers
in developing
nations, despite
small-scale farmers
making up 95 percent
of the world’s
farms. These farmers
are
disproportionately
facing the effects
of climate change,
including rising
temperatures and
frequent floods and
droughts. The report
includes several
recommendations
including channeling
climate finance to
small-scale
agriculture at large
and promoting better
information on
measuring progress
towards climate
adaptation and
mitigation for
small-scale farmers.
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Today's Top Stories, Told in Numbers
MILLIONS
OF GALLONS OF OIL
AND GAS WASTEWATER
The Wyoming Oil and
Gas Conservation
Commission approved
an application from
Aethon Energy to
inject millions of
gallons of oil and
gas wastewater in an
aquifer in central
Wyoming. The Casper Star
Tribune reports
that a hearing for
the proposal was
held Tuesday and
featured several
hours of testimony
from geologists,
engineers and
attorneys for
Aethon, along with
over 100 public
comments that
expressed concerns
over compromising
the potential for
the aquifer to be
used as a drinking
water source in the
future.
32
INCHES (81 CM)
Water levels in
Lakes Michigan and
Huron dropped 3.5
inches in the past
month, MLive reports.
Levels in all the
Great Lakes dropped
higher than average
amounts last month.
The typical decline
between September
and October in Lakes
Michigan and Huron
is 2.76 inches (7
cm). The recent
drops put the lakes
about 10 inches
(25.4 cm) below
record levels,
although they could
climb back to record
levels in February
and March of 2021.
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On the
Radar
A coalition of
environmental and
fishing groups are
suing the Winchester
Water Control District
in southern Oregon
over the 130-year-old
Winchester Dam, the
Associated Press
reports.
The lawsuit, filed
last Friday, details
the coalition’s
grievances with the
dam’s aging fishing
ladder, which they say
blocks the passage of
the federally
protected Oregon Coast
coho salmon and other
fish species. The
North Umpqua River,
where the dam is
located, is a key part
of the coastal fishing
industry, Jim McCarthy
with WaterWatch of
Oregon told the AP.
The dam considerably
reduces the number of
salmon that get to the
Pacific Ocean and
prevents returning
salmon from finding
spawning grounds in
the river above the
dam, according to the
plaintiffs. The
lawsuit asks a judge
to order the water
district to build a
new fish ladder and
make major repairs to
the dam.
In context: Country’s
Aging Dams, a
‘Sitting Duck,’
Facing a Barrage
of Hazards
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