I keep a Google alert going for regional drought-related news. I got a bunch of interesting stuff today, so here it is.
This from NarcoNews.com. Who knew?
Coca-Cola moves into Mezcal.
Agro-Industry Absorbs Oaxaca Land and Water for Private Profit, Stainless Steel Vats Replace Artisanship
Little Earl, who maintains a certain interest in our local drink, took a twenty-peso tour of the new mezcal distillery located on the road to Tlacolula de Matamoros, on the Cristobal Colón highway, about half an hour from Oaxaca City. Tlacolula lures tourists to its huge weekly market where you can buy live turkeys, oxen yokes, seasonal vegetables, rice drinks, enamel pots, and artisan work ranging from carved fantastic animals to embroidered blouses. Occasional musicians entertain while shoppers stroll areas dedicated to fresh produce, shoes, socks, and plastic buckets. Along the main street, small shops sell mezcal. It’s artisan mezcal: an artisan liquor cooked in clay containers, from home-grown agave.
When Little Earl entered the Casa Armando Guillermo Prieto (Casa AGP) distillery, whose security little Earl describes as “tough as any airport”, they waived their metal detecting wand over him and discovered his digital camera. “No sir,” the security guard said. “It is the policy of Coca-Cola to not allow photographs.” Coca- Cola? Who knew? His cell phone in the other pocket suffered the same temporary confiscation.
S.A. de C.V. stands for “Sociedad Anónima de Capital Variable”. It describes a company whose capital partners are anonymous and of variable investment. Most foreign investments in Mexico are designated S.A. de C.V. CIMSA S.A. de C.V.-Coca Cola, a consortium of businesses “100% Mexican” produces Casa AGP mezcal. I also saw it written in inverse order, as Coca-Cola-CIMSA.
Courthouse News Service; “Group Bristles for Thistles.”
http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/02/15/24690.htm
ALBUQUERQUE (CN) – WildEarth Guardians wants the government to list a rare wetlands-dependent thistle as endangered or threatened. The federal complaint for the Wright’s marsh thistle is part of “Wildflower Week” in the group’s “BioBlitz” endangered species campaign.
The white-to-pink flowered thistle has declined due to water diversion from the New Mexico wetland habitats upon which it depends. Drought exacerbates the threat to remaining areas, the group says, and climate change is likely to worsen drought conditions.
WildEarth Guardians filed a petition to list the thistle in October 2008; a settlement led to the government issuing a positive 90-day finding nearly a year later. The current lawsuit seeks to compel a 12-month finding, which the feds still haven’t done, the group says.
Fog has declined in past century along California’s redwood coast.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-02/uoc–fhd021110.php
Analysis of hourly airport cloud cover reports leads to surprising finding
California’s coastal fog has decreased significantly over the past 100 years, potentially endangering coast redwood trees dependent on cool, humid summers, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, scientists.
It is unclear whether this is part of a natural cycle of the result of human activity, but the change could affect not only the redwoods, but the entire redwood ecosystem, the scientists say.
“Since 1901, the average number of hours of fog along the coast in summer has dropped from 56 percent to 42 percent, which is a loss of about three hours per day,” said study leader James A. Johnstone, who recently received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley’s Department of Geography before becoming a postdoctoral scholar in the campus’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management (ESPM). “A cool coast and warm interior is one of the defining characteristics of California’s coastal climate, but the temperature difference between the coast and interior has declined substantially in the last century, in step with the decline in summer fog.”
The loss of fog and increased temperature mean that “coast redwood and other ecosystems along the U.S. West Coast may be increasingly drought-stressed, with a summer climate of reduced fog frequency and greater evaporative demand,” said coauthor Todd E. Dawson, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology and of ESPM. “Fog prevents water loss from redwoods in summer, and is really important for both the tree and the forest. If the fog is gone, we might not have the redwood forests we do now.”
USA: Crews dredge Rio Grande to keep it flowing
http://www.dredgingtoday.com/2010/02/15/usa-crews-dredge-rio-grande-to-keep-it-flowing/
RATTLESNAKE POINT — Without Jason Thibodaux’s help, the Rio Grande would have a hard time making it past this sediment-choked desert flood plain.
Around a bend in the muddy, shallow river, a heavy equipment operator supervised by Thibodaux scooped sand from the main channel, building a berm on the east bank.
The goal, Thibodaux explained, was to keep the river flowing downstream toward Elephant Butte Reservoir. Without the help, the river would peter out into the flatlands on either side of its narrow channel.
State and federal water agencies began the project nine years ago when drought dropped water levels at Elephant Butte, the Rio Grande’s largest water storage reservoir. Elephant Butte “became disconnected from the river,” explained Chris Stageman, who manages the work for the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission.
Who knew there was an online publication called “Dredging Today?”
Being lazy here with not embedding the links. You will survive this omission on my part.
