South America

This thread is for discussion of South American aspects of global warming.

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20 Responses to “South America”

  1. THREAD says:
    October 22, 2010 at 10:29 am

    ‘Green tsunami’ gathers force in South America

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  2. THREAD says:
    October 22, 2010 at 10:32 am

    Cold snap freezes South America – beaches whitened, some areas experience snow for the first time in living memory

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  3. THREAD says:
    October 22, 2010 at 10:36 am

    Mapping the cold snap in South America

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  4. THREAD says:
    October 22, 2010 at 10:42 am

    Peru Government Declares Cold Wave Emergency

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  5. THREAD says:
    October 22, 2010 at 10:44 am

    Chile – Big Freeze hits fruit farmers

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  6. THREAD says:
    October 22, 2010 at 10:46 am

    175 people killed in South America cold spell

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  7. THREAD says:
    October 22, 2010 at 10:48 am

    Freezing temperatures threaten thousands in Peru

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  8. THREAD says:
    October 22, 2010 at 10:58 am

    Hundreds die in Peru’s big freeze

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  9. THREAD says:
    October 22, 2010 at 11:04 am

    Snow in Brazil, below zero Celsius in the River Plate and tropical fish frozen

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  10. THREAD says:
    October 22, 2010 at 11:06 am

    Argentina Colder Than Antarctica Raises Power Imports (Update2)

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  11. THREAD says:
    October 22, 2010 at 11:08 am

    1 Million Fish Dead in Bolivian Ecological Disaster

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  12. THREAD says:
    October 22, 2010 at 11:09 am

    Chilly in Chile: South America Hit by Cold Snap

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  13. THREAD says:
    October 22, 2010 at 11:23 am

    Crops & Markets
    Cold strikes Argentina’s blueberries

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  14. Richard C (NZ) says:
    March 7, 2011 at 9:33 am

    Starbucks blames cooler Costa Rica night-time temperatures on global warming. Meanwhile scientists and growers blame changing weather and climate on “climate change” (after planting higher up the mountains when the weather was warmer).
    —————————————————————————————————————————-
    Climate change takes toll on coffee growers, drinkers too

    Saturday, March 5, 2011 at 10:03 PM – The Seattle Times

    Shifting temperatures and erratic rainfall are taking a toll on the lucrative coffee crop in Costa Rica. Yields are way down, part of the reason coffee drinkers here are paying more for their morning cup.

    SANTA MARIA DE DOTA, Costa Rica — A mile above this rural mountain town, coffee trees have produced some of the world’s best arabica beans for more than a century.

    Now farmers are planting even higher — at nearly 7,000 feet — thanks to warmer temperatures.

    “We noticed about six years ago, the weather changed,” said Ricardo Calderón Madrigal, whose family harvests ripe, red coffee cherries at the higher elevation. He sells beans to some of the most notable coffeehouses in the U.S., including Stumptown Coffee of Portland and Ritual Coffee in San Francisco.

    [Snip]

    Yields in Costa Rica have dropped dramatically in the last decade, with farmers and scientists blaming climate change for a significant portion of the troubles.

    [snip]

    Global warming — more accurately called climate change — poses “a direct business threat to our company,” Starbucks executive Jim Hanna told an Environmental Protection Agency panel in 2009 in Seattle.

    [Snip]

    On the slopes of Volcano Poás, the biggest threats are colder nights, fiercer winds and rain that falls too hard and at the wrong times. Temperatures at Flores’ coffee farms on Poás used to stay above 60 degrees at night, but now are dropping to 52 degrees. He also has planted more rows of Indian cane and other trees as windscreens.

    Continues………

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  15. Richard C (NZ) says:
    May 14, 2011 at 10:20 pm

    Anger mounts over hydro plan for Patagonia

    May 14, 2011

    CHILEAN authorities have approved a $2.8 billion plan to dam two rivers in Patagonia for hydro-electricity, triggering angry protests and claims that swathes of pristine wilderness will be destroyed.

    The HidroAysen project envisages five dams to tap the Baker and Pascua rivers, an isolated area of fiords and valleys, and generate 2.75 gigawatts of power for Chile’s booming economy.

    The government has championed the dams as vital to poverty alleviation and growth, but public opinion has split, with many saying the project is unnecessary and will devastate an ecological haven.

    [Snip]

    HidroAysen argued that the dams will provide cheap and clean electricity in comparison to oil and coal. Chile recently approved three coal plants.

    Some analysts say Chile will need to triple its energy capacity in the next 15 years to feed fast-growing industries and cities. The country imports 97 per cent of its fossil fuel needs and relies mainly on hydro power for electricity, leaving it vulnerable to oil shocks and drought.

    The council of ministers is expected to nod through the proposed dams but activists hope to win concessions in the environmental impact assessment for the next phase of the project: 1900-kilometre transmission lines, estimated to cost $3.5 billion, to bring electricity to Santiago.

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/anger-mounts-over-hydro-plan-for-patagonia-20110513-1emcw.html#ixzz1MJqRLA7c

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  16. Richard C (NZ) says:
    July 3, 2011 at 2:13 pm

    Five of South America’s major fruit-producing countries have witnessed an historic cold snap over the last week, including a snowstorm in the Argentine citrus region of Tucumán.

    Low temperatures were registered in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Bolivia.

    The blizzard hit Tucumán on Friday in conditions not seen since 1920, while the Brazilian state of Santa Caterina recorded a wind chill of -25°C (-13°F), website Infobae.com reported.

    June 29th, 2011

    http://www.freshfruitportal.com/

    Reply
  17. Richard C (NZ) says:
    July 24, 2011 at 1:12 am

    Carbon cowboys

    Amazonian tribes are facing new challenges as carbon credit dealers move into their forests, write Patrick Bodenham and Ben Cubby.

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/carbon-cowboys-20110722-1hssc.html#ixzz1Sw6d7ZgJ

    Reply
  18. Richard C (NZ) says:
    July 28, 2011 at 7:18 pm

    Chile hit by ‘white earthquake’ of heavy snow

    A “white earthquake” of heavy snow has blanketed parts of Chile leading the government to declare a “disaster area” in eight municipalities where around 16,000 people were left isolated.

    Temperatures plunged to as low as -23 C (-9.4F) in some rural areas as severe snowfall wreaked havoc, leaving people without food supplies, mobile phone signals or radio communications.

    Miguel Mellado, governor of the province of Cautin, said that in four days from Sunday to Wednesday the area had seen “four months worth of snowfall.”

    In the town of Lonquimay, around 350 miles south of the capital Santiago, more than 6,500 people were trapped in their homes after snow piled up to 2.3 metres (7ft 6ins), while in surrounding rural areas it was reported to have reached 9ft.

    [...]

    Although severe cold weather is not unusual in the region, close to the border with Argentina, Mr Pinera described the current polar front as the worst it had seen in 30 years.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/8656274/Chile-hit-by-white-earthquake-of-heavy-snow.html

    Reply
  19. Richard C (NZ) says:
    July 28, 2011 at 7:29 pm

    South America Gripped By Brutal Winter

    By P Gosselin on 26. Juli 2011

    German climate blog Readers Edition here has been keeping an eye on the winter in South America. While much of the news has been buzzing about the “record heat wave” hitting the US last week (a whopping 0.4% of the stations reported record highs! /sarc), Europe and South America for example are being left out in the cold.

    [Check out the anomaly plot]

    In South America, dozens of people have died from the bitter cold in 7 countries so far, just when cold snaps were supposed to be getting rarer and the heat waves more frequent. The cold is repeat of last year’s brutal South American winter.

    Readers Edition writes (paraphrased):

    In southern Peru, temperatures in the higher elevations of the Andes fell to -23°C. Since the beginning of last week 112 people have died of hypothermia and flu.

    Coldest winter in 10 years

    In Argentina the lowest temperatures in 10 years were measured – the temperature dropped to -14°C. At least 33 people died, some froze to death and some from poisonous gases emitted from faulty heaters.

    Thousands of cattle freeze to death in fields.

    It was unusually cold in neighbouring countries. In the tropical regions of Bolivia where temperatures rarely fall below 20°C (68°F), the temperature hovered near 0°C. At least four people died because of the cold. Two homeless persons died in Uruguay. Thousands of cattle froze in the fields in Paraguay and Brazil.

    Natural gas shortages

    In some areas of Bolivia and Peru, school was cancelled for some kids at the end of the week. Emergency shelters were opened for the homeless in larger cities. In Argentina some provinces faced natural gas shortages.

    Heavy snow in Chile

    Unusually heavy snows have fallen in parts of Chile. States of emergency have been declared in 8 communities with some buried in up to 3 meters of snow. In the south of the country about 170 people have become isolated from supply lines.

    http://notrickszone.com/2011/07/26/south-america-gripped-by-brutal-winter/

    Reply
  20. Richard C (NZ) says:
    February 15, 2012 at 10:06 am

    Selected quotes from:-

    In the Andes, freak cold extracts a brutal toll

    Climate change alters the environment in complex ways. The Andes, warming for decades, has seen three bitter winters that have left more than 400 dead and aid agencies scrambling.

    Experts see the fingerprints of global warming there, too.

    By Emily Kirkland

    for the Daily Climate

    http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2012/02/andes-extreme-cold/

    But the bean harvests have failed recently, and cattle have come down with strange illnesses. Ice has ruined the oranges and avocados. Most worryingly, the cold has taken its toll on his children.

    “The children get pneumonia,” said Chanta. “This cold is so much for our children.”

    Over the past three years, bitter cold spells and frosts have made life in El Higueron – and throughout most of the Peruvian Andes – increasingly difficult. As paradoxical as it seems, scientists suspect global warming is to blame.

    And,

    Bone-chilling cold has always been a feature of life in the Andes. But rural residents, government officials, and development workers all say that frosts and cold waves have grown more extreme.

    Christopher Hinostroza Quiñonez, the head of disaster management for the town of Yungay in the central Andes, said cold there had intensified, with freezes and hailstorms in the highlands.

    Raul Ramos Garcia “Now, in this season, there are sometimes frosts. It didn’t used to be this way,” said Raul Ramos Garcia, a farmer from the nearby village of Huachao.

    Juser Nunez Peralta, who works in rural development in the southern Cusco region, said frosts had also intensified there.

    Gustavo Cajusol works on climate change adaptation for GIZ, the German aid agency, in the northern province of Piura. He said frosts were more common there as well.

    “I can’t understand it,” he said. “The climate is changing.”

    And,

    Climate change can alter atmospheric conditions in complex ways, said Mathias Vuille, a climate scientist at the State University of New York, Albany, who has specialized in the Andes. In some cases, he said, it can lead to greater extremes of both hot and cold.

    And,

    Jose Marengo, a climate scientist with the Brazilian space agency, INPE, who has also studied the Andes extensively, said global warming could make cold waves less frequent but more severe.

    But unfortunately,

    Unfortunately, existing weather records do not allow for detailed scientific studies of extreme cold. Weather stations are few and far between, and historical records are often difficult to access. Many include only monthly or weekly averages, not the hour-by-hour measurements necessary to monitor temperature extremes.

    “We’re in the Stone Age,” said Armando Mendoza, an economist with the Peruvian Center for Social Studies who has done extensive work on climate change policy. “We don’t have information.”

    In conclusion,

    Extreme cold in the Andes also serves as a reminder that the effects of climate change are often very hard to foresee.

    “Everyone’s talking about climate change adaptation, but what are we adapting to?” said Vuille, the SUNY-Albany researcher.

    Numpties

    Reply

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