Coffee prices rose on Friday to their highest in nearly half a century, buoyed by tightening supplies as next year’s crop in top grower Brazil struggles to recover fully from this year’s drought.
Dealers also said some Brazilian farmers have delayed deliveries of this year’s crop in the hope of securing even higher prices, leading to short-term supply tightness and large financial losses for traders who had been expecting to receive the coffee.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has asked residents and businesses statewide to cut their water usage by 15% this summer, as low precipitation and low snowpack threaten reservoir levels and raise the specter of another deadly wildfire season.
While some California counties have already instituted mandatory water restrictions, Newsom’s request to reduce usage is voluntary.
“We’re hopeful that people will take that mindset they brought into the last drought and extend that forward,” he said at a Thursday press conference, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Dry conditions, high temperatures, and strong winds have once more spawned several large and destructive wildfires across the state of California. Thousands of firefighters are now battling multiple blazes that have burned hundreds of thousands of acres in the past few weeks, and recently claimed at least eight lives. Gathered below: a collection of images of those affected by these recent fires, and some of the dramatic scenes of destruction left in their wake.
California’s epic drought is pushing Big Oil to solve a problem it’s struggled with for decades: what to do with the billions of gallons of wastewater that gush out of wells every year.
Golden State drillers have pumped much of that liquid back underground into disposal wells. Now, amid a four-year dry spell, more companies are looking to recycle their water or sell it to parched farms as the industry tries to get ahead of environmental lawsuits and new regulations.
The trend could have implications for oil patches across the country. With fracking boosting the industry’s thirst for water, companies have run into conflicts from Texas to Colorado to Pennsylvania. California could be an incubator for conservation efforts that have so far failed to gain traction elsewhere in the U.S.
Dispatches From The Front 