By MARIAN WILKINSON ENVIRONMENT EDITORNovember 23, 2009 SYDNEY sweltered in near record-breaking heat yesterday as the temperature climbed above 40 degrees across the city just after 3pm. At the airport the mercury hit 42.5, pipping Penrith’s high of 42.1. And the metropolitan heat was almost as fierce as the 43 recorded in the state’s north-west […]
By ELLIE HARVEY AND BELLINDA KONTOMINASNovember 23, 2009 FIRES burned aggressively across NSW yesterday, scorching about 12,000 hectares of the state but claiming just one property. About 130 fires were fanned by sweltering heat and gusty conditions that led to emergency warnings for eight towns. This level of warnings advises residents to enact their bushfire […]
By MARIAN WILKINSON ENVIRONMENT EDITORNovember 23, 2009 THE collapse of the Coorong wetlands at the mouth of the Murray River is shaping up to be one of the Australia’s worst environmental disasters, an author of a report on the region said yesterday. Bird numbers in the region have fallen dramatically and freshwater turtles continue to […]
Arusha — The drought spell that has hit most parts of Arusha and Manyara regions for about two consecutive years is tearing apart the Maasai social fabric and driving youths in large numbers to seek employment or beg for food in urban areas. Maasai youths from Simanjiro, Ngorongoro and Monduli Districts are flocking into town […]
MOSCOW (AFP) — Thawing permafrost caused by global warming is costing Russian energy firms billions of dollars annually in damage control and shrinking Russia’s territory, Greenpeace warned in a new study Friday. According to the report by the environmental watchdog, up to 55 billion roubles (1.9 billion dollars) a year is spent on repairs to […]
By Steve Bird and Lindsay McIntosh The full and devastating impact of England’s worst recorded day of rain was still emerging last night as tributes were paid to a policeman swept away by floodwaters while trying to save others. PC Bill Barker was helping motorists stranded on a bridge over the Derwent in the Cumbrian […]
Fish reared in water acidified by CO2 may become “fatally attracted” to the smell of their predators, say scientists. A team studying the effects of acidification – caused by dissolved CO2 – on ocean reefs found that it leaves fish unable to “smell danger”. Young clownfish that were reared in the acidified water became attracted […]
This graph shows the evolution of the various sources and sinks of anthropogenic CO2 between ad 1765 and ad 2005. Our results indicate that the terrestrial biosphere was a source of Cant until the 1940s, roughly in line with previous model-based estimates3, 18, after which it turned into a sink of anthropogenic CO2. Taken over […]
Nairobi — Houses left behind by Mau settlers were demolished on Thursday in a clear indication that the government would not allow the evicted squatters to return to the forest. The Kenya Forest Service has also sent more rangers to the South Western Mau to ensure that the families that leave the country’s largest source […]
By JOSEPHINE TOVEYNovember 22, 2009 THE worst fire conditions ever seen in November are expected today as the mercury rises to about 40 degrees and beyond across NSW. The Rural Fire Service, already stretched with 1000 firefighters battling more than 140 blazes across the state yesterday, is bracing for what Assistant Commissioner Rob Rogers described […]
