Kiribati: Land of the rising sea

On the front line of climate change, the people of the Pacific Islands are desperately looking for higher ground. Adam Morton reports from Kiribati. When a coconut tree dies the decay starts at the top. The leaves fall, then the fruit. All that is left is a desiccated trunk, cut off at half-mast. In areas […]

Trout may be killed to save California yellow-legged frogs

SAN FRANCISCO, California, November 19, 2009 (ENS) – National Park Service officials in California are about to decide how to kill non-native trout to save critically endangered native yellow-legged frogs. How to eradicate the trout has generated a controversy among environmental groups. The nonprofit organization Save The Frogs, based in Virginia, is urging the National […]

Feared Asian carp may be near U.S. Great Lakes

By Andrew Stern CHICAGO (Reuters) – There are signs Asian carp may have breached barriers designed to keep the prolific fish out of the Great Lakes, which could spell ecological disaster for the vital source of fresh water, authorities said on Friday. Concentrations of DNA discovered by Notre Dame University researchers may indicate the presence […]

Graph of the Day: U.S. Unemployment Rates by County, Jan 2007 – Sep 2009

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more than 31 million people currently unemployed – that’s including those involuntarily working part-time and those who want a job, but have given up on trying to find one. In the face of the worst economic upheaval since the Great Depression, millions […]

Inferno on Earth: Wildfires spreading as temperatures rise

“Future firefighters have their work cut out for them.,” says Janet Larsen, Director of Research for the Earth Policy Institute, in a recent release, “Inferno on Earth: Wildfires Spreading as Temperatures Rise“. Perhaps nowhere does this hit home harder than in Australia, where in early 2009 a persistent drought, high winds, and record high temperatures […]

'Conspiracy of silence' over climate migrants: UN official

By Staff WritersBarcelona, Spain (AFP) Nov 5, 2009 A “conspiracy of silence” is stifling debate over the future of people who become displaced through climate change, a top UN official for refugees says. In an interview with AFP at the UN climate talks in Barcelona, Jean-Francois Durieux, in charge of climate change at the UN […]

Global warming a growing threat to Arctic reindeer

  By Staff WritersJarfjord, Norway (AFP) Nov 13, 2009 On Norway’s border with Russia, the consequences of climate change are affecting the reindeer population as rising temperatures hit food stocks and industry growth eats into vital grazing land. “Over the past three years, I’ve had to give some hay to my 800 reindeer during the […]

Floods and droughts: How climate change is impacting Africa

By CHRISTOPHER THOMPSON / KALOTUM Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009 When one enters the northern Kenyan village of Kalotum, the overwhelming impression is one of things missing. There are a dozen conical thatched huts and a clutch of spindly thorn trees. But there are no crops, animals or water. A quick look around reveals no men, […]

Destruction of Indonesia peatlands wreaks as much damage as all the vehicles in the U.S.

TARUNA JAYA, Indonesia – Across a patch of pineapples shrouded in smoke, Idris Hadrianyani battled a menace that has left his family sleepless and sick — and has wrought as much damage on the planet as has exhaust from all the cars and trucks in the United States. Against the advancing flames, he waved a […]

Graph of the Day: Sea Level Rise at Australia coastline, Early 1990s – June 2009

The net relative sea level trend in mm/year after subtracting the effects of the vertical movement of the platform and the inverse barometric pressure effect utilising all the data collected since the start of the project up to the end of June 2009. Australia National Tidal Centre, Bureau of Meteorology, The Australian Baseline Sea Level […]

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