The Mau Complex forms the largest closed-canopy forest ecosystem of Kenya, as large as the forests of Mt. Kenya and the Aberdare combined. It is the single most important water catchment in Rift Valley and western Kenya. Through the ecological services provided by its forests, the Mau Complex is a natural asset of national importance […]
From Calculated Risk: Here is a graph of office, mall and lodging investment through Q3 2009 based on the underlying detail data released by the BEA … This graph shows investment in offices, lodging and malls as a percent of GDP. The recent boom in lodging investment has been stunning. Lodging investment peaked at 0.32% […]
HARARE: Zimbabwe has lost about 200 rhinoceroses — a quarter of its total population — to rampant poaching over the last three years as security and the economy deteriorated, state media reported on Tuesday. The southern African country has been badly damaged by an economic crisis, which critics blame on President Robert Mugabe’s seizure of […]
By ROBERT F. WORTHPublished: October 31, 2009 JAHILIYA, Yemen — More than half of this country’s scarce water is used to feed an addiction. Even as drought kills off Yemen’s crops, farmers in villages like this one are turning increasingly to a thirsty plant called qat, the leaves of which are chewed every day by […]
By James Morgan, BBC News, Kenya At the edges of Kenya’s Lake Nakuru, Paul Opiyo picks up a dead flamingo and warns some eager tourists not to touch it, just in case. He points down to his feet – the brown earth is speckled with brittle white feather shafts. “We should be underwater, standing here,” […]
Nairobi — With exactly a week to go before a deadline for those settled in a section of the Mau Forest complex expires, thousands of anxious settlers are grappling with the inevitability of eviction. A two-pronged plan in the past week has cleared any doubts on the government’s determination to get the settlers out and […]
Scientists unravel how warming temperatures will trigger more wild fires in California’s Yosemite National Park. By Matt Walker, Editor, Earth News Wild fires within California’s world famous Yosemite National Park are set to become more frequent and severe due to climate change. New research has unpicked how this may happen; and it is not just […]
(a) Seasonal Melt Departure (SMD) for June-August and (b) seasonal maximum daily temperature anomalies at three coastal meteorological stations in Greenland for June-August from 1973 to 2007 (Mote 2007). The recent marked retreat, thinning, and acceleration of most of Greenland’s outlet glaciers south of 70° N has increased concerns over contributions from the Greenland Ice […]
Conservation groups warn of ‘alarming’ loss of biodiversity as thousands of animals face imminent extinction By Andy McSmith, Tuesday, 3 November 2009 Six years ago, these tiny mustard-coloured toads could be found in their thousands, living under the spray from an African waterfall. No one even knew they existed until 1996. Yet today the Kihansi […]
By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com, November 02, 2009 The most recent survey among the ice fields atop Mount Kilimanjaro found that the ice atop Africa’s most famous mountain could be gone in twenty years—and maybe even sooner. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science the study [pdf] was conducted by a team of […]
