Nearly 50 per cent of India facing drought as groundwater depletion increases – “We are not enhancing groundwater recharge, and drought conditions are making us extract more and more water”

GANDHINAGAR, 28 February 2019 (Press Trust of India) – Nearly 50 per cent of the country is currently facing drought with at least 16 per cent falling in the “exceptional” or “extreme” category, according to IIT Gandhinagar scientists managing India’s real time drought prediction system. This ongoing drought will pose a lot of challenges in […]

Trump’s Aberdeenshire golf resort must pay Scottish government’s legal costs for wind power lawsuit

28 February 2019 (BBC News) – Donald Trump’s Aberdeenshire golf resort must pay the Scottish government’s legal costs following a court battle over a major North Sea wind power development. Mr Trump battled unsuccessfully in the courts to halt the project before he became US president. A total of 11 turbines make up the development […]

U.S. cities burn recyclables after China bans imports – Residents fear rise in pollution from incinerators

By Oliver Milman 21 February 2019 (The Guardian) – The conscientious citizens of Philadelphia continue to put their pizza boxes, plastic bottles, yoghurt containers and other items into recycling bins. But in the past three months, half of these recyclables have been loaded on to trucks, taken to a hulking incineration facility and burned, according […]

How “completely avoidable” measles cases continue to climb – 4 new suspected cases in Washington state – “This is a public health problem for which science has already provided a solution”

By Lauran Neergaard 27 February 2019 WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. has counted more measles cases in the first two months of this year than in all of 2017 — and part of the rising threat is misinformation that makes some parents balk at a crucial vaccine, federal health officials told Congress Wednesday. Yet the […]

Saddleworth Moor burns again after days of dry weather – “These kind of temperatures, 18C or 19C, are what you would normally see in early June”

By Wayne Ankers, Nick Lavigueur, and Susie Beever 27 February 2019 (Examiner Live) – A huge moorland fire has broken out on moorland above Huddersfield closing a major road. […] West Yorkshire Fire have issued a warning about basic fire safety tips after last night’s moorland blaze. Dale Gardiner said “While we have not yet […]

Australia breaks weather records with hottest ever summer – Brisbane had record run of 16 days straight at or above 32°C

By Naaman Zhou 28 February 2019 (The Guardian) – Australia has endured its hottest summer ever, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, breaking the previous record set six years ago. The 2018-19 summer, which produced near 50C days and topped temperature highs across the country, has officially exceeded the previous record set in 2012-13, which […]

Freedom in the World 2019: Democracy in Retreat

5 February 2019 (Freedom House) – Freedom in the World has recorded global declines in political rights and civil liberties for an alarming 13 consecutive years, from 2005 to 2018. The global average score has declined each year, and countries with net score declines have consistently outnumbered those with net improvements [Full report: Freedom in […]

As global democracy retreats, ethnic cleansing is on the rise

By Michael J. Abramowitz and Arch Puddington25 February 2019 (The Diplomat) – Ethnic cleansing, a staple of geopolitical crises in the 1990s, is making a comeback. According to Freedom in the World, the annual report on political rights and civil liberties published by Freedom House, the number of countries earning a score deduction for some […]

Australia approves dumping of 1 million tons of sludge near Great Barrier Reef – “Dumping dredged sludge into world heritage waters treats our reef like a rubbish tip”

By Colin Drury 22 February 2019 (The Independent) – More than one million tons of sludge are to be dumped close to the Great Barrier Reef after authorities in Australia approved plans to discard industrial dredge spoil. Sediment scooped up from the sea floor during maintenance work at nearby Hay Point Port will be ditched […]

Coastal erosion causes once-buried waste to re-emerge on an English beach – “A massive decline in the numbers of fish”

By Kris Jepson 18 February 2019 (ITV News) – Exclusive: Residents have called on authorities to excavate an historic landfill site, which is leaking waste onto Lynemouth Beach and into the sea. Northumberland County Council told ITV News it undertook a land reclamation in the early 2000s, which involved cleaning up the beach and landscaping […]

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