Global list of water-related conflicts grows – ‘By any measure or any method, there are too many people who are facing water scarcity’

By Ian James 18 February 2016 (The Desert Sun) – Violent conflicts over water have been flaring in places from Yemen to Peru, and an updated global list shows a sharp rise in the number of water-related clashes reported over the past three decades. The Pacific Institute, a think tank that focuses on water issues, […]

EU review finds European governments failing in fight against multi-billion euro trade in illegal wood

18 February 2016 (Global Witness) – EU member states are failing to enforce laws designed to protect the world’s forests from illegal logging, according to a European Commission report published today [EU Timber Regulation: First two years show progress, but more effort needed from Member States and private sector]. The first review of the EU […]

Seven million hectares of forests have been lost in Argentina over the past 20 years – ‘We are facing a serious forest emergency’

By Ruxandra Guidi 19 February 2016 (mongabay.com) – Agriculture in Argentina has expanded at an accelerated rate in the past twenty years due to technological advances, the use of genetically modified crops, and, in particular, to the cultivation of soybean. The South American country is the first global exporter of soy, and the biggest provider […]

Drought ends in São Paulo but future still uncertain

By Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Brad Brooks and Bill Trott 18 February 2016 SÃO PAULO (Reuters) – Water levels at the main reservoir in Brazil’s largest city of São Paulo have more than doubled since the El Niño climate phenomenon ended a two-year drought, although industrialists and activists warn fresh shortages may be just a […]

Photographer captures heartbreaking image of Arctic polar bear which ‘starved to death as a result of climate change’

  [cf. Desdemona’s collection of polar bear stories.] By Simon Tomlinson18 February 2016 (Daily Mail) – A photographer has captured a heartbreaking image of a dead polar bear which he claims starved to death as a result of climate change. Sebastian Copeland was trekking in the Canadian Arctic when he came across the animal’s emaciated […]

Global temperatures leap higher in January, smashing records – ‘This January is a whopping 1.1 degrees warmer than the average January’

By Peter Hannam  16 February 2016 (Sydney Morning Herald) – This year has got off to a scorching start, with global temperatures marching to new highs as a giant El Niño rode on the back of creeping climate change, data from Japan and the US show. Just a month after the world notched its hottest […]

Masdar City could become world’s first green ghost town

By Suzanne Goldenberg 16 February 2016 Masdar City (Guardian) – Years from now passing travellers may marvel at the grandeur and the folly of the futuristic landscape on the edges of Abu Dhabi: the barely occupied office blocks, the deserted streets, the vast tracts of undeveloped land and – most of all – the abandoned […]

Wildlife slaughtered as Amazon rainforest burns for Belo Monte dam construction – Burning timber fuels Brazil’s illegal lumber market

By Ana Aranha; translated by Holly Holmes      27 January 2016 (Upside Down World) – Source in Portuguese: Reporterbrasil.org This report follow up on an earlier article by Ana Aranha, published by Upside Down World here. Gliding through the waters of the Xingu River in Pará, between white sand beaches and four-story trees, the contrast is […]

Native Americans awarded $48 million to move from disappearing Louisiana island – First climate refugees in the lower 48 states

By Terri Hansen5 February 2016 (Indian Country) – It has taken well over a decade of advocating on behalf of his tribe to keep his scattered community intact as their island on Louisiana’s Gulf coast disappears under Gulf of Mexico waters, but now Chief Albert Naquin of the Isle de Jean Charles Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw […]

Native Americans press feds to clean up 15,000 water-poisoning uranium mines

By Jessica Swarner4 February 2016 (Cronkite News) – Longtime Sanders, Arizona, resident Wayne Lynch was told in July that the water on his ranch contained dangerously high amounts of uranium, yet he is still using it. “There’s no other water source we have,” Lynch said in late January. “There’s no other well that they could […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial