BBC12 August 2010 Pakistan’s floods have caused “huge losses” to its crops, the country’s food minister has told the BBC. Nazar Muhammad Gondal said significant amounts of the grain, sugarcane and rice harvests had been washed away. Meanwhile a senior religious scholar has said that flood victims living in difficult conditions should not have to […]
BBC1:29PM BST 14 Aug 2010 Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that 20 million people had been affected by the worst floods in the country’s history, as the UN confirmed the first cholera case. Independence day celebrations in Pakistan were cancelled as floods continued to bring misery to millions and aid agencies warned of […]
Last updated: 11 August 2010 Several regions of the world are currently coping with severe weather-related events: flash floods and widespread flooding in large parts of Asia and parts of Central Europe while other regions are also affected: by heatwave and drought in Russian Federation, mudslides in China and severe droughts in sub-Saharan Africa. While […]
By JOHN VIDALAugust 10, 2010 Giant hydroelectric dams being built or planned in remote areas of Brazil, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Peru and Guyana will devastate tribal settlements by forcing people off their land or destroying hunting and fishing grounds, according to a report by Survival International. The first global assessment of its kind suggests 300,000 indigenous […]
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent Wed Aug 11, 2010 12:04pm EDT OSLO (Reuters) – Some of Russia’s smog-causing peatland fires are likely to burn for months, part of a global problem of drained marshes that emit climate-warming greenhouse gases, experts said on Wednesday. Novel carbon markets could offer a long-term fix for peat bogs, from […]
By Associated PressMonday, 09 Aug, 2010 ISLAMABAD: The number of people suffering from the massive floods in Pakistan could exceed the combined total in three recent megadisasters – the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake – the United Nations said Monday. The death toll in each of those […]
By Alister Doyle, Environment CorrespondentTue Aug 10, 2010 11:14am EDT OSLO (Reuters) – Smoke from forest fires smothering Moscow adds to health problems of “brown clouds” from Asia to the Amazon and Russian soot may stoke global warming by hastening a thaw of Arctic ice, environmental experts say. “Health effects of such clouds are huge,” […]
By VOA News and wire services12 August 2010 Russian President Dmitri Medvedev says a full one-quarter of Russia’s grain crops have been destroyed by weeks of drought and wildfires, leaving many Russian farmers close to bankruptcy. Mr. Medvedev spoke Thursday to farmers and grain traders in southern Russia, calling the situation “difficult” and even “extreme.” […]
By NATHANIAL GRONEWOLD of ClimateWireAugust 12, 2010 UNITED NATIONS — A string of devastating natural disasters many are attributing to climate change has sent food prices on a roller coaster ride, leading to fears of a wave of climate-induced food price shocks of the sort that sparked rioting in the developing world two years ago. […]
By Rhett A. Butler, www.mongabay.comAugust 12, 2010 Orangutan encounter rates have fallen six-fold in Borneo over the past 150 years, report researchers writing in the journal PLoS One. Erik Meijaard, an ecologist with People and Nature Consulting International, and colleagues compared present-day encounter rates with collection rates from naturalists working in the mid-19th Century. They […]