By BRIDIE SMITHMarch 25, 2010 THE world’s southernmost coral reef is on a knife edge, according to scientists who say this summer’s above-average water temperatures have left Lord Howe Island’s unique reef stressed and bleached. In parts of the reef, especially areas around the island’s lagoon, up to 95 per cent of corals have been […]
By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.comMarch 23, 2010 The Jakarta Post reports that, according to the local NGO People’s Coalition for Justice in Fisheries (Kiara), Indonesia’s has lost 2.2 million hectares of mangroves in less than thirty years, going from covering 4.2 million hectares in 1982 to just 2 million hectares today. Kiara’s Secretary General M. […]
A tiny island claimed for years by India and Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal has disappeared beneath the rising seas, scientists in India say. The uninhabited territory south of the Hariabhanga river was known as New Moore Island to the Indians and South Talpatti Island to the Bangladeshis. Recent satellites images show the whole […]
Reporting by Tom Brown; Editing by Sandra Maler MIAMI (Reuters) – At least 431 manatees have died in Florida waters so far this year, exceeding in less than three months the total for any full calendar year on record, authorities said on Tuesday. A preliminary report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission attributed […]
AGU Release No. 10–0723 March 2010For Immediate Release WASHINGTON—Ice loss from the Greenland ice sheet, which has been increasing during the past decade over its southern region, is now moving up its northwest coast, according to a new international study. The research indicates the ice-loss acceleration began moving up the northwest coast of Greenland staring […]
ScienceDaily (Mar. 22, 2010) — Climate change and environmental degradation are likely to trigger increased migration in Sub-Saharan Africa with potentially devastating effects on the hundreds of millions of especially poor people, according to a paper in the International Journal of Global Warming. Environmental changes are especially pronounced in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), explain Ulrike Grote […]
Nearly 30% of the Earth’s terrestrial ice-free surface is devoted to livestock production, while 8% is devoted to production of crops that are directly consumed by people. As livestock production shifts to more intensive systems, it will place more pressure on arable land for the production of feed. Over-grazing has resulted in loss of biodiversity […]
By Staff WritersNiamey (AFP) March 22, 2010 West African farmers appealed Monday for help as drought and famine menaced people and livestock, with malnutrition already affecting nearly a third of the population. “Communities of farmers and pastoralists are already severely affected … with the acute malnutrition rate estimated at 29.9 percent, which is double the […]
By NICK O’MALLEY INVESTIGATIONSMarch 19, 2010 THE massive expansion of the mining industry in the Upper Hunter Valley is making people sick, say concerned residents who have campaigned for a decade for the government to establish independent air-quality monitoring and to conduct a proper health study. One resident, Di Gee, from Jerrys Plains, worries that […]
“The stream was 50 meters from our house and chemicals were dumped into it. Oh, it stank! The water ran like a natural stream, but it was warm toxic waste water. We had headaches, dizziness, stomachaches…. Our children loved to fish and swim in the river. They came home covered in crude. We fried the […]
