Blogging the End of the World™
By Joe HanelHerald Denver Bureau DENVER – Beetles killed 70,000 acres of spruce trees last year, mostly in southern Colorado’s high-altitude forests. Meanwhile, the mysterious die-off of aspen trees appears to have stabilized, according to a yearly survey of forest health that the Forest Service released Friday. Forest scientists now believe the aspen die-off was […]
The mighty Himalayan glaciers are vanishing. The rate of recession is unprecedented and accelerating. If the present rate of melting continues, many of these glaciers will be gone by the middle of this century, disrupting the perennial water supply to hundreds of millions of people at the least. Explore this extraordinary and growing collection of […]
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis, DAMASCUSWed Jan 27, 2010 1:54pm EST DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Syrian officials addressing a rare public forum have revealed the full impact of a drought that ravaged the 2008 wheat crop and displaced hundreds of thousands of people in the east of the country. The officials recommended diversifying the eastern Syrian economy […]
DAMASCUS, Syria, January 27, 2010 (ENS) – A severe shortage of rainfall that has lasted more than three years has crippled agriculture in northeastern Syria, where residents say conditions are still deteriorating in the absence of economic alternatives and an adequate government response. People’s living conditions in the area are dire, said Ahmad al-Salem, an […]
By Jeff DeLong, USA TODAY Deer, elk and even raccoons have a new type of predator to worry about: Poachers who kill increasingly for the thrill of it. Scott Talbott, an assistant division chief with Wyoming’s Fish and Game Department, calls it “wanton destruction” that goes beyond shooting. Poachers run down deer with cars or […]
By Staff WritersSanaa (AFP) Jan 24, 2010 Impoverished Yemen is reeling under the threat of Al-Qaeda, northern Shiite rebels and southern secessionists, but a lack of water is putting its ancient capital at even greater risk, experts say. Within a decade — or even less — Sanaa could become the first waterless capital in the […]
Preliminary mass balance values for the observation period 2007/08 have been reported now from more than 90 glaciers worldwide. The mass balance statistics (Table 1) are calculated based on all reported values as well as on the data from the 30 reference glaciers in 9 mountain ranges (Table 2) with continuous observation series back to […]
Preliminary mass balance values for the observation period 2007/08 have been reported now from more than 90 glaciers worldwide. The mass balance statistics (Table 1) are calculated based on all reported values as well as on the data from the 30 reference glaciers in 9 mountain ranges (Table 2) with continuous observation series back to […]
By Staff WritersNairobi (AFP) Jan 26, 2010 Four extremely rare Northern White rhinos recently transferred to Kenya from a Czech zoo have been dehorned to protect them from poachers, a conservation group said Tuesday. “With the increase of poaching in Kenya, we are simply not taking any chances,” Elodie Sampere from the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, […]
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Tigers in the Greater Mekong region are facing extinction, their numbers down more than 70 percent in slightly more than a decade due to poachers and habitat destruction, conservationists say. A new report by wildlife group WWF says tiger populations in the region that includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam have […]
