Blogging the End of the World™
IANS 1 December 2009, 10:20am IST NEW DELHI: In the Sundarbans, surface water temperature has been rising at the rate of 0.5 degree Celsius per decade over the past three decades, eight times the rate of global warming, says a new study. That makes the Sundarbans one of the worst climate change hotspots on the […]
OTTAWA, December 3, 2009 — The controversy surrounding the unintended effects of herbicide and pesticide use has intensified as researchers from the University of Ottawa’s Department of Biology have identified that atrazine, a heavily-used herbicide, alters the sexual development in frogs. There have been numerous scientific and journalistic reports on the detrimental effects of herbicides, […]
India has long been plagued by unscrupulous moneylenders who exploit impoverished farmers. But with crops failing more frequently, farmers are left even more desperate and vulnerable. By Mark Magnier, 1 December 2009 … Here in the Bundelkhand region in central India that is among the nation’s more impoverished areas, the problem is exacerbated by climate […]
By SARA GOODMAN of GreenwirePublished: December 1, 2009 Twenty-five years after a toxic gas cloud from a pesticide factory killed thousands of people in Bhopal, India, groundwater at the accident site — a drinking water supply for 15 communities — remains contaminated, according to a report [pdf] released today by an advocacy group and a […]
By John D. Sutter, CNNDecember 3, 2009 3:39 a.m. EST Shishmaref, Alaska (CNN) — When the arctic winds howl and angry waves pummel the shore of this Inupiat Eskimo village, Shelton and Clara Kokeok fear that their house, already at the edge of the Earth, finally may plunge into the gray sea below. “The […]
By Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff WriterThursday, December 3, 2009 Chemicals from cosmetics, perfumes and other fragrances were detected along with dozens of other industrial compounds in the umbilical cords of African American, Asian and Latino infants in the United States, according to a national study released Wednesday. Laboratory tests paid for by the nonprofit Environmental […]
Arctic permafrost is already thawing, creating lakes that emit methane. The heat-trapping gas could dramatically accelerate global warming. How big is the threat? What can be done? Methane bubbling up into the atmosphere from thawing permafrost that underlies numerous Arctic lakes appears to be hastening global warming. New estimates indicate that by 2100 thawing permafrost […]
Reporting by Rina Chandran; Editing by Paul de Bendern and David Fox MUMBAI (Reuters) – One man was killed and about a dozen injured in a violent protest on Thursday against water cuts in India’s largest city after the worst monsoon in nearly four decades left Mumbai authorities scrambling to ration supplies. Mumbai is facing […]
By Altaf Qadri Bhopal, India — Associated Press Published on Thursday, Dec. 03, 2009 2:22AM EST Hundreds of people marched through Bhopal with torches before dawn Thursday to mark the 25th anniversary of the world’s worst industrial disaster and demand the cleanup of toxic chemicals they say still contaminate the Indian city’s soil and water. […]
SOUTHERN Australia stands to have the worst drought conditions since the 1930s as maximum summer temperatures soar, Victoria’s rural fire authority says. In a weather presentation to federal Victorian MPs at Parliament House in Canberra, Country Fire Authority chief fire officer Russell Rees also said there was a 55 per cent chance of summer temperatures […]