Blogging the End of the World™
By Matthew McDermott, New York, NY Here’s a very concrete example of how roads into rainforests can bring indigenous people into the firing line: TimesOnline reports that hundreds of men from Borneo’s Penan people are blockading roads, armed with blowpipes and dressed in traditional costumes, in protest over what palm oil companies are doing […]
A scarcity of fresh water has left the UAE relying on desalination to quench an unprecedented thirst brought on by the country’s expansion. But the effects of the policy are threatening to destroy natural supplies and create an ecological nightmare. By Jonathan Gornall “Water, water, everywhere,Nor any drop to drink.” Like the becalmed seamen of […]
By Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York Starting tomorrow, the gray wolf is about to be hunted for the first time in decades. The Obama administration removed the wolves from the endangered species list last March. And unless a federal judge decides to halt the hunt and reopen the question of whether the species is threatened, […]
By Staff Writers, New Delhi (AFP) Aug 29, 2009 India faces a “severe” drought but the country’s ample food grain stock will ensure no one goes hungry, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Saturday. Monsoon rains, the lifeline for farms that support more that half of India’s 1.1 billion population, have been scant and about […]
Lukla, Nepal (AFP) Aug 30, 2009 – Over two decades, Funuru Sherpa has watched the lake above his native village of Dengboche in Nepal’s Himalayas grow, as the glacier that feeds it melts. The 29-year-old, who runs a busy Internet cafe for tourists visiting the Everest region, remembers his grandfather telling him that 50 years […]
Tsavo West National Park, Kenya (AFP) Aug 30, 2009 – Kenya’s persistent and bruising drought is having a serious impact on the country’s wildlife, one of its main tourist attractions, obliging the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to feed hippos to keep them alive. In Tsavo West national park, a vast expanse of shrubby savannah and […]
By Jeremy Hance Oil is leaking from an offshore drilling rig in the Timor Sea near Australia’s Northwest coast. Authorities say it will be weeks before the leak is plugged: they are awaiting the arrival of a drilling rig from Singapore to plug the leak. “This is a potential disaster for turtles, whales, dolphins, sea […]
By MALCOLM BROWN WINTER fires burning on the South Coast yesterday, threatening property and forcing residents to prepare for evacuation, sounded a grim warning for the summer, the Minister for Emergency Services, Steve Whan, said. ”People at the Fire Control Centre have told me that they have not seen this type of fire behaviour at […]
By William Laurance “THE best thing you could do for the Amazon is to bomb all the roads.” That might sound like an eco-terrorist’s threat, but they’re actually the words of Eneas Salati, one of Brazil’s most respected scientists. Thomas Lovejoy, a leading American biologist, is equally emphatic: “Roads are the seeds of tropical forest […]
By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent SANAA (Reuters) – Gentle showers temporarily damp the dust and cool the August heat of Sanaa, but cannot remedy a grim water outlook for the Yemeni capital’s 2 million people. Some residents receive piped city water only once every nine days and others get none at all. The sinking water […]
