Blogging the End of the World™
By Andrew Prince19 April 2011 Two-thirds of the Arctic coastline is made of permafrost — an environment that is very sensitive to warming temperatures. A new report says erosion is causing these coastline regions to recede by an average of 1.5 feet per year. Unlike rock shoreline, permafrost loses its structure when it warms above […]
By Evan V. Symon 6 September 2011 If you turn on the news and hear that some city is being devastated by its fourth flood in 20 years, or that a village at the foot of some volcano has just been buried under lava, there is a 100 percent chance that someone in the room […]
Tehran, Sept 5, 2011 (AFP) – The drying up of Iran’s largest saltwater lake is an “environmental issue” but some people seek to politicise it, media on Monday quoted the vice president for environmental affairs as charging. “The issue of Lake Orumiyeh is an environmental challenge,” Mohammad Javad Mohammadi-Zadeh, who is also head of Iran’s […]
By Dave Montgomery, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, with contributions from Anna Tinsley and Alex Branch5 September 2011 BASTROP, Texas — Firefighters from across the state swarmed into Central Texas on Labor Day to combat devastating wildfires that left hundreds homeless and prompted Gov. Rick Perry to abruptly return from a scheduled East Coast political appearance. At […]
BANGKOK, 5 September 2011 (IRIN) – Aid workers say more than 6,000 people on a remote cluster of islands off the northeast coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG) have been left food insecure following an extended dry spell. “The situation is now under control, but these people will need food in three months,” Ruger Kahwa, […]
By BRIAN M. CARNEY 3 SEPTEMBER 2011 As befits the chairman of the world’s largest food-production company, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe is counting calories. But it’s not his diet that the chairman and former CEO of Nestlé is worried about. It’s all the food that the U.S. and Europe are converting into fuel while the world’s poor […]
By Eric Luebehusen, U.S. Department of Agriculture31 August 2011 Southern Plains: The beat goes on across the southern Plains. In Texas and southern Oklahoma, another week of above-normal temperatures (up to 14°F above normal, with highs eclipsing 110°F) and sunny skies further offset the benefits of early month rainfall. Consequently, drought intensified over many of […]
By Samuel Okocha4 September 2011 There is reportedly growing evidence that Eritrea, like other countries in the horn of Africa, is suffering famine despite government’s claims that the population has the food it needs. Over 12 million people are said to be affected by drought and famine-the worst in the region in 60 years. Eritrea […]
Increased temperatures pose a threat to the region’s fisheries and other marine species, which are important both to the economy and as a food supply, especially to Native populations. Warmer air and water temperatures have already resulted in a shift northward of species important to the region, with implications for the ecosystem and local communities. […]
Photographs by Jay JannerStory by Brenda BellAustin American-Statesman staff The meanest drought in modern Texas history looks different out here, away from the cities. There are no emerald swaths of St. Augustine lawns, no blooming shrubs, no misters cooling bar patrons as the sun goes down on another cloudless, 105-degree day. The disconnect between what […]
