Loss of fertile land fuels looming crisis across Africa – “We are basically reaching the end of the road”

By Jeffery Gettleman 29 July 2017 LAIKIPIA, Kenya (The New York Times) – The two elders, wearing weather-beaten cowboy hats with the strings cinched under their chins, stood at the edge of an empty farm, covering their mouths in disbelief. Their homes — neat wooden cabins — had been smashed open. All their cattle had […]

Global tree cover loss remains high – In 2015, the world lost nearly 20 million hectares of tree cover, an area the size of Uganda

By Mikaela Weisse, Elizabeth Dow Goldman, Nancy Harris, Matt Hansen, Peter Potapov, and Svetlana Turubanova 17 July 2017 (World Resources Institute) – Global Forest Watch released new satellite-based data showing how forests around the world changed in the year 2015. The data, produced through the analysis of roughly a million satellite images by the University […]

After months of water rationing, Nairobi may run dry – “Our underground rivers have dried up”

By Cathy Watson 24 July 2017 (The Guardian) – For the team managing Nairobi’s water, the stakes have never been so high. Water-rationing has been going on in Kenya’s capital since 1 January 2017, and supplies might run dry by September. The last two rainy seasons were dismal; more rain is not expected until October […]

UN warns of worsening hunger in East Africa amid third consecutive failed rainy season

14 July 2017 (United Nations) – The third consecutive failed rainy season in East Africa has seriously eroded families’ resilience, and urgent and effective livelihood support is required, the United Nations agricultural agency has warned. According to an alert released today by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), poor rains have worsened hunger and left […]

2016 saw a record 200 killings of people defending their land, forests, and rivers against destructive industries

13 July 2017 (Global Witness) – It has never been deadlier to take a stand against companies that steal land and destroy the environment. Our new report Defenders of the Earth found that nearly four people were murdered every week in 2016 protecting their land and the natural world from industries like mining, logging and […]

Industrial farming disrupts burn-regrowth cycle in grasslands, study finds – “Humans are interrupting the ancient, natural cycle of burning and recovery”

Irvine, California, 29 June 2017 (UCI) – The world’s open grasslands and the beneficial fires that sustain them have shrunk rapidly over the past two decades, thanks to a massive increase in agriculture, according to a new study led by University of California, Irvine and NASA researchers published today in Science.Analyzing 1998 to 2015 data […]

Orphaned for its mother’s horn: Baby rhino left alone as poachers slaughter up to 30 animals in one weekend in South Africa

By Gareth Davies5 July 2017(The Daily Mail) – A heartbreaking photo of an orphaned baby rhino standing next to its dead mother after she was slaughtered by poachers for her horn has become the tragic symbol of a weekend rhino massacre in South Africa.The picture of the calf was posted online by anti-poaching campaigners in […]

Children in West and Central Africa moving in greater numbers than ever before – More than seven million children uprooted from their homes each year due to violence, poverty, and global warming

5 July 2017 (United Nations) – With more than seven million children in West and Central Africa uprooted from their homes each year due to violence, poverty, and climate change, and projections that this number will continue to rise, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for greater efforts to ensure that migrant and […]

Lake Tanganyika hit by global warming, overfishing, and refugees

16 June 2017 (BBC) – Millions of people rely on Lake Tanganyika for their livelihoods. But the second largest lake in Africa is in crisis. It is suffering from the effects of climate change, over-fishing, and deforestation and has been nominated by the Global Nature Fund as the “most threatened lake of the year”. The […]

Half of world population will face deadly heatwaves by 2100, even with aggressive measures to control global warming – “We are running out of choices for the future”

19 June 2017 (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa) – Seventy-four percent of the world’s population will be exposed to deadly heatwaves by 2100 if carbon gas emissions continue to rise at current rates, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change. Even if emissions are aggressively reduced, the percent of the world’s human population […]

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