By Joe DeCapuaFebruary 07, 2011 In the coming months, parts of southern Africa may experience the worst flooding in the last 20 or 30 years. That’s the warning Monday from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It says the La Niña weather phenomenon has brought heavier than normal rainfall, destroying thousands of hectares of […]
By Staff WritersFeb 3, 2011 Nairobi (AFP) Feb 3, 2011 – Drought in Somalia is threatening two million people, the vast majority living in zones controlled by radical Islamist insurgents where it is impossible to send aid, a UN official said Thursday. “Somalia hosts one of the largest populations of displaced people in the world,” […]
By Leon GettlerFebruary 1, 2011 Urbanisation, climate change and globalisation are leading to more and bigger catastrophes. THE floods that ravaged Queensland and Victoria are a warning for businesses to overhaul their risk-management strategies. They are events that tell us we are now in a very different world. How different? Erwann Michel-Kerjan, managing director of […]
31 Jan 2011 (South African Government News Service) – Roosters cluck, dogs dig through heaps of mud and garbage, music blasts from a distance, children’s cries and laughter can be heard from miles away and raw sewage trickles past the doorsteps of many dishevelled houses. This is the flood-hit Themba Khoza informal settlement, near Ivory […]
ScienceDaily (Jan. 29, 2011) — The increased frequency of drought observed in eastern Africa over the last 20 years is likely to continue as long as global temperatures continue to rise, according to new research published in Climate Dynamics. This poses increased risk to the estimated 17.5 million people in the Greater Horn of Africa […]
By Annalyn Censky, staff reporterJanuary 28, 2011: 5:11 PM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Food prices have been rising worldwide, as the cost of raw materials and agricultural products surge, contributing to political unrest around the globe. In December, international food prices broke an all-time high when they rose 25% for the year, led by […]
By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com January 27, 2011 An interview with Ian Craigie. The big mammals for which Africa is so famous are vanishing in staggering numbers. According to a study published last year: Africa’s large mammal populations have dropped by 59% in just 40 years. But what is even more alarming was that the study […]
By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com January 24, 2011 Since the 1980s, Liberia has lost 19,000 elephants to illegal poaching, according to Patrick Omondi of the Kenya Wildlife Service speaking in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. The poaching of Liberia’s elephants has cut the population by 95% leaving only 1,000 elephants remaining. “Though, Liberia opposes trade in […]
22 January 2011 (BBC) — The death toll from South Africa’s floods has continued to rise, follows weeks of heavy rains that began in December. Seventy people have died and more than 8,000 families have been forced to leave their homes. Five other countries in the region, from Mozambique to Namibia, are on alert for […]
By ELISABETH ROSENTHALJanuary 21, 2011 KINANGOP, Kenya — Simon Joakim Kiiru remembers a time not long ago when familiar birdsongs filled the air here and life was correlated with bird sightings. His lush, well-tended homestead is in the highlands next to the Aberdare National Park, one of the premier birding destinations in the world. When […]
