Glorious vision in Kenya's sky melts away

Mt. Kenya’s ice cap was so stunning that some began revering it as God’s home. But most of the shining glacier has now disappeared, robbing communities of water and leading to a crisis of faith. By Edmund Sanders, November 10, 2009 Reporting from Muranga, Kenya – From a tree-shaded plateau facing Mt. Kenya, the worshipers […]

Experts fear Uganda population explosion

By James Odongo AT 36, he appears worn out and twice his age. Sunrise comes when he has already made several turns in the garden yet the labour force from his 18 children is not enough to produce enough food for his expanding family. It is pathetic but Barnabas Okipi, a peasant in Soroti, symbolises […]

More settlers leave Mau forest

Eviction of settlers from the Mau forest entered the second day Thursday with over 200 families voluntarily leaving the forest and camping at Kapkembu area at the outskirts of the forest. The families, which did not have title deeds, moved to make shift houses for fear of forceful evictions. At the same time a section […]

Kenya: Mau forest settlers troop out as security forces arrive

By Mark Agutu and George Sayagie 11 November 2009 Nairobi — The flow of illegal settlers out of Mau Forest started on Wednesday, a day after the government deployed security officers ready to evict them. The settlers, frightened by the show of force and a history of brutal evictions, appealed to the government to give […]

Pesticide killing Kenya lions and birds by the 'truckloads'

By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com, November 10, 2009 On Monday October 26th a three-year-old girl mistakenly ate the pesticide Furadan (also known as carbofuran) in western Kenya. Her father, a teacher at a primary school, said that he had no knowledge of how dangerous the pesticide was, which he had purchased to kill pests in his […]

China ivory demand bodes ill for Africa's elephants

By James Pomfret and Tom Kirkwood GUANGZHOU/NAIROBI (Reuters) – Tucked into a grimy building in Guangzhou, a small band of Chinese master carvers chip away at ivory tusks with chisels, fashioning them into the sorts of intricate carvings that were prized by Chinese emperors. A passion for ivory ornaments such as these is what helped […]

Oil sands development threatens Congo rainforest

By GUY CHAZAN Criticism is mounting against Italian energy giant Eni SpA’s plans to squeeze oil from the tar sands of the Republic of Congo, which campaigners claim could endanger one of the world’s largest tropical rain forests. Eni says the crude would be produced in areas of grassy savannah, and wouldn’t harm the local […]

Dwindling fish stocks force pelicans to eat gannet chicks

Gannets on the island of Malgas in South Africa are in a bit of a pinch. Usually they nest with one parent out fishing, while the other parent guards the chick. However, fewer fish to catch means both parents have to go hunting and leave the chick unguarded. This leaves an opportunity open for pelicans […]

Floods threaten up to 750,000 in Kenya

Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Matthew Jones GENEVA (Reuters) – Up to 750,000 people in Kenya, nearly half of them Somali refugees, could be caught up in flooding and landslides from heavy rains expected to peak in November, the United Nations warned on Friday. … An estimated 4,600 people along the Indian Ocean coast […]

Graph of the Day: Total Ice Area on Kilimanjaro, 1912-2007

Outlines of the Kibo (Kilimanjaro) ice fields 1912, 1953, 1976, and 1989 (1), 2000 (2) and updated with Ohio State University aerial photographs taken October 15, 2007. (Inset) Areal extent (km2) versus time with a linear fit (R2 = 0.98). An ice cover map was produced by using the 2007 photos and combined with four […]

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