ZURICH, 27 March 2013 (Swiss Re) – Natural catastrophes and man-made disasters cost society about USD 186 billion in 2012. Most of the losses were due to Hurricane Sandy, which devastated the northeastern coast of the US. The storm also affected the Caribbean and Canada, making it the largest North Atlantic hurricane on record in […]
By Bill Briggs16 May 2013 (NBC News) – American eaters, let’s talk about the birds and the bees: The U.S. food supply – from chickens injected with arsenic to dying bee colonies – is under unprecedented siege from a blitz of man-made hazards, meaning some of your favorite treats someday may vanish from your plate, […]
By Robin McKie, science editor 11 May 2013 (The Observer) – It is increasingly likely that hundreds of millions of people will be displaced from their homelands in the near future as a result of global warming. That is the stark warning of economist and climate change expert Lord Stern following the news last week […]
By Alex Kirby10 May 2013 LONDON (Climate News Network) – Researchers see no winners if agriculture made possible by widespread felling in the Amazon continues to expand. Large-scale expansion of agriculture at the expense of the forest could entail the loss of almost two-thirds of the Amazon’s terrestrial biomass by later this century, with grave […]
By Roxana Hegeman11 May 2013 (AP) – The winter wheat crop is expected to be far smaller this season compared to last, particularly for hard red varieties used in bread, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Friday. In the first government projection on the harvest’s anticipated size, the National Agricultural Statistics Service estimated winter wheat […]
(Rainforest Rescue) – Perched atop the remains of the last tree, an orangutan looks helplessly on what was until recently the forest he was living in but is now only ruins. Armed with chainsaws and bulldozers, workers of Bumitama Gunajaya Agro (BGA), a palm oil company, have completely destroyed the rainforest for miles. Three other […]
By MICHELLE FAUL7 May 2013 JOHANNESBURG (AP) – Scientists say a disease destroying entire crops of cassava has spread out of East Africa into the heart of the continent, is attacking plants as far south as Angola and now threatens to move west into Nigeria, the world’s biggest producer of the potato-like root that helps […]
TELESCOPE, Grenada (AP) – The old coastal road in this fishing village at the eastern edge of Grenada sits under a couple of feet of murky saltwater, which regularly surges past a hastily-erected breakwater of truck tires and bundles of driftwood intended to hold back the Atlantic Ocean. For Desmond Augustin and other fishermen living […]
By Joanna M. Foster 7 May 2013 (Takepart.com) – On the southern edge of Louisiana, there is almost as much water as land. You can’t drive to anyone’s house, you have to travel by boat, and sometimes there are hours of water between neighbors. It takes a special breed to make a home here, in […]
By Joe Wertz 6 May 2013 (NPR) – “Extreme” and “exceptional” drought persists throughout much of the state, especially in southwestern Oklahoma. Low reservoir levels have forced city officials in Altus to issue emergency water restrictions, and Oklahomans throughout the region are worried about the future. Associated Press reporter Sharon Cohen interviewed Kent Walker, a […]
