By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com30 June 2011 A prolonged drought in East Africa is bringing many of the region’s impoverished to their knees: the World Food Program (WFP) is warning that 10 million people in the region are facing severe shortages. While not dubbed a famine yet, experts say it could become one. Meanwhile, a recent […]
By BETSY BLANEY, Associated Press 28 June 2011 LUBBOCK, Texas — West Texas farmer Billy Brown remembers the devastating drought that spanned the state in the 1950s — and believes this one is worse. […] “The grass just crackles underneath the feet,” Brown, 72, said of walking across his acreage in the town of Panhandle […]
By Steve Savage27 June 2011 I tend to be a “glass half full” sort of person, particularly about the prospects of successfully feeding the 9-10 billion people we expect by 2050. My optimism is based on daily contact with the innovative public and private entities who develop technology for agriculture. It is also based on […]
By TOMOKO OTAKE, Staff writer26 June 2011 In order to address public concerns over post-3/11 food safety, the government should be more forthcoming in the monitoring and disclosure of data regarding radiation contamination of soil, Akira Sugenoya, mayor of Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, told this reporter recently. Sugenoya, a medical doctor, speaks from experience, having […]
At the end of 2010, some 43.7 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced due to conflict and persecution, the highest number in more than 15 years. This included 15.4 million refugees, 27.5 million IDPs, and more than 837,500 individuals whose asylum application had not yet been adjudicated by the end of the reporting period. The […]
By Kirsten Boyd Johnson23 June 2011 WHOOPS: Georgia’s legal promise to crucify any illegal immigrants it could get its hands on did, in fact, have the intended effect of scaring away the state’s undocumented workers. So, lo and behold, there are no workers left to harvest all of the state’s crops. Is America ready for […]
By KATE GALBRAITH18 June 2011 On the cliffs surrounding Lake Buchanan in Central Texas, a white ring extends some 13 feet above the shoreline, marking where the water reaches when the lake is full. At nearby Lake Travis, staircases that once led to the water’s edge now end well above it. These two lakes serve […]
By Sabrina Mao and David Stanway; Editing by Nick Macfie19 June 2011 ZHUJI, China (Reuters) – Torrential rain across southern and eastern China which has killed more than 100 people and triggered the evacuation of half a million has left large areas of farmland devastated as food prices surge, state media said on Sunday. Weeks […]
By Michael Marshall19 June 2011 The UN is failing to accurately measure the global climate benefits of preserving forests. As well as providing homes for many species, trees store carbon dioxide that would otherwise warm the planet. With this in mind, the UN set up the REDD programme (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) […]
By Kim DeRose, kderose@support.ucla.edu 16 June 2011 Fluctuations in climate can drastically affect the habitability of marine ecosystems, according to a new study by UCLA scientists that examined the expansion and contraction of low-oxygen zones in the ocean. The UCLA research team, led by assistant professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences Curtis Deutsch, used a specialized […]
