More than 8 million East Africans in need of food aid due to drought, UN reports

VIDEO: Somalis flee drought zones 30 March 2011 (UN News Service) – The number of people in need of emergency food aid in East Africa has increased by 2 million to nearly 8.4 million as drought continues to ravage the region, the United Nations humanitarian arm reported today. Extremely poor rains from October to December […]

FAO: Potentially catastrophic climate impacts on food production over the long-term

31 March 2011, Rome (FAO) – “Potentially catastrophic” impacts on food production from slow-onset climate changes are expected to increasingly hit the developing world in the future and action is needed now to prepare for those anticipated impacts, FAO warned today in a submission [pdf] to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. “Currently […]

Water crisis looms in Pakistan

By Ismat Sabir1 April 2011 Pakistan has drawn up a National Water Strategy to meet the millennium development goals (MDG) target before 2025 and has launched a scheme to provide clean drinking water for its people by the end of 2007. But the scheme, which was launched in September 2005, shows no positive results, due […]

Borneo tribes: 30-year regime ‘has destroyed everything’

24 March 2011 (Survival International) – Tribespeople in Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of Borneo, say the 30-year rule of Chief Minister Taib Mahmud has ‘raped’ their land, destroyed their rainforests and brought ‘hardship and suffering’. This Saturday, March 26, will mark Taib Mahmud’s 30th anniversary as head of the rainforest state. Malaysia’s longest-serving Chief […]

Video: Radiation spreading to seawater, soil in Japan

USA Today / AP28 March 2011 TOKYO — Workers at Japan’s damaged nuclear plant raced to pump out contaminated water suspected of sending radioactivity levels soaring as officials warned Monday that radiation seeping from the complex was spreading to seawater and soil. Mounting problems, including badly miscalculated radiation figures and no place to store dangerously […]

Radioactive fallout from Fukushima is comparable to Chernobyl – ‘Iitate has reached a contamination level in which evacuation is necessary’

26 March 2011 (Asahi Shimbun) — Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, crippled by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, has discharged more radiation than the infamous Three Mile Island nuclear plant in the United States, according to calculations by the central government. It has already reached a level 6 serious accident on the […]

Iraq wastes 50 percent of water: UNICEF

Baghdad (AFP) March 21, 2011 – Fifty percent of water resources are wasted in Iraq, where six million people have no access to clean water, the United Nations said on Monday, the eve of World Water Day. “Iraq faces difficulties in meeting the target of 91 percent of households using a safe drinking water supply […]

5 million hectares of Papua New Guinea forests handed to foreign corporations

By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.comMarch 23, 2011 During a meeting in March 2011 twenty-six experts—from biologists to social scientists to NGO staff—crafted a statement calling on the Papua New Guinea government to stop granting Special Agricultural and Business Leases. According to the group, these leases, or SABLs as they are know, circumvent Papua New Guinea’s strong […]

Middle East unrest likely to drive nitrogen fertilizer costs higher

By ROBERT BURNS21 March 2011 OVERTON — Escalating unrest in the Middle East is not only going to continue to drive gasoline and diesel fuel prices up to 2008 levels, but there’s a good chance it will do the same to the costs of fertilizing pastures, according to a Texas AgriLife Research expert. Even if […]

90 percent of Sinaloa winter corn crop damaged in cold snap

Caption by Holli Riebeek23 March 2011 With an average temperature of 24 degrees Celsius (76 degrees Fahrenheit) in the month of February, the Mexican state of Sinaloa is a popular winter vacation spot. It is also ideal for winter crops. A sizable portion of Mexico’s corn is grown in Sinaloa, and much of that is […]

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