By Brian ReedFebruary 16, 2011 From the sky, the country of Kiribati looks like strands of yarn floating on the sea: 33 tiny islands, scattered across an area of the Pacific Ocean more than twice the size of Alaska. Nearly half the population, more than 40,000 people, is crowded into just one of those strands […]
By Staff WritersFeb 17, 2011 United Nations (AFP) – Somalia, home to one of the world’s largest population of displaced people, is teetering on a crisis with drought now threatening some 2.4 million people, a UN official said Thursday. “Somalia … is on the brink of a much larger disaster due to the threat of […]
By Luzi Ann Javier and Susan Li, with assistance from Chanyaporn Chanjaroen in London and Anand Menon in Singapore. Editors: Matthew Oakley, Jarrett BanksFebruary 15, 2011, 6:00 AM EST Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) — Global food supplies will face “massive disruptions” from climate change, Olam International Ltd. predicted, as Agrocorp International Pte. said corn will gain […]
Lake size is sensitive to both climate change and human activities, and therefore serves as an excellent indicator to assess environmental changes. Using a large volume of various datasets, we provide a first complete picture of changes in China’s lakes between 1960s–1980s and 2005–2006. Dramatic changes are found in both lake number and lake size; […]
5 February 2011 (Agrimoney.com) – World grain stocks, already squeezed, are in danger of tightening further in 2011-12, Yara International has warned, highlighting the poor condition of winter crops and an incomplete rebound in fertilizer sales. The nitrogen giant said that a rise of some 5%, to nearly 2.3bn tonnes, in world grain production was […]
Press Release No:2011/333/PREM WASHINGTON, February 15, 2011 – Rising food prices have driven an estimated 44 million people into poverty in developing countries since last June as food costs continue to rise to near 2008 levels, according to new World Bank Group numbers released ahead of the G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank […]
There will soon be seven billion people on the planet. By 2045 global population is projected to reach nine billion. Can the planet take the strain? By Robert KunzigJanuary 2011 …Antoni van Leeuwenhoek started with an estimate that around a million people lived in Holland. Using maps and a little spherical geometry, he calculated that […]
By Degsew Amanu, AfricaNews reporter in Kampala, Uganda Posted on Monday 14 February 2011 – 09:00 Ugandans are now in their hottest season with an average 30°C of daily temperature. However, most of them are not sure whether the coldest months will come soon since everything regarding the environment has changed. Besides, unusually, night temperature […]
Colombo (AFP) Feb 13, 2011 – The damage from monsoon flooding in Sri Lanka over the last six weeks is estimated at $600 million, a government minister said Sunday amid a slow response to an international appeal for help. Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said the government would spend 33 billion rupees ($300 million) to […]
By Laurie Goering11 Feb 2011 15:47 LONDON (AlertNet) – Increasing drought and aridity around the world, linked to climate change and land degradation, are becoming a major threat to food security and poverty reduction efforts, according to the United Nations’ anti-desertification chief. Stepping up investment in restoring degraded land and curbing desertification could work toward […]
