Lake Chad reduced by 90 percent since 1960

N’Djamena (AFP) Oct 29, 2010 – The future of rapidly shrinking Lake Chad will have a profound impact on peace and security in central Africa and coordinated action is needed to save it, Chad’s prime minister said on Friday. “Saving Lake Chad requires us all to find a lasting solution not just for the 30 […]

Fifth of vertebrates face extinction: study

By David Fogarty; editing by Ron PopeskiWed Oct 27, 2010 7:00am EDT NAGOYA, Japan (Reuters) – About a fifth of the world’s vertebrates are threatened with extinction, a major review has found, highlighting the plight of nature that is the focus of global environment talks underway in Japan. The study by more than 170 scientists […]

UK insect decline caused by loss of wildflowers in countryside

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent27 Oct 2010 Butterflies and bees are declining because of the loss of wild flowers in the countryside, according to a major Government report. A team of researcher from the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology (CEH) monitored 500 plots of ‘semiwild’ land across the UK between 1990 and 2007 on the […]

Image of the Day: Merowe Dam and Reservoir Viewed from Orbit, 5 October 2010

Caption by William L. Stefanov, NASA-JSCOctober 25, 2010 The Merowe Dam is located near the 4th cataract of the Nile River, in the Nubian Desert of the Republic of the Sudan (also known as Sudan). The dam was built to generate hydroelectric power—electricity intended to further industrial and agricultural development of the country. This astronaut […]

Republic of Benin under water

By Daniel SellenWed, 2010-10-20 12:26 I’ve written before about floods in Niger and Abidjan, but these experiences left me poorly prepared for what I saw in Benin a few days ago. Half the country is under water, and it’s still raining. We recently received a request from the President of Benin to assist with recent […]

Record 377 dead in west and central African floods – Two million displaced

By Staff WritersDakar (AFP) Oct 19, 2010 The United Nations said Tuesday that 377 people had died in flooding in central and west Africa, with nearly 1.5 million people affected since the start of the rainy season in June. “2010 has seen the largest number of people affected and dying from flooding”, the UN Office […]

Maplecroft: South Asia is region most vulnerable to climate change

Paris (AFP) Oct 20, 2010 – South Asia is the world’s most climate-vulnerable region, its fast-growing populations badly exposed to flood, drought, storms and sea-level rise, according to a survey of 170 nations published on Wednesday. Of the 16 countries listed as being at “extreme” risk from climate change over the next 30 years, five […]

Graph of the Day: Global Water Availability Per Capita, 1950-2000

Measured on conventional indicators, water stress is increasing. Today, about 700 million people in 43 countries live below the water-stress threshold of 1,700 cubic metres per person—an admittedly arbitrary dividing line. By 2025 that figure will reach 3 billion, as water stress intensifies in China, India and Sub-Saharan Africa. Based on national averages, the projection […]

British crops to face water supply crunch, may relocate

By Nigel Hunt; editing by James JukweyMon Oct 18, 2010 4:04pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) – Agricultural crops in Britain may need to be moved to new areas as the threat of both drought and flooding rises in the coming decades, a report [pdf] commissioned by the Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE) said on Monday. […]

U.N. reports Pakistan flood’s grim toll

UPIOct. 19, 2010 at 11:00 AM ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 19 (UPI) — An estimated 20.2 million Pakistanis were affected by the monsoon-driven rains that inundated portions of the country, a U.N. agency reported Tuesday. Nearly 2 million homes were damaged or destroyed by the flooding that started during the summer, and at least 7 million […]

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