By Staff WritersBeijing (UPI) Mar 30, 2009 In an attempt to bring relief to drought-stricken southwestern China, the government fired cannons and launched rockets loaded with cloud-seeding chemicals throughout the weekend. Results ranged from drizzle to moderate rain to downpours in 11 cities and prefectures, yet meteorologists said the induced rain would have a limited […]
In Kenya’s Nakuru Rift Valley, the lakes are drying up: Nakuru, Naivasha, Baringo, Solai, Bogoria, Turkana, and Elementaita are rapidly wasting away, leaving cracked lakebed deserts. In only six years, Lake Naivasha has receded to the point that fishermen have dug long channels in the lakebed to reach the now-distant shore. 2002 2009 Technorati […]
A woman sorts through a heap of garbage at the Dandora dumping site among other people, cattle, pigs and storks, in Nairobi on December 10, 2009. The dumping site was declared full and a health hazard for the neighboring population in 2001 but chemical, hospital, industrial, agricultural and domestic waste are still dumped here and […]
By Patrick Worsnip and Conor Sweeney; editing by Philippa FletcherMOYNAK, UzbekistanSun Apr 4, 2010 9:51am EDT MOYNAK, Uzbekistan (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Central Asian states to work together to tackle the disastrous effects of the shrinking Aral Sea Sunday after local people urged the United Nations to resolve a regional […]
By Paul Ilado and Geoffrey Mosoku 29 March 2010 Nairobi — POWERFUL individuals including former President Daniel arap Moi who were allocated huge parcels of land in the Mau Forest will not only lose their land but will also not be compensated. Last year’s fierce struggle within the ODM over whether the Mau evictees should […]
By Gordon ShetlerEnvironmental Health NewsMarch 31, 2010 Workers who apply certain pesticides to farm fields are twice as likely to contract melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer, according to a new scientific study. The researchers identified six pesticides that, with repeated exposure, doubled the risk of skin cancer among farmers and other workers who […]
By DEBRA JOPSONMarch 30, 2010 SIXTY drought-affected farmers living on more than 100 kilometres of an irrigation channel in the state’s south-west, who have volunteered to stop growing rice and thirsty cereals, expect an offer this week from the federal government for their water entitlements. In a desperate move, which for many will end their […]
A baby baboon clings to its mother, with the receding shore of Lake Nakuru in Kenya in the background, on October 7, 2009. (AP Photo/Khalil Senosi) Scenes from Kenya Technorati Tags: drought,freshwater depletion,mammal decline,primate decline,Africa,Kenya,agriculture
By COLIN SULLIVAN of GreenwirePublished: April 2, 2010 SAN FRANCISCO — California congressmen George Miller and Mike Thompson stumped for salmon fishermen yesterday during a political rally here meant to counter the political muscle of San Joaquin Valley farmers who tend to get more media attention in the long-running war over the state’s strained water […]
By THOMAS FULLERPublished: April 1, 2010 BANGKOK — In southern China, the worst drought in at least 50 years has dried up farmers’ fields and left tens of millions of people short of water. But the drought has also created a major public relations problem for the Chinese government in neighboring countries, where in recent […]
