Muslims pray for rain in drought-hit Guyana

Reporting by Neil Marks; Editing by John O’CallaghanGEORGETOWNSat Mar 27, 2010 2:56pm EDT (Reuters) – Muslims across Guyana prayed for rain on Saturday to end a drought that has battered the tiny South American nation’s rice and sugar exports and caused food shortages in indigenous communities.   The government of the former British colony of about […]

Vietnam drought withers orchards — ‘Not a drop to drink’

Reported by Trung Duong – Tien Trinh  2000 custard apple trees. Around four years old. To a tree, they withered and died. That was a month ago. Now, he can do nothing but watch a hectare of his mango trees fade in the relentless heat. “Drought like this… there’s no way I can save the […]

Parched Australia farmers vote to abandon irrigation: ‘I just want the nightmare to end’

By PETER KERMarch 26, 2010 THE winds of social change are gathering speed across Victoria, after irrigators in one of state’s most drought-ravaged districts virtually voted themselves out of existence last night. More than 70 per cent of the 153 farmers in the Campaspe Irrigation District say they wish to cease irrigating. They declared their […]

Six ways we’re already geo-engineering Earth

By Brandon Keim Email AuthorMarch 23, 2010 | 8:00 pm Scientists and policymakers are meeting this week to discuss whether geo-engineering to fight climate change can be safe in the future, but make no mistake about it: We’re already geo-engineering Earth on a massive scale. From diverting a third of Earth’s available fresh water to […]

Victims call China drought a human-caused disaster

By Lin Li & Feng MingSound of Hope Radio Network The continued drought in Southwest China has affected more than 50 million people in the provinces of Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, and the city of Chongqing. Discontent over the artificial causes of the drought, sky-high food prices, and unsatisfactory disaster relief has increased. Meanwhile, the […]

Indonesia to raze 700,000 hectares of forest for food estate

  By Sunanda Creagh, Editing by David FogartyJAKARTAThu Mar 25, 2010 8:52am EDT (Reuters) – Indonesia would have to clear about 700,000 hectares of forest, an area 10 times the size of Singapore, if it proceeds with plans for a vast agricultural estate in Papua province, an activist group said on Thursday. Indonesia wants to […]

Graph of the Day: Trend in Australia Mean Temperature, 1960-2009

All of Australia has experienced warming over the past 50 years. Some areas have experienced warming since 1960 of up to 0.4ºC per decade resulting in total warming over the five decades of 1.5 to 2ºC Highly variable rainfall across the country, with substantial increases in rainfall in northern and central parts of Australia, as […]

Environmental refugees and global warming in Sub-Saharan Africa

ScienceDaily (Mar. 22, 2010) — Climate change and environmental degradation are likely to trigger increased migration in Sub-Saharan Africa with potentially devastating effects on the hundreds of millions of especially poor people, according to a paper in the International Journal of Global Warming. Environmental changes are especially pronounced in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), explain Ulrike Grote […]

Graph of the Day: Global Trends in Land-Use Area for Livestock Production, 1961-2001

Nearly 30% of the Earth’s terrestrial ice-free surface is devoted to livestock production, while 8% is devoted to production of crops that are directly consumed by people. As livestock production shifts to more intensive systems, it will place more pressure on arable land for the production of feed. Over-grazing has resulted in loss of biodiversity […]

West African farmers call for help as drought hits – acute malnutrition at 30 percent

By Staff WritersNiamey (AFP) March 22, 2010 West African farmers appealed Monday for help as drought and famine menaced people and livestock, with malnutrition already affecting nearly a third of the population. “Communities of farmers and pastoralists are already severely affected … with the acute malnutrition rate estimated at 29.9 percent, which is double the […]

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