By Denene Erasmus, 25 Feb 2010 More than 2 000 ostriches have died in the Klein Karoo, as temperatures soared to more than 50°C in February. This follows the announcement that ostrich farmers in the drought-stricken southern Cape would not be benefiting from the R26,9 million in drought relief made available by the National Treasury for embattled […]
By Luc Gnacadja, UNCCD Executive SecretarySpecial for the Herald Climate change, food security, migration, poverty and peace. Nowadays, it seems that not a day goes by without a news report on one or all of these issues. These issues are also a big part of the current international political agenda. The question that almost always […]
By PETER KERFebruary 22, 2010 Close to 300 kilometres of the Murray River has been declared off limits to humans and animals, as a toxic algal bloom worsened yesterday. As the river between Wodonga and Echuca was elevated to ”red alert” for algal bloom, there were concerns the risks to human health were not being […]
Bonn, 7 September 2009. Chetan Soni is the first-prize winner of the International Photography Contest of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the secretariat of the Convention, which is based in Bonn, Germany, announced today. The picture depicts a young Indian girl dressed in a colorful blue and orange saree with pot in hand […]
By Ulf Laessing SANAA, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Yemeni water trader Mohammed al-Tawwa runs his diesel pumps day and night, but gets less and less from his well in Sanaa, which experts say could become the world’s first capital city to run dry. “My well is now 400 metres (1,300 feet) deep and I don’t […]
Falling supplies due to rising temperatures and retreating glaciers could spark conflict between water-stressed countries in the region, says Oxfam By John Vidal, environment editorwww.guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 17 February 2010 06.00 GMT It has been occupied by the Russians, the Mongols, the Turks, the Arabs and the Uzbeks, the Chinese, as well as Genghis Khan. But […]
ScienceDaily (Feb. 16, 2010) — Despite good intentions, the push to privatize government functions and insistence upon “free trade” that is too often unfair has caused declining food production, increased poverty and a hunger crisis for millions of people in many African nations, researchers conclude in a new study. Market reforms that began in the […]
By ERIK JENSENFebruary 16, 2010 LAKE GEORGE, north-east of Canberra, has water in it for the first time since 2002. Lake Woytchugga, near Wilcannia, is looking like a water body for the first time in a decade. And in Sydney last week’s rain gave the city’s catchment its highest inflow since 2007. ”The rain’s been […]
By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.comFebruary 11, 2010 A new study in Science shows that farming practices in China are acidifying the nation’s soils and threatening long term productivity at a time when food concerns worldwide have never been higher. The culprit is the increasing use of nitrogen fertilizer. “Chinese agriculture has intensified greatly since the early […]
By Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 02.12.10 What’s dzud you ask? Well, it’s the Mongolian word for the sort of weather they are now experiencing. Roughly translated by Shambala Sun, it’s an unusually dry summer where there isn’t enough grass growth to allow herd animals to grow strong, followed by an unusually cold winter […]
