(University of Virginia) Massive burning of forests for agriculture thousands of years ago may have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide enough to alter global climate and usher in a warming trend that continues today, according to a new study that appears online Aug. 17 in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews. Researchers at the University of Virginia […]
By Nora Schultz You may have thought that the silver lining of rising carbon dioxide levels would be a boost in crop yields. But evidence is mounting that we may trade quantity for quality. The discovery that staple crops like wheat have less protein when grown in high concentrations of CO2 has already caused concern, […]
Pesticides used by farmers in California’s Central Valley could be killing frogs in the Sierra mountains, report researchers. Don Sparling of Southern Illinois University Carbondale found that minute quantities of endosulfan — the active ingredient in many pesticides — was enough kill frogs. “At 0.8 parts per billion, we lose all of them,” Sparling said. […]
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s government released $38 million on Friday to kick-start a plan to deliver food, water and medicine to rural northern communities afflicted by drought. Fifteen trucks set off for 11 districts in the north on Friday and 25 more begin the journey on Saturday. Operations are being conducted jointly with the U.N.’s […]
At least 45% of Indian land is environmentally “degraded”, air pollution is rising and flora and fauna is diminishing, according to a report. The State of Environment Report is the first to be published for eight years and is the first to use satellite imagery to support its findings. It focuses on water, energy, food, […]
Baghdad (AFP) Aug 11, 2009 – Iraq’s water minister accused Turkey on Tuesday of breaking a promise to increase water flows down the Euphrates river, saying Ankara was actually holding back on the precious commodity. He was responding to remarks by Turkey’s visiting foreign minister that his country had fulfilled its promises and was considering […]
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Groundwater levels in northern India have fallen about 20 percent more than expected because of excessive pumping, threatening to spark a major food and water crisis, according to a study based on U.S. space agency data. The study, led by Matthew Rodell of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said […]
Damascus, Syria, 7 August 2009 (UPI) – The drought that has kept Syria dry for three years has cost more than 800,000 people their livelihoods, Red Cross and Red Crescent officials said. The International Federal of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies this week said about $300,000 had been set aside for immediate assistance for […]
Dhaka (AFP) July 21, 2009 – A delay to Bangladesh’s monsoon season is posing a severe risk of drought in the impoverished nation and threatening food supplies, officials warned Tuesday. Monsoon rains normally sweep Bangladesh from June to September and the South Asian country gets more than 75 percent of its annual rainfall during this […]
YIXIAN, China, Aug 4 (AFP) Aug 04, 2009 The river has dried up, the well yields only dust, and Li Yunxi is hard pressed to irrigate his plot of land, even though he lives right next to the largest water project in history. The elderly farmer watches in despair as his corn crop wilts under […]
