Puerto Princesa, Philippines (AFP) March 7, 2011 – For tourists the Philippine island of Palawan seems like paradise, but for environment activists it feels more akin to a battlefield. Murders and threats on what is promoted as the Southeast Asian nation’s last ecological frontier are emblematic of a struggle across the country, where dozens of […]
By Jennifer Hattam, Istanbul, Turkey 12 March 2011 Key reservoirs in Cyprus are drying up. In some parts of the Greek side of the divided island, 50 percent of the trees have died due to drought, damaging soil quality and agricultural productivity. Experts say the Mediterranean island could end up with as little water as […]
By now, everybody has seen video of the blast that occurred at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, but this before/after comparison caught Desdemona’s eye: “The secondary containment building blew up; it’s totally gone (along with any relief valves that may have been installed).” – Ghung At 21:00 JST (12:00 GMT) TEPCO announced that they […]
With promises to curb CO2 emissions by 2020, China will need more than blackouts to get there By David BielloMarch 11, 2011 China has won international plaudits for its commitment to green goals. It has pledged to reduce carbon emissions by at least 40 percent per economic unit by 2020 and is also adding alternative […]
By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.comMarch 10, 2011 Cambodian villagers fighting to save their forest from rubber companies have been rebuked by the local government. Two days in a row local authorities prevented some 400 Cambodian villagers from protesting at the offices of the Vietnam-based CRCK Company, which the villagers contend are destroying their livelihoods by bulldozing […]
Beijing (AFP) March 2, 2011 – China has said that snow and rain in the country’s northern wheat-growing regions over the past week had helped to ease a crippling drought that had sparked fears about rising global food prices. “The drought in most of the country’s winter wheat-growing regions has eased considerably after the widespread […]
Study suggests black carbon pollution has greater effect than carbon dioxide on region’s ice By Janet RaloffMarch 8th, 2011 In high-elevation snowy regions, the warming effects of greenhouse gases pale in comparison to those triggered by soot, new computer calculations show. The finding could help explain the accelerating pace of melting on the Tibetan Plateau, […]
March 6, 2011, Singapore (AFP) — The unbridled manufacture and use of pesticides in Asia is raising the spectre of “pest storms” devastating the region’s rice farms and threatening food security, scientists have warned. Increased production of cheap pesticides in China and India, lax regulation and inadequate farmer education are destroying ecosystems around paddies, allowing […]
By Rhett A. Butler, www.mongabay.com March 07, 2011 Expansion of industrial oil palm plantations across Malaysia and Indonesia have laid waste to vast areas of forest and peatlands, exacerbating greenhouse gas emissions and putting biodiversity at risk, reports a new satellite-based analysis that maps mature oil palm estates across Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, and Sumatra. The […]
By Robert Fisk, Middle East CorrespondentSaturday, 5 March 2011 Saudi Arabia was yesterday drafting up to 10,000 security personnel into its north-eastern Shia Muslim provinces, clogging the highways into Dammam and other cities with busloads of troops in fear of next week’s “day of rage” by what is now called the “Hunayn Revolution”. Saudi Arabia’s […]
