Photos show dramatic shrinking of Mount Everest glaciers

By Louise Gray, Environment CorrespondentPublished: 12:42PM BST 18 Jul 2010 The two pictures show an “alarming” retreat in ice over more than 80 years. The first was taken in 1921 by British mountaineer George Mallory, who later died trying to conquer Everest. The Asia Society commissioned the same picture to be taken of the main […]

Russia swelters in heatwave and worst drought in 130 years — Many crops destroyed

  By Dmitry Solovyov, Gleb Bryanski and Alexander Reshetnikov; Editing by Matthew Jones (Reuters) – Soaring temperatures across large swathes of Russia have destroyed nearly 10 million hectares of crops and prompted a state of emergency to be declared in 17 regions. On Friday the state-run Moscow region weather bureau said it expected the heatwave, […]

Thailand to release 250,000 wasps to fight South American invader

Thailand is to release a quarter of a million wasps to fight a South American insect wreaking havoc on the country’s cassava crops. The tiny parasitic wasps will be unleashed in Thailand’s  northeastern province of Khon Kaen on Sunday in an attempt to control the pest outbreak. The invader, the cassava mealybug, sucks sap from […]

Illegal logging declining worldwide, but still ‘major problem’

A new report by the Chatham House finds that illegal logging in tropical forest nations is primarily on the decline, providing evidence that new laws and international efforts on the issue are having a positive impact. According to the report, the total global production of illegal timber has fallen by 22 percent since 2002. Yet […]

Salty water, parched earth: Vietnam’s Mekong paddies dry up

By Staff WritersQue Dien, Vietnam (AFP) July 14, 2010 The rivers that should nourish his thirsty rice paddies are too salty, and the rains are late this year. Dang Roi does not know if he will be able to salvage anything from this spring’s crop. Vietnam is the world’s second-biggest rice exporter and the Mekong […]

China's wars, rebellions driven by climate: study

Decadal means of temperature of (a) the whole of China, (b) frequencies of droughts, (c) floods, (d) internal wars, (e) external aggression wars, (f) all wars, (g) locust plagues and (h) rice price in China during AD 10–1990. Dynastic periods are defined by following Chen (1939) as: A, Han (206 BC–AD 220); B, Three Kingdoms […]

China gold mine severely contaminates river, causes massive fish kill

Beijing (AFP) July 12, 2010 – Pollution from a mine owned by a top gold producer has severely contaminated a river in southeastern China, leading to a massive fish kill, the government and state media said Monday. Seepage from a mining waste pond owned by the Zijinshan Copper Mine has contaminated the Ding River and […]

Worst drought in a decade destroys millions of hectares of Russian crops

By Maria Kolesnikova; editors: John Deane, Alastair Reed  July 12 (Bloomberg) — Russia’s worst drought in a decade has damaged more than half of grain planted in 11 regions and hot, dry weather may continue for the rest of this month, a meteorologist said. “We don’t see much room for improvement in July,” said Anna […]

Big oil firms accused of human-rights abuses in Burma

By VIVIENNE WALTWed Jul 7, 2:15 am ET To the list of Big Oil companies with p.r. problems add two more: Chevron and French energy giant Total. In a report published on Monday, the NGO EarthRights International accuses the firms of being implicated in human-rights violations in Burma, claiming that soldiers guarding Chevron and Total’s […]

Graph of the Day: Observed and Projected Deforestation in Borneo, 1950-2020

In Indonesia, forests cover 463,000 square miles, which ranks behind only Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo in size. But rampant illegal logging has made those forests among the most endangered on the planet and has depressed timber prices worldwide. In the 1960s, about 82 percent of Indonesia was forested. By 1995, forest cover […]

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