By Tia Ghose 2 September 2015 (Live Science) – It started in late May. When geoecologist Steffen Zuther and his colleagues arrived in central Kazakhstan to monitor the calving of one herd of saigas, a critically endangered, steppe-dwelling antelope, veterinarians in the area had already reported dead animals on the ground. “But since there happened […]
By Bob Weber21 August 2015 (The Canadian Press) – Climate change is forcing the boreal forest that covers much of northern Canada to a tipping point, concludes a newly published study. “The changes could be very dramatic and very fast,” said Dmitry Schepaschenko of Austria’s Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. Schepaschenko was one of three […]
By Lynn Jenner24 August 2015 (NASA) – Lake Baikal in Eastern Russia, the deepest and oldest lake in the world, is home to 20 percent of the world’s unfrozen fresh water. As of 24 August 2015 this lake is facing a crisis with 36 fires equaling an area of 138,500 hectares (342,240 acres) currently burning […]
23 August 2015 (The Siberian Times) – These unnerving images show the scale of destruction from wildfires close to Lake Baikal, the jewel of Siberia. The sky is aglow over the Republic of Buryatia from the uncontrolled burning, the latest outbreaks of fires that have been destroying forests around the world’s oldest and deepest lake […]
By Dan Levin 13 August 2015 BEIJING (The New York Times) – Outdoor air pollution contributes to the deaths of an estimated 1.6 million people in China every year, or about 4,400 people a day, according to a newly released scientific paper [pdf]. The paper maps the geographic sources of China’s toxic air and concludes […]
12 August 2015 (The Siberian Times) – Only a ‘few pairs’ of the West Siberian population of the Siberian crane now remain in the lower reaches of the Ob River, warned Dr Lev Vartapetov, deputy director of the Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals in Novosibirsk. ‘The last birds are killed during their passage […]
10 August 2015 (The Siberian Times) – Summer wildfires ignited in areas close to Lake Baikal, the vast Siberian lake, at the height of the vacation season, causing breathing problems in some areas. Campers reported their tents and cars caked in ashes from the huge fires. Some 45 people were evacuated from the Baikal shore […]
By David Volodzko5 August 2015 CHENGDU, China (Global Post) – While China clamps down on logging within its borders, illegal Chinese loggers are felling the world’s forests with abandon for the sake of teak floors and fancy chairs. In late July, 153 Chinese nationals were sentenced to life in prison for illegal logging in Myanmar’s […]
By B. Khash-Erdene24 July 2015 (UB Post) – Approximately 80 percent of Mongolia’s crops have died this summer due to extreme drought across the country, according to board member of the Mongolian Plantation Union B. Erdenebat. Though the situation has reached a critical level, the Ministry of Industry and Agriculture has yet to take action, […]
29 July 2015 (Tuoi Tre News) – The Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s biggest granary, home to a widespread network of rivers and canals, has been threatened by the rising level of salt water flowing into rice fields and farms. There have been warnings about such a situation for years, but authorities in Vietnam have failed to […]
