TOKYO, 4 Feb 2013 (AFP) – The suffocating smog that blanketed swathes of China is now hitting parts of Japan, sparking warnings Monday of health risks for the young and the sick. The environment ministry’s website has been overloaded as worried users log on to try to find out what is coming their way. “Access […]
By Jean Rovys Dabany and Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Pravin Char6 February 2013 Libreville, Gabon (Reuters) – Poachers have killed more than 11,000 elephants in Gabon’s Minkebe National Park rain forest since 2004, Gabon’s government said on Wednesday, with the massacre fueled by increasing demand for ivory in Asia. The densely-forested central African country is […]
By Beth Walker1 February 2013 (China Dialog) – China has confirmed it will resurrect a series of controversial hydropower dams in south-west China on rivers originating on the Tibetan Plateau, causing ripples of consternation from India and other downstream neighbours. The 2011-15 energy sector blueprint, released by China’s State Council last week, confirmed plans to […]
30 January 2013 (Bloomberg News) – Beijing’s air, which has exceeded the World Health Organization’s “healthy” limit every day this year, is similar to that in an airport smoking lounge. The CHART OF THE DAY shows Beijing’s daily peak and average concentrations of PM2.5, the airborne particulate matter that raises risks for lung and heart […]
By Minxin Pei28 January 2013 (FORTUNE) – For a long time, environmental activists, economists, and China scholars have warned about the coming environmental disaster in China. Such a catastrophe finally appeared in the most dramatic form in mid-January, when a thick layer of poisonous pollutants smothered much of northern China and made air in Beijing […]
By Rhett A. Butler24 January 2013 (mongabay.com) – By some estimates, more than 30,000 elephants were slaughtered across the savannas and forests of Africa and Asia for the ivory trade during 2012. The carnage represents as much as 4 percent of the world’s elephant population. Accordingly, some conservationists are warning that elephants face imminent extinction […]
By Jeremy Hance24 January 2013 (mongabay.com) – When Typhoon Bopha, also known as Pablo, ran ashore on Mindanao, it was the largest tropical storm ever to hit the Philippine island. In its wake, the massive superstorm left over 1,000 people dead and 6.2 million affected, with officials saying illegal logging and mining worsened the scale […]
MANILA, Philippines, 25 January 2013 (ABS-CBNnews.com) – Two crane ships from Singapore are arriving before the end of the month to extract the USS Guardian from Tubbataha Reef in Palawan, the Philippine Coast Guard said Friday. “They are waiting for two ships with heavy cranes that will be coming from Singapore and then they will […]
MANILA, Philippines, 23 January 2013 (ABS-CBNnews.com) – The US Navy minesweeper ship USS Guardian damaged at least 1,000 square meters of coral reefs in Tubbataha Reef in Palawan when it ran aground Thursday, according to the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG). Lt. Cmdr. Armand Balilo, spokesman of the PCG, said the estimated damage was based on […]
By Craig Brown21 January 2013 (Common Dreams) – The US Navy minesweeper that smashed into the World Heritage-listed coral reef off the Philippines coast last week ignored warnings to avoid the area, according to a Philippine government official. The comments from the superintendent of Tubbataha Marine Park, Angelique Songco, added to growing anger in the […]
