Graph of the Day: Projected Decline in Length of Growing Period in the Global Tropics, 2050

Areas that will experience more than a 5% reduction in length of growing period (LGP). LGP is defined by the average number of growing days per year, in which a growing day is one in which the average air temperature is greater than 6°C and the ratio of actual to potential evapo-transpiration exceeds 0.35 (Jones […]

Brick kiln emissions reduce crop yields, damage trees

By Faisal Raza Khan6 March 2012 ISLAMABAD – Hydrogen fluoride emissions from brick kilns have been found to damage trees and crops in new studies conducted by an international team of scientists in the Peshawar area of northern Pakistan. Peshawar has 450 brick kilns and hydrogen fluoride is also released by factories making aluminium, ceramics, […]

Climate change or not, 2011 weather hurt tech

By Patrick Thibodeau, pthibodeau@computerworld.com 1 March 2012 Scientists expect that climate change will increase the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, and last fall’s flooding in Thailand fit the definition of extreme. The floods were one the world’s most costly disasters in recent times, and it had a major effect on hard disk drive […]

First pictures from sealed-off Bakun dam zone reveal social and environmental disaster

BASEL, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) has today disclosed a series of shocking pictures from the Bakun dam exclusion zone showing disturbing poverty and environmental destruction in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo. A BMF research team has managed to overcome the tight security measures preventing journalists or NGOs to travel […]

Millions of Pakistan flood victims still at risk – U.N. issues desperate plea for $440 million

16 February 2012 (presstv) – Millions of Pakistanis are still at serious risk of malnutrition and disease due to a weak international response to the country’s second major flooding crisis in two years. The Pakistan Humanitarian Forum (PHF) said Thursday that at least 2.5 million people in the flood-hit country are still suffering from the […]

China energy consumption rises at fastest pace in four years

[cf. U.S. CO2 emissions to stay below 2005 levels as coal use shrinks] 22 February 2012 (Bloomberg News) – China’s energy use rose at the fastest pace in four years in 2011 and efficiency improved, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Consumption climbed 7 percent to 3.48 billion metric tons of standard coal equivalent, […]

Bangladesh declares sanctuaries for endangered freshwater dolphins

NEW YORK, New York, 15 February 2012 (ENS) –  Bangladesh has established three new wildlife sanctuaries for endangered freshwater dolphins in the world’s largest mangrove ecosystem, the Sundarbans. Officially declared on January 29, the sanctuaries are intended to protect the last two remaining species of freshwater dolphins in Asia – the Ganges River dolphin, Platanista […]

‘Massive and unprecedented’ slaughter of Cameroon elephants – Orphaned calves dying of hunger and thirst

By MICHELLE FAUL Associated Press 16 February 2012 JOHANNESBURG (AP) – Poachers have slaughtered at least 200 elephants in the past five weeks in a patch of Africa where they are more dangerously endangered than anywhere else on Earth, wildlife activists said. The money made from selling elephant tusks is fueling misery throughout the continent, […]

Thailand flooding costs Lloyd’s of London $2.2 billion – Total cost estimated at $15-$20 billion

By Juliette Garside, www.guardian.co.uk 14 February 2012 Lloyd’s of London has estimated that it is liable for $2.22bn (£1.4bn) of net claims from the flooding that devastated Thailand last year. In a first calculation of its liability for the damage, released to the City on Tuesday, the insurance market said the claims were unlikely to […]

The nexus of climate change and war – ‘We don’t want to be the generation that catches the final curtain on civilization’

By Randolph T. Holhut, American Reporter Correspondent11 February 2012 DUMMERSTON, Vermont – There is virtually no doubt that global warming exists. Aside from a few cranks and those heavily invested in the fossil fuel industry, the scientific consensus is that the Earth’s climate is changing, and changing faster than ever before. What happens when the […]

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