Singapore raises sea defenses against tide of climate change – ‘A rise of two meters would turn Singapore into an island fortress’

By David Fogarty; Editing by Ron Popeski and Sanjeev Miglani26 January 2012 SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A 15-km (10 mile) stretch of crisp white beach is one of the key battlegrounds in Singapore’s campaign to defend its hard-won territory against rising sea levels linked to climate change. Stone breakwaters are being enlarged on the low-lying island […]

Video: What happened to Chernobyl children 7 years after the accident (from a Japanese TV program in 1993)

By arevamirpal::laprimavera 26 January 2012 When it was someone else’s problem (Chernobyl), Japan was telling the truth about the effect of radiation, particularly on children. Here’s Tokyo Brown Tabby’s translation and captioning of a TV program from 1993. Ironically, the female newscaster has morphed into one of the strongest proponents (even today) of nuclear power […]

New extinction risk to Thai elephants: eating them

26 January 2012 (AP) – Thailand’s revered national symbol, the elephant, may face a new threat of extinction: being poached not just for their tusks, but for their meat. Two wild elephants were found slaughtered last month in a national park in western Thailand, alerting authorities to the new practice of consuming elephant meat “The […]

Floods and typhoons affect 8 million in Asia – Thailand flooding one of the costliest natural disasters in history

Geneva, Oct 15, (IANS) – At least 650 people have died and over eight million people have been affected by floods and typhoons in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and the Philippines, the UN has said. So far, Thailand and Cambodia are the worst affected and the situation is expected to worsen as more rains, high […]

Climatic warming-induced change in timings of 24 seasonal divisions in China since 1960

Contact: Yan ZhongWei, yzw@tea.ac.cnScience in China Press24 January 2012 The Twenty-four Solar Terms are ancient Chinese terms used for about 2000 years. They describe 24 stages or timings associated with seasonal changes in phenology and agricultural activity throughout a year. Qian et al. from the Key Laboratory of Regional Climate-Environment for East Asia, Chinese Academy […]

Sumatran elephant population plunges – WWF calls for moratorium on deforestation

January 24 (mongabay.com) – The Sumatran elephant subspecies (Elephas maximus sumatranus) was downgraded to critically endangered on IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species on Tuesday, prompting environmental group WWF to call for an immediate moratorium on destruction of its rainforest habitat, which is being rapidly lost to oil palm estates, timber plantations for pulp and […]

Pangolins imperiled by internet trade – Are companies responding quickly enough?

By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com24 January 2012 You can buy pretty much anything on the internet: from Rugby team garden gnomes to Mickey Mouse lingerie. In some places, consumers have even been able to purchase illegal wildlife parts, such as ivory and rhino horn. In fact, the internet has opened up the black market wildlife trade […]

Apple shows us why manufacturing will never return from China

By Michael Santo, Tech Buzz Examiner22 January 2012 Reports such as SACOM’s from May of 2011 have shown us of the stresses, low wages, and unsafe conditions of plants such as those used for manufacturing iDevices and other electronics. Yet, on the surface, a New York Times report seems to point to more than just […]

Japan citizens take food safety into their own hands – ‘The government’s food-monitoring system is simply not credible’

By MARTIN FACKLER21 January 2012 ONAMI, Japan – In the fall, as this valley’s rice paddies ripened into a carpet of gold, inspectors came to check for radioactive contamination. Onami sits just 35 miles northwest of the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which spewed radioactive cesium over much of this rural region last March. However, […]

China report spells out ‘extremely grim’ climate change risks

By Chris Buckley; Editing by David Fogarty17 January 2012 BEIJING (Reuters) – Global warming threatens China’s march to prosperity by cutting crops, shrinking rivers and unleashing more droughts and floods, says the government’s latest assessment of climate change, projecting big shifts in how the nation feeds itself. The warnings are carried in the government’s “Second […]

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