US contact: Terese Rosenthal, Tel.: +1 609 243 4339 12 July 2011 An exceptional accumulation of very severe natural catastrophes makes 2011 the highest-ever loss year on record, even after the first half-year. Already, the approx. US$ 265bn in economic losses up to the end of June easily exceeds the total figure for 2005, previously […]
By EVAN SCHWARTEN30 July 2011 (AAP) – SOME day it’ll be one of those things old timers boast about to cyclone-wary newcomers. “You think this is bad? You should have seen Yasi,” they’ll say. But that kind of bravado is still some way off. Six months after experiencing the biggest cyclone in a century, the […]
By RACHEL TOUNE2 August 2011 MISSION Beach’s iconic Dunk and Bedarra Island resorts will be put up for sale after their owners announced they had abandoned attempts to rebuild following devastation suffered in Cyclone Yasi. Hideaway Resorts, the resorts’ parent company, said the extent of the damage made it unfeasible to attempt a complete refurbishment […]
By EVA VERGARA2 August 2011 SANTIAGO, Chile — This has been the wettest winter in decades for Chile’s arid northern desert, where fractions of an inch of rain have done major damage in some areas and set the stage for spectacular floral displays in the weeks to come. July came and went with major storms […]
July 27 (Nairobi Star) – ABOUT 2,000 Mau Forest evictees have asked the government to give them land. They said they preferred being given land and not money. Speaking in Nakuru, leaders from 12 IDP camps accused those who wanted compensation in form of cash as impostors. The camps include Kongasis, Chepkoburon, Tiriyta, Kaptembwo, Kiletien, […]
By Robert Sanders, Media Relations 28 July 2011 BERKELEY — California’s native grasses, already under pressure from invasive exotic grasses, are likely to be pushed aside even more as the climate warms, according to a new analysis from the University of California, Berkeley. In the study, which has been accepted for publication in the journal […]
By Benjamin Wermund; Editing by Karen Brooks and Jerry Norton29 July 2011 MARFA, Texas (Reuters) – A historic Texas drought is driving bears into urban areas searching for food and water, the latest in a series of bizarre wildlife stories to come out of the deadly hot and dry weather across the nation. Authorities have […]
July 31 (New Scientist) – ANTARCTICA is rising like a cheese soufflé: slowly but surely. Lost ice due to climate change and left-over momentum from the end of the last big ice age mean the buoyant continent is heaven-bound. Donald Argus of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and colleagues used 15 years of […]
By John D. Cox28 July 2011 Before the last ice age, during a warm era some 125,000 years ago that was comparable to modern times, scientists know that the oceans reached levels that were some 15 to 20 feet higher than they are today. What they don’t know is, where did the extra water come […]
By BETSY BLANEY, Associated Press27 July 2011 Randy McGee spent $28,000 in one month pumping water onto about 500 acres in West Texas before he decided to give up irrigating 75 acres of corn and focus on other crops that stood a better chance in the drought. He thought rain might come and save those […]
