Colombo (AFP) Feb 13, 2011 – The damage from monsoon flooding in Sri Lanka over the last six weeks is estimated at $600 million, a government minister said Sunday amid a slow response to an international appeal for help. Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said the government would spend 33 billion rupees ($300 million) to […]
Beijing, 11 February 2011 (AP) — China says it is launching a massive well drilling operation to save the crucial wheat crop stricken by the worst drought in decades. The plan to drill 1,350 wells across eight northeastern provinces follows the announcement of plans to spend $1 billion to alleviate the drought. China is the […]
By Yereth Rosen; editing by Steve Gorman and Greg McCuneSat Feb 12, 2011 12:43pm EST ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Thawing permafrost is triggering mudslides onto a key road traveled by busloads of sightseers. Tall bushes newly sprouted on the tundra are blocking panoramic views. And glaciers are receding from convenient viewing areas, while their rapid […]
By Bryan Walsh February 10, 2011 It’s not the heat that might get us with climate change—it’s the humidity, so to speak. The risk of sea level rise due to melting land ice is one of the most recognized—if controversial and hard to predict—threats posed by global warming. Other potential impacts from global warming include […]
By Staff WritersSantiago, Chile (UPI) Feb 10, 2011 Chile has ordered nationwide contingency planning to prepare for damaging effects of a drought triggered by La Niña weather phenomenon, already seen behind low rainfall and poor agricultural harvests in Argentina. A succession of natural disasters has put unexpected financial pressures on President Sebastian Piñera’s announced plans […]
By Megan NeilFebruary 11, 2011 As Dudley Maslen watched in horror TV footage of the deadly ‘inland tsunami’ raging across southeast Queensland, it reminded him of September 11. ”To me, it was a bit like watching that 9/11,” he recalls. ”You’re watching it and it’s real but it’s just unbelievable. It’s just staggering, the absolute […]
By Ben BerkowitzWed Feb 9, 2011 9:53am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) – In Chester County, South Carolina, off a dirt road in the middle of a field, insurance companies are literally unleashing a storm. To simulate hurricane-like conditions, an industry group has built a wind tunnel big enough to accommodate nine large residential homes. Some […]
By Dr John Church, CSIRO Fellow at the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research08 February 2011 Today there are more than 140 million people and a trillion dollars in infrastructure in the first one metre above high tide level around the world. Coastal areas (people, infrastructure and the environment) are already affected by extreme […]
By Evan Abramson, Yale Environment 360February 8, 2011 For thousands of years, nomadic herdsmen have roamed the harsh, semi-arid lowlands that stretch across 80 percent of Kenya and 60 percent of Ethiopia. Descendants of the oldest tribal societies in the world, they survive thanks to the animals they raise and the crops they grow, their […]
By JEFF RUBIN, Globe and Mail BlogPosted on Wednesday, February 9, 2011 6:21AM EST It’s more than coincidence the Arab world is convulsing with social unrest just as the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization’s widely watched price index recently soared past the previous food price peak set in the summer of 2008. After all, […]
