Nanyuki, Kenya (AFP) Aug 19, 2009 – In Kenya a bruising and recurring drought is driving huge numbers of subsistence farmers away from rural areas, where they are increasingly reliant on hand-outs, into congested slums. “People are opting to relocate. I know families that are demolishing their houses, selling iron sheets and timber and getting […]
The animals’ stampede through the Mara river is one of nature’s most spectacular events. But now the watercourse is drying up, a sign of the damage being done to Africa’s fragile eco-system By Daniel Howden The scale of it is hard to comprehend. Even standing on the dented roof of an old jeep in the […]
(Purdue University) Urban workers could suffer most from climate change as the cost of food drives them into poverty, according to a new study that quantifies the effects of climate on the world’s poor populations. A team led by Purdue University researchers examined the potential economic influence of adverse climate events, such as heat waves, […]
MEXICO CITY – Mexico is suffering from its driest year in 68 years, killing crops and cattle in the countryside and forcing the government to slow the flow of water to the crowded capital. Below-average rainfall since last year has left about 80 of Mexico’s 175 largest reservoirs less than half full, said Felipe Arreguin, […]
By Melissa Fyfe DROUGHT experts have for the first time proven a link between rising levels of greenhouse gases and a decline in rainfall. A three-year collaboration between the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO has confirmed that the drought is not just a natural dry stretch but a shift related to climate change. Scientists working […]
By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent Harbours around Britain are being ‘suffocated’ by algae according to the Government’s environment watchdog. The green seaweed saps oxygen from water – meaning other marine life cannot survive – and spreads, taking over hundreds of acres of mudflats and estuaries. The Environment Agency (EA) is so concerned about the problem […]
Sonar survey spies mysterious, 1.4-kilometer-tall feature in the depths off California By Sid PerkinsAn oceanographic survey has discovered a 1,400-meter-tall plume rising from the seafloor off the coast of California. Water samples taken at the site, about 32 kilometers northwest of Cape Mendocino, indicate that the feature isn’t mineral-rich water spewing from a hydrothermal vent, […]
NAIROBI, Kenya, August 17, 2009 (ENS) – Kenya could lose all its lions in the next 20 years if the current rate of decline continues unless urgent and decisive measures are taken, the Kenya Wildlife Service warned today. World famous for its wildlife, Kenya now has 2,000 lions in seven national parks and conservation areas, […]
By EVAN LEHMANN of ClimateWire Several states prone to natural disasters are measuring the odds on a mega-bet. Concerned observers say those calculations are based on “Lady Luck” and “rolling the dice.” Public insurance programs in some coastal states are flirting with the notion of saving millions of dollars every year by shrinking or canceling […]
By Tom Arup, Environment Correspondent THE Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, has warned that money to save endangered wildlife is limited and some species may have to be abandoned when funding decisions are made. In one of the strongest speeches of his ministerial career he told an international conference of ecologists in Brisbane that the Government […]
