By David Fogarty, with additional reporting by Gerard Wynn in London, Erik Dela Cruz in Manila, and Naveen Thukral in Singapore; Editing by Bill Tarrant10 Jun 2011 CANBERRA (Reuters) – Charlie Bragg gazes across his lush fields where fat lambs are grazing, his reservoirs filled with water, and issues a sigh of relief. Things are […]
BY ROSSLYN BEEBY, SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT REPORTER04 June 2011 Australia’s leading climate change scientists are being targeted by a vicious, unrelenting email campaign that has resulted in police investigations of death threats. The Australian National University has confirmed it moved several high-profile climate scientists, economists and policy researchers into more secure buildings, following explicit threats […]
By IAN JOHNSON3 June 2011 BEIJING — China’s three decades of rapid economic growth have left it with a “very grave” environmental situation even as it tries to move away from a development-at-all-costs strategy, senior government officials said on Friday. In a blunt assessment of the problems facing the world’s most populous country, officials from […]
By FELICITY BARRINGER30 May 2011 IRVINE, Calif. — Scientists have been using small variations in the Earth’s gravity to identify trouble spots around the globe where people are making unsustainable demands on groundwater, one of the planet’s main sources of fresh water. They found problems in places as disparate as North Africa, northern India, northeastern […]
By Robin Emmott, with additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Phoenix; Editing by Kieran Murray and Claudia Parsons1 Jun 2011 MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) – Mario Ramos thought it was a bad joke when he received an anonymous email at the start of this year demanding $15,000 a month to keep his industrial tubing business operating […]
Reporting by Leonardo Goy, Raymond Colitt; Editing by Reese Ewing and Eric Beech1 June 2011 (Reuters) – Brazil’s environment agency gave its definitive approval on Wednesday for construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, a controversial $17 billion project in the Amazon that has drawn criticism from native Indians and conservationists. The regulator, Ibama, issued […]
By JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF28 May 2011 Early last Tuesday, José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva, a forest activist and tree nut harvester, and his wife, Maria do Espirito Santo, drove a motorcycle through Brazil’s northern Para State, in the Amazon rain forest. As they crossed a river bridge, gunmen lying in wait opened fire with a […]
Record rise, despite recession, means 2C target almost out of reach By Fiona Harvey, Environment correspondent, www.guardian.co.uk29 May 2011 Greenhouse gas emissions increased by a record amount last year, to the highest carbon output in history, putting hopes of holding global warming to safe levels all but out of reach, according to unpublished estimates from […]
Reporting by Marco Aquino, Writing by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Peter Cooney27 May 2011 LIMA (Reuters) – Hundreds of demonstrators mobbed government buildings and burned police cars in southeastern Peru on Thursday as a protest against mining firms intensified 10 days before a presidential election. Some 5,000 protesters have descended on the city of Puno […]
Over the past year, persistent and unprecedented rains have resulted in massive flooding in Colombia that has affected close to 3 million people. In March 2011, Refugees International sent a team to assess the situation. This report describes significant shortcomings in the Colombian government’s and international agencies’ response to the disaster. While Colombia has spent […]
