By Bettina Boxall 30 January 2014 (Los Angeles Times) – Even with the first significant storm in nearly two months dropping snow on the Sierra Nevada, Thursday’s mountain snowpack measurements were the lowest for the date in more than a half-century of record keeping. At 12% of average for this time of year, the dismal […]
18 November 2013 (World Bank) – Disasters trap people into poverty, as indicated by the evidence from many countries. For example, following the 2011 drought, poverty levels in Djibouti returned to levels above those in 2002, indicating a loss of almost 10 years of development gains. Studies from rural Ethiopia and Andhra Pradesh, India, indicate […]
By Robin Wilkey15 January 2014 SAN FRANCISCO (The Huffington Post) – The shore of California’s Lake Oroville hasn’t looked this way in modern history. Cracked dry mud shatters the canyon floor, and buoys rest 10 feet up the side of a shale hill. The remains of two vehicles — crashed long ago — rise from […]
By Adam Withnall16 December 2013 (The Independent) – The world’s supply of bananas is under threat from plagues of bugs and fungal infections which could be disastrous if they continue to spread, researchers say. The government in Costa Rica, one of the biggest suppliers of the fruit, has already declared a “national emergency” over the […]
By Nafeez Ahmed17 December 2013 (The Guardian) – An international scientific research project known as the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI-MIP), run by 30 teams from 12 countries, has attempted to understand the severity and scale of global impacts of climate change. The project compares model projections on water scarcity, crop yields, disease, floods […]
By Kiley Kroh27 December 2013 (Center for American Progress) – As California enters its third consecutive dry winter, with no sign of moisture on the horizon, fears are growing over increased wildfire activity, agricultural losses and additional stress placed on already strained water supplies. The city of Los Angeles has received only 3.6 inches of […]
By Kim Willsher25 November 2013 PARIS (theguardian.com) – Deep below the once purple but now wintering and dormant fields of Provençal lavender, something is rotten. It will not make itself known until spring and summer, when the cicadas – another symbol of this picturesque region of southern France – are ready to emerge from the […]
GAROWE, Somalia, 16 November 2013 (Garowe Online) – The survivors of a severe cyclonic storm that rammed into Somalia’s northeastern region of Puntland are desperate for food, medicines, and clean water but, with so much anxiety and chaos in the hardest-hit areas, the distribution is limited, Garowe Online reports. Despite the efforts of Puntland government, […]
16 November 2013 (UNOCHA) – Government agencies estimate that between 9 to 13 million people have been affected by Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda) across nine regions. About 18 per cent (2.3 million people) of the total affected population is concentrated in Eastern Visayas, Western Visayas and Central Visayas regions. Figures are expected to […]
NEW DELHI, 26 October 2013 (AP) – Days of torrential rains have unleashed floods in southeast India that have killed dozens of people and forced the evacuation of more than 70,000 others from hundreds of low-lying villages. As of Saturday, there were 39 flood-related deaths in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa States since the rains began […]
