BY PETRA LÖW29 May 2013 (WorldWatch Institute) – In 2012, there were 905 natural catastrophes worldwide, 93 percent of which were weather-related disasters. In terms of overall and insured losses (US$170 billion and $70 billion, respectively), 2012 did not follow the records set in 2011 and could be defined as a moderate year on a […]
Contact the UNISDR press office: Denis McClean: +41-79-444-5262 (mobile) Maria Hasan: +1-917-367-72070 or +1-917-856-2014 (mobile) Andrew McElroy: +41-79-217-3023 (mobile) NEW YORK, 15 May 2013 – The United Nations today issued a stark warning to the world’s business community that economic losses linked to disasters are “out of control” and will continue to escalate unless disaster […]
By MICHAEL WINES 19 May 2013 HASKELL COUNTY, Kansas (The New York Times) – Forty-nine years ago, Ashley Yost’s grandfather sank a well deep into a half-mile square of rich Kansas farmland. He struck an artery of water so prodigious that he could pump 1,600 gallons to the surface every minute. Last year, Mr. Yost […]
By Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Jo Winterbottom and Ed Davies24 April 2013 JAMWADI, India (Reuters) – India may be heading for another bumper grain harvest, if the first forecast for this year’s monsoon proves correct, but the rain may be too little – and too late – for southern and western states already parched by […]
ZURICH, 27 March 2013 (Swiss Re) – Natural catastrophes and man-made disasters cost society about USD 186 billion in 2012. Most of the losses were due to Hurricane Sandy, which devastated the northeastern coast of the US. The storm also affected the Caribbean and Canada, making it the largest North Atlantic hurricane on record in […]
By Bill Briggs16 May 2013 (NBC News) – American eaters, let’s talk about the birds and the bees: The U.S. food supply – from chickens injected with arsenic to dying bee colonies – is under unprecedented siege from a blitz of man-made hazards, meaning some of your favorite treats someday may vanish from your plate, […]
By Alex Kirby10 May 2013 LONDON (Climate News Network) – Researchers see no winners if agriculture made possible by widespread felling in the Amazon continues to expand. Large-scale expansion of agriculture at the expense of the forest could entail the loss of almost two-thirds of the Amazon’s terrestrial biomass by later this century, with grave […]
By Roxana Hegeman11 May 2013 (AP) – The winter wheat crop is expected to be far smaller this season compared to last, particularly for hard red varieties used in bread, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Friday. In the first government projection on the harvest’s anticipated size, the National Agricultural Statistics Service estimated winter wheat […]
By MICHELLE FAUL7 May 2013 JOHANNESBURG (AP) – Scientists say a disease destroying entire crops of cassava has spread out of East Africa into the heart of the continent, is attacking plants as far south as Angola and now threatens to move west into Nigeria, the world’s biggest producer of the potato-like root that helps […]
TELESCOPE, Grenada (AP) – The old coastal road in this fishing village at the eastern edge of Grenada sits under a couple of feet of murky saltwater, which regularly surges past a hastily-erected breakwater of truck tires and bundles of driftwood intended to hold back the Atlantic Ocean. For Desmond Augustin and other fishermen living […]
