Monarch butterfly population still perilously low, new survey finds

By Jeremy Hance28 January 2015 (mongabay.com) – The world’s migrating monarch butterfly population has bounced back slightly from its record low last year, but the new numbers are still the second smallest on record. According to WWF-Mexico and the Mexican government, butterflies covered 2.79 acres (1.13 hectares) in nine colonies this year in the Mexican […]

Brazil environment minister says drought is worst on record – Rio de Janeiro state in ‘the worst water crisis in its history’

BRASILIA, Brazil, 24 January 2015 (Australian News.Net) – Brazil’s Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira has told the media following a crisis meeting at the presidential palace in Brasilia that the country is experiencing its worst drought since 1930. The states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas Gerais are the worst affected, she said after […]

Ebola has now killed a third of the world’s gorilla and chimpanzee populations – ‘This epidemic has reduced the population to a point where it can no longer sustain itself in the face of poaching and other pressures’

By Allison Jackson22 January 2015 (Global Post) – The human tragedy caused by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has been well documented. […] But humans are not the only victims of this horrible disease, which is spread through contact with the blood, sweat and other bodily fluids of an infected person. Since the 1990s, […]

Drought reduces São Paulo’s main water reservoir to 6 percent of capacity – ‘The water supply situation is critical and could become even more critical if the lack of rain and hot weather continue’

São Paulo, 16 January 2015 (Associated Press) – Halfway through the rainy season, the key reservoir for the southern hemisphere’s largest city holds just 6% of its capacity, and experts warned Friday that São Paulo’s authorities must take urgent steps to prevent the worst drought in more than 80 years from drying it out. The […]

Scientists: Human activity has pushed Earth beyond four of nine ‘planetary boundaries’ – The planet ‘is likely to be much less hospitable to the development of human societies’

By Joel Achenbach 15 January 2015 (Washington Post) – At the rate things are going, the Earth in the coming decades could cease to be a “safe operating space” for human beings. That is the conclusion of a new paper published Thursday in the journal Science by 18 researchers trying to gauge the breaking points […]

NASA’s carbon dioxide satellite mission returns first global maps

By Jonathan Amos18 December 2014 (BBC News) – NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) has returned its first global maps of the greenhouse gas CO2. The satellite was sent up in July to help pinpoint the key locations on the Earth’s surface where carbon dioxide is being emitted and absorbed. This should help scientists better understand […]

Deforestation puts cultural survival of forest-dependent peoples at risk

10 December 2014 (mongabay.com) – Forest-dependent peoples face grave threats from deforestation and other depredations, warns a new report that urges greater recognition of traditional land use and support of community-led initiatives to fight forest loss. The report, published Monday during climate talks in Lima, is based on research by dozens of indigenous and forest […]

Deforestation may be at root of Brazil drought – ‘We’re like the Titanic moving straight toward the iceberg’

By BRAD BROOKS and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON 4 December 2014 SÃO PAULO (Associated Press) – Vera Lucia de Oliveira looks to the sky, hoping for any sign of rain. For weeks, the taps in her home have run dry as São Paulo has suffered its worst drought in eight decades, with rainfall at one-third the […]

Ecuador indigenous leader murdered days before planned Lima protest – ‘His body was beaten, bones were broken’

By Jonathan Watts and Dan Collyns6 December 2014 LIMA, Peru (The Guardian) – The body of an indigenous leader who was opposed to a major mining project in Ecuador has been found bound and buried, days before he planned to take his campaign to climate talks in Lima. The killing highlights the violence and harassment […]

São Paulo taps emergency water reserves which may last for two months – ‘If it doesn’t rain, we won’t have an alternative but to get water from the mud’

By Adriana Brasileiro29 November 2014 RIO DE JANEIRO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – São Paulo, Brazil’s drought-hit megacity of 20 million, has about two months of guaranteed water supply remaining as it taps into the second of three emergency reserves, officials say. The city began using its second so-called “technical reserve” 10 days ago to prevent […]

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