On the move in a warming world: The rise of climate refugees

By Geoffrey YorkMao, Chad— From Saturday’s Globe and MailPublished Friday, Dec. 17, 2010 6:05PM ESTLast updated Sunday, Dec. 19, 2010 1:04AM EST Five-year-old Fatime moves in slow motion, barely able to lift her skeletal arms and legs. Flies land on her face, and she is too weak to brush them away. She struggles to drink […]

Desert Southwest may be first U.S. victim of climate change – ‘Even the best-case scenario is not too good’

By Lauren Morello and ClimatewireDecember 14, 2010 A 60-year drought that scorched the Southwest during the 12th century may be a harbinger of things to come as greenhouse gases warm the Earth, according to research published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study’s authors used tree rings to reconstruct a […]

Peak Humanitarian Aid

Peak Humanitarian Aid: The period during which accelerating climate crises overwhelm the capacity of industrial civilization to handle them. Has this peak arrived, along with the others? The July 2010 flood catastrophe in Pakistan suggests that it has. The United Nations reports that the scale of the flood damage is larger than the combined damage […]

Mideast prays for rain as balmy weather lengthens drought

Nicosia (AFP) Dec 3, 2010 – Israeli firefighters are battling a deadly forest fire as unseasonably warm weather blankets a tinder dry Middle East, and some countries are even organising prayers for rain. Thousands of Israeli firemen and rescuers fought to put out the fire on the second day running, as international help poured in […]

Andes: Water conflicts, growing deserts, shrinking rivers, extreme temperatures, and spreading diseases

By John Vidal, www.guardian.co.uk Friday 26 November 2010 16.52 GMT Last month I went on an extraordinary, epic journey through the Andes mountains of Peru and Ecuador. The aim was to record the stories of the largely hidden people on the frontline of climate change, and see how communities and governments are trying to adapt. […]

Graph of the Day: Global Distribution of Fine Aerosol Particles, 2001-2006

Caption by Holli Riebeek and Adam Voiland9 November 2010 Of all the pollution that fills our lungs on any given day, the most dangerous is the small stuff. Aerosol particle pollution—airborne solid particles and liquid droplets—comes in a range of sizes. Particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers pose the greatest risk to human health because they […]

Years of drought and mismanagement hit Syria water supply, cause largest internal migration in country’s history

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis; editing by Alistair Lyon and Janet LawrenceMon Nov 15, 2010 9:32am EST JUB SHAEER, Syria (Reuters) – The ancient Inezi tribe of Syria reared camels in the sandswept lands north of the Euphrates river from the time of the Prophet Mohammad. Now water shortages have consigned that way of life to […]

Climate change worsens plight of Iraq farmers

By Khalid al-Ansary and Serena Chaudhry; additional reporting by Aref Mohammed in Basra and Khalid Farhan in Najaf; editing by Alistair Lyon and Janet Lawrence)Sun Nov 14, 2010 8:22am EST BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Frequent dust storms and scarce rains are stifling Iraq’s efforts to revive a farming sector hit by decades of war, sanctions and […]

Drought withers lush farmlands in Syria

By ROBERT F. WORTHPublished: October 13, 2010 AR RAQQAH, Syria — The farmlands spreading north and east of this Euphrates River town were once the breadbasket of the region, a vast expanse of golden wheat fields and bucolic sheep herds. Now, after four consecutive years of drought, this heartland of the Fertile Crescent — including […]

Encroaching sand dunes threaten Northern Nigeria

By Hir Joseph, LafiaThursday, 14 October 2010 04:45 A team of experts from Network of Nigerian Environmental Study/Action Team (NEST), one of the groups building Nigerians’ adaptation to the effects of climate change, has warned that sand dunes and the harsh arid climate in Sahel area Toshua in Yobe State of North-Eastern Nigeria, are another […]

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