By Brian Handwerk for National Geographic NewsPublished May 6, 2010 In the world’s driest places, “fossil water” is becoming as valuable as fossil fuel, experts say. This ancient freshwater was created eons ago and trapped underground in huge reservoirs, or aquifers. And like oil, no one knows how much there is—but experts do know that […]
By Stephen Messenger, Porto Alegre, Brazil on 05. 4.10 In what could easily be considered a worst-case scenario for the fate of the world’s largest rainforest, a study led by Brazil’s National Institute of Special Research found that the size of the Amazon could be reduced 50 percent by 2050, the ‘tipping point‘ for when […]
By MICHAEL BURNHAM AND NATHANIAL GRONEWOLD of GreenwirePublished: May 4, 2010 NAIROBI, Kenya — It’s the rainy season, but the sun is still baking the Mathare Valley slum. A half-million people live in this warren of shacks clustered amid 10 square kilometers of the Mathare River. When the rains fall, drops spill like marbles on […]
May 4, 2010 – 4:50PM (AAP) Work has begun on planting more than 1 million native seedlings in the exposed beds of South Australia’s lower lakes. Federal Water Minister Penny Wong and South Australian Environment Minister Paul Caica said the hand planting would vegetate more than 2300 hectares of exposed lake beds across Lake Alexandrina […]
By BEN CUBBY, ENVIRONMENT EDITORMay 4, 2010 THE state’s biggest inland bird-breeding sanctuary is nearing collapse due to lack of water, and the bird population is undergoing ”dramatic upheavals” as some species are pushed out, a new report has found. The Macquarie Marshes – a vast, tangled sprawl of creeks and swamps between Nyngan and […]
By staff writers – Translated by Hai MienWednesday, Apr 28,2010, Posted at: 13:26(GMT+7) Forest fires are worse as several new infernos flared up at different zones of Tram Chim National Park in Dong Thap Province. The national park, which is located in the Mekong Delta province’s Tam Nong District, catched fires on April 25 and […]
By Andres SchipaniBBC News, Khapi For the Incas, and most of the Andean civilisations, snow-capped mountains were divinities to be honoured, as they supplied water. But now it seems those gods are losing their powers. Researchers say that the glaciers are in dramatic retreat across the Andes due to rising temperatures. In the small village […]
By PAUL TATNELLApril 30, 2010 – 4:53PM Sydney has experienced its fifth warmest April on record with a month of balmy nights and little rain. But don’t put away the warm clothes just yet with predictions that winter is on the way; it’s just running a little late. The average April minimum temperature was 1 […]
By Jim Robbins For many years, Diana Six, an entomologist at the University of Montana, planned her field season for the same two to three weeks in July. That’s when her quarry — tiny, black, mountain pine beetles — hatched from the tree they had just killed and swarmed to a new one to start […]
Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Cynthia Osterman WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Deaths from heat waves, property damage from floods and rising seas from melting glaciers are a few of the things Americans can expect as a result of climate change, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a report released Tuesday. The report, called Climate […]
