Farmer Mazzareno Bisogni fights back tears as he stands among the remains of trees he planted 35 years ago, victims of a drought hitting “Australia’s Mississippi”. Bisogni’s orchard lies in the heart of the once-mighty Murray-Darling river system which irrigates Australia’s food bowl, the vast southeastern corner responsible for 40 percent of agricultural output. The […]
Politicians cared little about the burning of East Africa’s largest forest – until the lights in Nairobi started going out. By Daniel Howden Under a slate-grey sky Francis Maina is hunched over a tree stump. He secures a rusted chain around it and signals for the tractor to start hauling. The blackened base of the […]
The worst drought to hit parts of north China in six decades has left nearly five million people short of water, while officials warn of another dry spell further south, state media reported Sunday. A total of 4.6 million people and 4.1 million head of livestock face difficulty accessing drinking water in the north, the […]
By Barney Jopson in Nairobi The number of Kenyans in urgent need of food aid has jumped by more than 50 per cent to nearly 4m, according to official figures, as the country is hit by mass hunger as well as shortages of power and water. The immediate cause of the three-fold crisis is a […]
cf. Graph of the Day: Historic Texas Drought Technorati Tags: drought,agriculture,heat wave
By Ed Stoddard DALLAS (Reuters) – A vast swathe of Texas remains in the grip of a scorching drought, which has cost billions of dollars and is cleaving America’s largest beef cattle herd. One county has seen its entire cotton harvest wiped out and losses for cattle, crops and the state’s fast growing game […]
Nanyuki, Kenya (AFP) Aug 19, 2009 – In Kenya a bruising and recurring drought is driving huge numbers of subsistence farmers away from rural areas, where they are increasingly reliant on hand-outs, into congested slums. “People are opting to relocate. I know families that are demolishing their houses, selling iron sheets and timber and getting […]
NJORO, 20 August 2009 (IRIN) – Two months before harvest time, the maize in Kenya’s Rift Valley should be tall, lush and green, bursting with life. Instead, crops in the province’s Lare division are stunted, barren fields of parched browns and pallid yellows. The area, local farmers say, has experienced three years of erratic rainfall. […]
The animals’ stampede through the Mara river is one of nature’s most spectacular events. But now the watercourse is drying up, a sign of the damage being done to Africa’s fragile eco-system By Daniel Howden The scale of it is hard to comprehend. Even standing on the dented roof of an old jeep in the […]
(Purdue University) Urban workers could suffer most from climate change as the cost of food drives them into poverty, according to a new study that quantifies the effects of climate on the world’s poor populations. A team led by Purdue University researchers examined the potential economic influence of adverse climate events, such as heat waves, […]
