Associated Press writers Vee Intarakratug, Thanyarat Doksone, and Grant Peck contributed to this report20 October 2011 (AP) BANGKOK – The threat has loomed large over this giant metropolis for weeks: Floodwaters could rapidly swamp glitzy downtown Bangkok, ruining treasured ancient palaces and chic boutiques on skyscraper-lined avenues in the heart of the Thai economy. The […]
By AMELIA HOLOWATY KRALES18 October 2011 Tuvalu, a tiny archipelago of nine South Pacific islands threatened by rising seas, is on the front lines of the planet’s climate change debate. Current projections indicate that it will become unlivable within 50 years, resulting in an exodus and the erasure of a rich 3,000-year-old culture. In global […]
BANGKOK, October 19 (AP) – Thailand’s new premier acknowledged Wednesday that the country’s flood crisis has overwhelmed her government, pleading for mercy from the media and solidarity from the country in battling the relentless waters. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said her administration is doing all it can and trying to be […]
By Orla Guerin17 October 2011 Sindh (BBC News) – Muhammad Hanif rarely let his youngest son Abid out of his sight. The poor farmer was devoted to the lively three-year-old: “I was always picking him up and playing with him. He was the baby of the family. I couldn’t be without him for five minutes,” […]
Caption by Holli Riebeek14 October 2011 The green scum shown in this image is the worst algae bloom Lake Erie has experienced in decades. Such blooms were common in the lake’s shallow western basin in the 1950s and 60s. Phosphorus from farms, sewage, and industry fertilized the waters so that huge algae blooms developed year […]
BANGKOK (AP) – The Thai capital needs 1.2 million sandbags to construct a 3.7-mile wall within 48 hours to keep encroaching floods from swamping into the city, Bangkok’s governor said Monday night. “Every second counts,” said Sukhumbhand Paribatra, whose call for city residents not to let down their guard posed a contrast to government statements […]
BY TINA LAM, DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER14 October 2011 Reacting to a cool-off in concern over global warming, former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore was unbowed and unrepentant in blaming recent storms, droughts and wildfires on climate change. Gore, speaking Thursday in Detroit, reeled off statistics about huge downpours in […]
By Joe Romm 12 October 2011 In one of the most flagrant recent instances of scientific censorship, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) refused to publish a report chapter unless all mention of climate change and its impact on sea level rise were eliminated. The author — Rice University oceanographer John Anderson, a leading […]
October 11 (VOA News) – United Nations officials say the capitals of Thailand and Cambodia are at risk as the worst flooding in modern times sweeps through the Mekong Basin. Kirsten Mildren, spokeswoman for the U.N.’s humanitarian affairs agency, told VOA Tuesday that officials in Bangkok are taking urgent measures as the floodwaters bear down […]
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor11 October 2011 Climate sceptics are winning the argument with the public over global warming, the world’s most celebrated climate scientist, James Hansen of NASA, said in London yesterday. It is happening even though climate science itself is becoming ever clearer in showing that the earth is in increasing danger from […]