Asia water supply ‘past its tipping point’

By TERESA CEROJANO, Associated Press WriterTue Oct 12, 6:58 am ET MANILA, Philippines – Booming populations, rapid urbanization and competing demands for food and energy will drain Asia’s dwindling freshwater supplies unless the region better manages its resources, experts said Tuesday. Unless something is done, demand for water will exceed supply by 40 percent by […]

All water life in Hungary’s Marcal river is dead: official

By Staff WritersBudapest (AFP) Oct 7, 2010 The entire ecosystem of a small river in Hungary which is situated in the area affected by a deadly toxic mud spill, has been destroyed, a disaster relief chief said Thursday. “The entire ecosystem of the Marcal river has been destroyed, because the very high alkaline levels have […]

Video: Chevron toxic waste pits in Ecuador rainforest

Monday, October 11, 2010 A couple of months ago, I traveled with my Amazon Watch colleagues Mitch and Kevin into the Ecuadorian Amazon, where we met up with our friend Donald, an activist with the Amazon Defense Coalition. In this video, Mitch and Donald illustrate Chevron’s toxic legacy in Ecuador, in the form of one […]

Huge parts of world are drying up: Land evapotranspiration taking unexpected turn

ScienceDaily (Oct. 11, 2010) — The soils in large areas of the Southern Hemisphere, including major portions of Australia, Africa and South America, have been drying up in the past decade, a group of researchers conclude in the first major study to ever examine “evapotranspiration” on a global basis. Most climate models have suggested that […]

Environmental destruction undercuts global economy to the tune of $6.6 trillion

By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com October 06, 2010 The cost of environmental damage to the global economy hit 6.6 trillion US dollars—11 percent of the global GDP—in 2008, according to a new study [executive summary pdf] by the Principles for Responsible (PRI) and UNEP Finance Initiative. If business continues as usual, the study predicts that environmental […]

Joint initiative lays out physical effects of climate change on Canada

Contact: Brian Laghi, laghib@nrtee-trnee.ca October 5, 2010 The physical effects of climate change on Canada in the next century could touch everything from human health and community infrastructure to water resources and even tourism and recreation activities, according to a newly-compiled presentation of scientific research published today. Called Degrees of Change, the diagram is the […]

Graph of the Day: August Water Volume in Lake Mead, 1941-2010

By Michael Carlowicz23 September 2010 In August 2010, Lake Mead reached its lowest level since 1956. The largest reservoir in the United States was straining from persistent drought and increasing human demand. Two images from the Thematic Mapper on the Landsat 5 satellite show some of the stark changes on the eastern end of the […]

Global warming drives alarming increase in flow of water into oceans

Irvine, Calif., October 04, 2010 — Freshwater is flowing into Earth’s oceans in greater amounts every year, a team of researchers has found, thanks to more frequent and extreme storms linked to global warming. All told, 18 percent more water fed into the world’s oceans from rivers and melting polar ice sheets in 2006 than […]

Pakistan floodwaters welcomed along Indus delta

Flooding that caused destruction elsewhere, brings joy and hope to those at the bottom of the Indus river By Declan Walsh in Keti Bunder, www.guardian.co.uk Tuesday 5 October 2010 09.43 BST Ali Hussain’s sun-beaten face cracked into a broad smile, revealing a set of ferociously rotten, red-stained teeth corroded by years of chewing tobacco and […]

Downstream from Canada oil sands, mercury level in bird eggs increases 50 per cent since 1970s

By Bob Weber, The Canadian PressPublished Friday, Oct. 01, 2010 11:47PM EDT Edmonton — A study by Environment Canada indicates levels of toxic mercury in the eggs of water birds downstream from the oil-sands industry seem to have grown by nearly 50 per cent over the last three decades. The study, one of the few […]

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