Droughts causing power blackouts in hydro-dependent Kenya

By MICHAEL BURNHAM AND NATHANIAL GRONEWOLD of GreenwirePublished: May 10, 2010 NAIROBI, Kenya — The restaurant manager shrugs as his customers eat in darkness and his kitchen limps along on half power. “What they told us in the newspaper last week was that one section of the city would have a blackout for maintenance purposes, […]

New vision required to stave off dramatic biodiversity loss, says UN report

Nairobi, 10 May 2010 – Natural systems that support economies, lives and livelihoods across the planet are at risk of rapid degradation and collapse unless there is swift, radical and creative action to conserve and sustainably use the variety of life on Earth. This is one principal conclusion of a major new assessment of the […]

Tainted nuclear plant water reaches major New Jersey aquifer

By WAYNE PARRYAssociated Press Writerupdated 1:42 p.m. PT, Fri., May 7, 2010 LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. – Radioactive water that leaked from the nation’s oldest nuclear power plant has now reached a major underground aquifer that supplies drinking water to much of southern New Jersey, the state’s environmental chief said Friday. The state Department of Environmental […]

NOAA: ‘North American snow cover for April 2010 was the smallest on record.’

By Joe RommMay 8, 2010 Where did all the snow go? I mean, it was here just a minute ago, uber-fodder for the anti-science crowd (see Was the “Blizzard of 2009″ a “global warming type” of record snowfall — or an opportunity for the media to blow the extreme weather story (again)? and Massive moisture-driven […]

Desiccation of Iraq marshes endangers migratory birds

SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq, May 6, 2020 (ENS) – To mark World Migratory Bird Day this Sunday, the nongovernmental organization Nature Iraq is joining its BirdLife International partners around the world to celebrate bird migration, and to highlight the difficulties facing some the world’s most threatened species. The Mesopotamian marshes in the region of southern Iraq between […]

Underground ‘fossil water’ running out

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 […]

Water supply in Nashville ‘critically low’ after record rainfall

By Lee Hill City officials in Nashville say the area’s water supply is now “critically low” after a weekend storm dumped a record 13 inches of rainfall over two days. Because of potential shortages, the city’s Metro Water Services utility urges residents to cut down on taking showers and is now directing its customers to […]

Poor Mexico farmers fear that toxic-sludge irrigation will end

By ELISABETH MALKINPublished: May 4, 2010 MIXQUIAHUALA, Mexico — Night and day, Marcelo Mera Bárcenas slops the fetid water that has coursed 60 miles downhill from the sewers of Mexico City and spreads it over the corn and alfalfa fields of this once arid land. From the roads here in the Mezquital Valley, fields stretch […]

As weather tracks with climate scientists’ grim forecasts, Kenya is awash in misery

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 […]

Seedlings to be planted in dry lake beds of Southern Australia

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 […]

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