By SOLOMON MOORE LOS ANGELES — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made an unusual request Friday, asking President Obama to declare Fresno County a federal disaster area because of a three-year drought that is straining California’s agricultural industry and worsening unemployment in the hard-hit Central Valley. Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, announced his request on a visit to […]
An unprecedented fall in the water levels of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers has left the rural population at the mercy of heat, drought – and displaced wildlife. Patrick Cockburn reports Swarms of snakes are attacking people and cattle in southern Iraq as the Euphrates and Tigris rivers dry up and the reptiles lose their […]
By Ben Simon BUNDIBUGYO, Uganda (AFP) — In 1906, Mount Speke, one the highest peaks of Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains was covered with 217 hectares (536 acres) of ice, according to the Climate Change Unit at Uganda?s ministry of water and environment. In 2006, only 18.5 hectares remained. Satellite images taken in 1987 and again in […]
By Gideon Long / Santiago First, in late March the bodies of about 1,200 penguins were found on a remote beach in southern Chile. Next came the sardines — millions of them — washed up dead on a nearby stretch of coastline in April, causing a stench so noxious that nearby schools were closed and […]
Interview by Zinta Lundborg June 8 (Bloomberg) — In one photo, flood-plagued Bangladeshis crowd onto a speck of road surrounded by rising water. Another image gives an aerial view of Florida’s Delray Beach, where luxury high-rise buildings cluster on a thin strip of eroding sand. Gary Braasch, an award-winning environmental photojournalist, captured those shots and […]
Some 160 villages in northern Syria were deserted of their residents in 2007 and 2008 because of a drought associated with climate change, with serious implications for peace in the region, according to a study released on Tuesday. The report drawn up by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) warns of potential armed conflict […]
By Jeremy Hance Watch any nature documentary and it’s sure to include pulse-pounding footage of large herbivores migrating across African plains, Asian steppe, or the Arctic tundra. The images have become iconic: wildebeest forging a crocodile-inhabited river, caribou breaking through snow fields, Saiga running over tall grass. Despite such images of plenty, migrations are […]
An unusually high number of the storms has left a film of dust on the Rocky Mountain snowpack, causing it to melt earlier and forcing farmers to adjust. This could be the new normal, scientists say. By Nicholas Riccardi Reporting from Denver — A series of unusual spring dust storms has left the snowcapped mountains […]
Falling water levels trouble residents, raise pollution By Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel Scientists and property owners say they are worried about the long-term effects of a prolonged drought on fishing and water quality in northern Wisconsin as they’ve watched some lakes drop to their lowest point in 70 years. As people flock to […]
In a dry land where almost everyone has their eye on their uphill neighbor’s water, the Andes are already seeing conflicts erupt as global warming changes water patterns. By Barbara FraserFor The Daily Climate ICA, Peru — Two decades ago, the strip of sand between the Pacific Ocean and the Andean foothills was empty except […]
