Why the world may be running out of clean water

By Bryan Walsh18 October 2011 Earlier this month, officials in the South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu had to confront a pretty dire problem: they were running out of water. Due to a severe and lasting drought, water reserves in this country of 11,000 people had dwindled to just a few days’ worth. Climate change […]

South Pacific drought crisis deepens: Tokelau to run dry within days, crops failing on Tuvalu

October 05 (AFP) – A SECOND South Pacific community has called a state of emergency as water rationing continues in parts of the area. Tokelau, a New Zealand-administered territory of about 1400 people, has less than a week’s drinking water after a long drought blamed on a La Niña weather pattern, Foreign Minister Murray McCully […]

Arizona drought could continue indefinitely – No relief in sight with dry winter forecast

By Catherine Holland; Weather forecast by Meteorologist Royal Norman26 September 2011 PHOENIX – It’s been a dry summer and it looks like it’s going to be a dry winter. That does not bode well for Arizona’s drought conditions, which have been an issue since 1999. As Javier Soto reports, the return of the La Niña […]

Climate change threatens Ghana’s food security

By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanaian Chronicle10 October 2011 An increased body of evidence shows that climatic variability is  adversely affecting Ghana’s natural resources such as land, water, forests, and vegetation, as well as human capital. Climate change is, therefore, expected to have significant impact on key resource-dependent sectors, such as agriculture and food production, and […]

Texans face billions in water works bills as drought saps economy

By David Mildenberg and Whitney McFerron 13 October 2011 Allan Ritter pushed a bill to make 25 million Texans pay an extra $3.25 a year to help provide water for decades. Then, with a record drought devastating farms and ranches, the state representative’s party leaders waded in. “We couldn’t get the votes,” said the Republican […]

Texas drought hampering wildlife reproduction, ‘killing deer like flies’

BY RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, ASSOCIATED PRESS13 October 2011 HOUSTON — In a 30-mile area of the Texas Panhandle, biologists found 76 white-tailed deer — but zero babies. Not far away, they located only three quail on a stretch of road where they would see 15 in a normal year. In South Texas, a biologist reports a […]

Video: The Colorado River: Running Near Empty

Photographer Peter McBride traveled along the Colorado River from its source high in the Rocky Mountains to its historic mouth at the Sea of Cortez. In this Yale Environment 360 video, he follows the natural course of the Colorado by raft, on foot, and overhead in a small plane, telling the story of a river […]

Indigenous people sound the alarm on climate change

By Brian Clark Howard, National Geographic News 11 October 2011 The air in the auditorium smelled faintly of burnt herbs. Josefina Lema Aguilar, a Kichwa elder from the mountains of Ecuador, lit a tiny sacred fire to bless last week’s conference on “Seeking Balance: Indigenous Knowledge, Western Science and Climate Change.” Dressed in traditional garb […]

Photo gallery: Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya

Stunning images from high in the Himalayas – showing the extent by which many glaciers have shrunk in the past 80 years or so – have gone on display at the Royal Geographical Society in central London. Between 2007 and 2010, David Breashears retraced the steps of early photographic pioneers such as Major E O […]

Bleak future predicted for snow in Australian Alps

By David Wroe10 October 2011 AUSTRALIA’S ski slopes could be completely bare of natural winter snow by 2050 unless concerted action is taken against global warming, according to a government-commissioned report that paints a grim picture of the effects of climate change on alpine areas. The report, Caring For Our Australian Alps Catchments [pdf], has […]

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