Beijing (AFP) March 2, 2011 – China has said that snow and rain in the country’s northern wheat-growing regions over the past week had helped to ease a crippling drought that had sparked fears about rising global food prices. “The drought in most of the country’s winter wheat-growing regions has eased considerably after the widespread […]
Nairobi — Rising inflation is threatening East Africa Community’s economic growth. From Nairobi to Dar es Salaam and Kampala, all signs point to surging inflation in the region in the coming days. An array of issues from drought to food scarcity to escalating oil prices continue to pile pressure on households’ expenditure. Political crises in […]
February 21, 2011 (World Meteorological Organization) — Since November, East African countries have registered serious drought conditions that are likely to worsen in coming months. According to data recently released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the La Niña weather effect is largely responsible. WMO said the phenomenon might last up to four more months […]
ScienceDaily (Mar. 4, 2011) — As carbon dioxide levels have risen during the last 150 years, the density of pores that allow plants to breathe has dwindled by 34 percent, restricting the amount of water vapor the plants release to the atmosphere, report scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and Utrecht University in the Netherlands in […]
Wet Desert Expeditions7 February 2011 Every year around this time I start to hear comments along the lines of “I heard the lake is supposed to go up 20 feet this winter” or “I was at the lake this weekend and it was up 10 feet!” I call this period the Winter Bump, where for […]
By Staff WritersFeb 24, 2011 Sacramento (UPI) – Scientists say the water situation in California is “bleak” and the state needs to act to bolster its entire aquatic ecosystem. “Our assessment of the current water situation [in California] is bleak,” says Ellen Hanak, a Public Policy Institute of California economist. “California has essentially run out […]
By Chris Buckley; Editing by Ken Wills and David Fogarty28 February 2011 BEIJING (Reuters) – China faces acute environmental and resource strains that threaten to choke growth unless the world’s second-biggest economy cleans up, the nation’s environment minister said in an unusually blunt warning. In an essay published on Monday, Zhou Shengxian also said his […]
24 February 2011 (BBC) – Rapidly rising acidic water in the abandoned gold mines under Johannesburg in South Africa could leak out early next year, the water ministry warns. Its report recommends building pumps and monitoring stations immediately. The toxic liquid has been building up in mine shafts which were dug more than a century […]
By Jan KhaskheliSunday, February 27, 2011 Karachi (thenews.com.pk) – Residents of 16 small villages located near Hyderabad city and comprising a population of 20,000, are living an uncertain life after the recent flood wrought havoc, depriving them of their livelihood and basic facilities of life. In the absence of government assistance to rehabilitate the flood-affected […]
24 February 2011 (AFP) – LIMA — A glacier on Peru’s Huaytapallana Mountain shed half its surface ice in just 23 years, officials said Wednesday, reinforcing concerns of climate change’s growing threat to fresh water resources. “Recent scientific studies indicate that between June 1983 and August 2006, the glacier has lost 50 percent of its […]
