Washington, April 22 (IANS) – Melting glaciers and ice caps on Canadian Arctic islands play a much greater role in sea-level rise than scientists previously suspected. For instance, the 550,000-square-mile Canadian Arctic Archipelago contains some 30,000 islands. Between 2004 and 2009, the region lost the equivalent of three-quarters of the water in Lake Erie, found […]
By KATE GALBRAITH22 April 2011 The severe drought across Texas has hit the oil and gas city of Midland especially hard, as I reported in Friday’s New York Times and Texas Tribune. Since Oct. 1, Midland has received only 0.13 inches of rainfall — making it “most likely the driest six-and-a-half-month period in recorded history,” […]
By Anita Pugliese and Julie Ray20 April 2011 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Gallup surveys in 111 countries in 2010 find Americans and Europeans feeling substantially less threatened by climate change than they did a few years ago, while more Latin Americans and sub-Saharan Africans see themselves at risk. The 42% of adults worldwide who see global […]
Geneva (AFP) April 20, 2011 – Swiss officials began moving trout from a river this week to save them from plunging water levels, amid one of the worst droughts to hit the country in 150 years. “2011 is off to a good start to finish as one of the most significant droughts since 1864,” the […]
By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.comApril 21, 2011 The last decade has not been a good one for the American pika (Ochotona princeps) according to a new study in Global Change Biology. Over the past ten years extinction rates have increased by nearly five times for pika populations in the Great Basin region of the US. Examining […]
Caption by Holli Riebeek22 April 2011 So far in 2011, more than 1.4 million acres have burned in Texas. Some 800 fires have occurred throughout the state, burning 401 structures and costing two firefighters their lives. Why is fire activity so extreme in Texas this year? This image, made with data collected by the Moderate […]
By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News21 April 2011 The Antarctic ozone hole is about one-third to blame for Australia’s recent series of droughts, scientists say. Writing in the journal Science, they conclude that the hole has shifted wind and rainfall patterns right across the Southern Hemisphere, even the tropics. Their climate models suggest the […]
NAIROBI, 20 April 2011 (IRIN) – Officials and aid workers in Somalia’s Middle Shabelle region have raised the alarm over the plight of drought-stricken villagers urgently needing food and water. “We are experiencing the worst drought we have seen in decades; since the beginning of March, we have buried 54 people who died from the […]
By Ben Blanchard; Editing by Chris Lewis and Robert Birsel20 April 2011 BEIJING (Reuters) – Gradually rising sea levels caused by global warming over the past 30 years have contributed to a growing number of disasters along China’s coast, state news agency Xinhua said on Wednesday. Sea levels along China’s coastline had risen 2.6 mm […]
By Jim Forsyth; Editing by Jerry Norton18 April 2011 SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – Texas Governor Rick Perry has requested a Major Disaster Declaration for the entire state, as brush fires which have burned more than 1.5 million acres continued on Monday. The fires have been whipped by 60-mile-an-hour wind gusts and fueled by brush dried out […]
