August 10 (NWF) – Populations trends are declining for mule deer and pronghorn antelope herds on both sides of the Colorado-Wyoming border and herds may not be able to fully recover unless federal and state agencies act to protect core habitats, according to a report released today by the National Wildlife Federation. “We are seeing […]
Analysis by Lester R. Brown* WASHINGTON, Jul 20, 2011 (IPS) – Many countries are facing dangerous water shortages. As world demand for food has soared, millions of farmers have drilled too many irrigation wells in efforts to expand their harvests. As a result, water tables are falling and wells are going dry in some 20 […]
By David Biello25 May 2011 (Scientific American) – The human enterprise now consumes nearly 60 billion metric tons of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and plant materials, such as crop plants and trees for timber or paper. Meanwhile, the seven billionth person on the planet is expected to be born this year—and the human population may […]
Geneva (AFP) July 11, 2011 – The over-exploitation of the Amu-Darya river which snakes across Afghanistan, Tadjikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, could threaten the long-term stability of the region, the UN said Monday. The problem dates back to the Soviet era, when a massive cotton growing programme was launched by Moscow, sapping up water and releasing […]
By Jane Merrick, Political Editor3 July 2011 Water companies are draining the nation’s most at-risk rivers dry, causing environmental damage, death to wildlife and the build-up of chemicals that upset fragile aquatic ecosystems, all of which could result in ever-higher bills for consumers, a damning report will say tomorrow. Current abstraction by firms from rivers […]
[Sadly, the folks at Serengeti Watch were right: The road will be built anyway. From their Stop the Serengeti Highway Facebook page: “AS PREDICTED OUR WORK IS NOT OVER! ‘Construction of a road across Serengeti will go on as planned but the government says more than 120 kilometres cutting across world famous park will not […]
By Pete Wilton June 28, 2011 Half the elephants from West and Central African savannahs have vanished in the past 40 years, scientists report in PLoS One. A team, including Iain Douglas-Hamilton of Oxford University’s Department of Zoology, estimate that around 7,750 elephants remain in the Sudano-Sahelian zone, which covers 20% of the continent, a […]
By LAWRENCE HURLEY AND PAUL QUINLAN of Greenwire29 June 2011 A federal appeals court handed Georgia an enormous victory in long-running, tri-state water litigation yesterday, overturning a decision by a federal judge that could have sharply curtailed the availability of water in Atlanta beginning next summer. The three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit […]
[Update: As usual, optimism is not supported by the evidence: Paved road across Serengeti will go on as planned – World Heritage site to be mined for uranium.] By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News 24 June 2011 Controversial plans to build a tarmac road across the Serengeti National Park have been scrapped after warnings […]
Kabul (AFP) June 9, 2011 – War may kill thousands of civilians a year in Afghanistan, but choking air pollution in the capital Kabul is more deadly, experts say. Signs of the silent killer — pollutants emitted by old cars, poor quality fuel and people burning trash — are everywhere on the city’s chaotic streets. […]
