By Andres SchipaniBBC News, Khapi For the Incas, and most of the Andean civilisations, snow-capped mountains were divinities to be honoured, as they supplied water. But now it seems those gods are losing their powers. Researchers say that the glaciers are in dramatic retreat across the Andes due to rising temperatures. In the small village […]
Private water suppliers poised to grow as demand set to surge By Juliette Jowit in Pariswww.guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 28 April 2010 14.47 BST Private companies are poised for a surge in demand to take over water supplies, despite widespread opposition to privatisation of what is seen as a life-giving public service. Global Water Intelligence analysts expect […]
By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.comApril 26, 2010 The West African nation of Niger is facing an increasingly alarming food crisis as the UN announced it would double the number of people it was feeding today despite continuing budget shortfalls in its World Food Program (WFP). Failing rains have caused crop yields in Niger to decline, while […]
By AMY GOODMAN Published: Friday, April 23, 2010 at 3:00 a.m. COCHABAMBA, Bolivia Here in this small Andean nation of 10 million people, the glaciers are melting, threatening the water supply of the largest urban area in the country, El Alto and La Paz, with 3.5 million people living at altitudes over 10,000 feet. I […]
ScienceDaily (Apr. 22, 2010) — African farmers risk being forced from their lands by investors or government projects as global demand for biofuels encourages changes in crop cultivation. Research from the University of Edinburgh has found that livelihoods may be put at risk if African farmland is turned over to growing crops for biofuel. With […]
By ANDREW WHALEN, Associated Press Writer – 18 April 2010 CERRO DE PASCO, Peru – The mile-wide gash grows almost daily with each dynamite blast, slowly devouring this bleak provincial capital high in the Andes. The half-century-old, open-pit zinc and lead mine belches streamers of dust that coat homes. The soil is so contaminated, indigenous […]
By Staff WritersDhaka (AFP) April 12, 2010 Environmental campaigners branded a move Monday by Bangladesh to ease strict controls on its vital shipbreaking industry as “suicidal”, saying it would expose tens of thousands to toxic waste. The government amended a law late Sunday to permit the industry, the world’s largest, to bring in ships […]
By Tom Whipple Wednesday, April 14 2010 11:56 We all need to pause for a minute and consider the possible implications of the droughts that are engulfing China. One of these is in the north — Inner Mongolia, and the second more serious one covers most of southwestern China. If the weather patterns revert to […]
By Staff WritersGeneva (AFP) April 9, 2010 The United Nations on Friday appealed for funds to help Guatemala cope with the worst drought in 30 years and counter a looming famine, after a March appeal for financing went largely unanswered. “This appeal of 4.7 million (dollars), which is not enormous, has received only three […]
By Jennifer Hattam, Istanbul, Turkey on 04.10.10 European consumers of Golden Plus and Lucky Boss brand copy paper got an unpleasant surprise this week when a federation of EU environmental groups announced that the products they thought were made from sustainable sources have in fact been having “devastating impacts on Sumatran rainforests, causing deforestation, […]
