By STEVEN LEE MYERSPublished: June 12, 2010 SIBA, Iraq — The Shatt al Arab, the river that flows from the biblical site of the Garden of Eden to the Persian Gulf, has turned into an environmental and economic disaster that Iraq’s newly democratic government is almost powerless to fix. Withered by decades of dictatorial mismanagement […]
By Staff WritersAlumot, Israel (AFP) May 3, 2010 The once mighty Jordan River, where Christians believe Jesus was baptised, is now little more than a polluted stream that could die next year unless the decay is halted, environmentalists said on Monday. The famed river “has been reduced to a trickle south of the Sea of […]
Upstream and lower dams could render the Mekong Delta unviable, and China’s intransigence in building them and refusing to share information about their operations will negatively impact the lives of more than 60 million people. “China has plans to construct up to eight dams in total, some sources say the number could rise to fourteen. […]
By Martha Ann Overland / Hanoi Thursday, Mar. 04, 2010 Every year, even at the peak of Vietnam’s dry season, when the Red River is at its lowest, Hanoi’s skilled captains manage to negotiate their flat-bottomed boats through its shallow waters. But this year, with a drought gripping the entire country and water levels at […]
By Staff WritersHanoi, Vietnam (UPI) Mar 8, 2009 Vietnam is struggling with its worst drought in more than 100 years. With practically no rainfall since September, the country is facing timber fires, plagues of rice-eating insects that are destroying millions of acres of rice paddies and dried-up rivers, Time magazine reports. For a country that […]
KOLKATA, India (Reuters) – Rising sea levels are causing salt water to flow into India’s biggest river, threatening its ecosystem and turning vast farmlands barren in the country’s east, a climate change expert warned Monday. A study by an east Indian university in the city of Kolkata revealed surprising growth of mangroves on the […]