TARAWA, 22 December 2012 (Pina/Rnzi) – The Commonwealth Secretary-General has appealed to governments of developed countries to travel to Kiribati to witness the country’s vulnerability to climate change impacts. Kamalesh Sharma most recently visited Kiribati last month when he says he saw the devastation caused by the rising tide on an archipelago that largely stands […]
By IAN LOVETT11 September 2012 LOS ANGELES – Across Southern California, as far afield as Ventura County to the north of here, Orange County to the south and San Bernardino to the east, residents awoke this week to an olfactory insult: a sulfurous smell, like rotten eggs, wafting across hundreds of miles, source unknown. Some […]
By Johann Earle10 September 2012 GEORGETOWN, Guyana (Alertnet) – Guyana has not made the financial investment it needs to cope with worsening floods and rising sea levels, highlighting how poor countries are struggling to make climate change adaptation a spending priority, researchers say. Government funding for sea defences, drainage and irrigation has taken a backseat […]
By Alison Singer; Edited by Antonia Sohns26 July 2012 Rezaul Karim Chowdhury is from Kutubdia, a Bangladeshi island in the Bay of Bengal. When Chowdhury was younger, the palm-dotted tropical island spanned 65 square kilometers, but rising sea levels and erosion have since shrunk it by more than half, to only 25 square kilometers. With […]
Karbala, Iraq, 3 June 2012 (AFP) – Trees as far as the eye can see are the weapons one Iraqi province is using in the fight against desertification in a country where decades of conflict have exacted a terrible environmental toll. Karbala, 110 kilometres (70 miles) south of Baghdad, is best known as the site […]
By JOANNA M. FOSTER17 May 2012 In just over a month, policy makers from around the world will meet in Rio de Janeiro for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. The meeting has been called Rio+20, reflecting the two decades that have passed since a landmark conference on the environment and development was held […]
Contact: Jason McGeownHead of Media RelationsTel: +44 (0)1225 420000 jason.mcgeown@maplecroft.com 10 May 2012 (Maplecroft) – The viability of water supplies throughout key regions of China, India, Pakistan, South Africa and the US are under threat from unsustainable domestic, agricultural, and industrial demands, according to a new study that maps water use down to 10km² worldwide. […]
By Vanya Walker-Leigh 10 May 2012 HANOI (Inter Press Service) – Vietnam, hailed as a development success story for lifting millions out of poverty and staying on track to meet all its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, is seeing its future progress severely threatened by the impact of global climate change. Unprecedented climate-related catastrophes […]
By John Vidal in Gazipara, www.guardian.co.uk 9 May 2012 Rebecca Sultan’s life has been shattered twice in a few years. First, the 140mph winds of Cyclone Sidr ripped through her village, Gazipara, flattening houses, killing 6,000 people and devastating the lives of millions as it slammed into southern Bangladesh in 2007. Then, 18 months later, […]
By Marwaan Macan-Markar 19 April 2012 BANGKOK – With Vietnam’s fertile Mekong delta threatened by rising sea levels and salt water ingress, the country’s future as a major rice exporter depends critically on research underway in the Philippines. Scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) are working with Vietnamese counterparts in the town of […]