Help preserve land – our “home and future” – UN urges on World Day to Combat Desertification

17 June 2017 (United Nations) – With hundreds of millions of people around the globe directly affected by desertification – the degradation of land ecosystems due to unsustainable farming or mining practices, or climate change – United Nations agencies have called for better management of land so that it can provide a place where individuals […]

Choking dust storm engulfs Beijing, less than a week after hottest April day on record

By Kristina Pydynowski4 May 2017 (AccuWeather) – Less than a week after enduring the hottest April day on record, Beijing was struck by a choking dust storm on Thursday and may not experience relief through Friday. The dust storm has been sweeping from Mongolia and China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to northeastern China from Wednesday […]

Living in China’s expanding deserts – ‘We dread the sandstorms’

By Josh Haner, Edward Wong, Derek Watkins, and Jeremy White24 October 2014 In the Tengger Desert, China (The New York Times) – This desert, called the Tengger, lies on the southern edge of the massive Gobi Desert, not far from major cities like Beijing. The Tengger is growing. For years, China’s deserts spread at an […]

Feeding 10 billion people by 2050 will require 4 million hectares of new land each year: UN

18 October 2016 (UN) – The head of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification told delegations gathered in Nairobi, Kenya, to assess the treaty’s implementation, the impacts of land degradation affect the sustainability of the entire world, so a global effort is needed to tackle it, including through the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable […]

More than a quarter of India’s land is turning to desert – ‘There is no coherent plan to reverse this process or its impact’

By Anuradha Nagaraj18 August 2016 CHENNAI, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – More than a quarter of India’s land is turning to desert and the rate of degradation of agricultural areas is increasing, according to new analysis of satellite images. A report [pdf] from the Indian Space Research Organization says land degradation – broadly defined as […]

Clean energy won’t save us – only a new economic system can

By Jason Hickel15 July 2016 (Guardian) – Earlier this year, media outlets around the world announced that February had broken global temperature records by a shocking amount. March broke all the records too. In June, our screens were covered with surreal images of flooding in Paris, the Seine bursting its banks and flowing into the […]

At UN Security Council, climate change cited among factors impacting stability in Sahel – ‘Life is already tough and will get tougher’

26 May 2016 (UN) – At a meeting today in the United Nations Security Council on the situation in the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa, senior UN officials stressed that climate change plays a direct role in the region’s security, development and stability by increasing drought and fuelling conflict. Speaking via videoconference from Niger, the […]

Vietnam’s southern Mekong Delta faces worst drought in history – ‘Those who have rice in hands will make fat profits’

HANOI, Vietnam, 17 March 2016 (AP) – Vietnam’s southern Mekong Delta, the country’s main rice growing region, is experiencing the worst drought and saline intrusion in recent history that has affected more than half a million people, officials said Thursday. The drought could result in the loss of up to 1 million tons of rice, […]

Climate change in Mongolia destroying pastures which nomadic herders need to survive – ‘Millions of animals are likely to die from starvation in the coming weeks and months’

By Joanna Chiu10 March 2016 ULZIIT, Mongolia (Irin) – Daashka and his brother tear across the Mongolian steppe on a motorbike in a desperate search for somewhere to graze their herds. Pastureland is dwindling rapidly as the country is beset by a cycle of drought and harsh winter that is killing off livestock in droves. […]

Why organic food might be worth the price – ‘When you look at ecosystem services, organic agriculture really shines’

By Mandy Oaklander4  February 2016 (TIME) – The most infamous fact about organic food is that it’s expensive—about 47% more expensive, according to a recent analysis from Consumer Reports. But a new review study published in Nature Plants analyzed everything research currently knows about organic farming versus the conventional kind and found that organic offers […]

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