UK report: Only third of appeal funds for Pakistan flood delivered – U.N. response ‘patchy with poor leadership and coordination’

London, May 10, IRNA – An all-party committee of MPs Tuesday expressed concern that only $700 million of a $2 billion appeal has been delivered on the ground to help millions of victims caught up in Pakistan’s worst-ever floods last year. “Two thirds of the funding called for had still not been delivered by the […]

The oceans are emptying fast

By Geoffrey Lean 20 May 2011 It was a shameful par for a very long course when European, Middle Eastern and North African governments met in Rome this month to decide how to save the fast-vanishing fisheries in their common sea. You’d think there would have been a sense of the need for urgent action […]

France in crisis as drought deepens, with hottest April in over a century

By Gerard Bon, Marie Maitre, and Sybille de La Hamaide; editing by Anthony Barker16 May 2011 PARIS (Reuters) – France has imposed limits on water consumption in 28 of its 96 administrative departments, the environment ministry said Monday, amid signs that a prolonged dry spell that has hit grain crops would continue. “We are already […]

UK ministers call emergency summit as drought looms

One of the driest springs on record has sparked fears for agriculture and wildlife, while crews ‘work to the point of exhaustion’ to battle forest fires By Matt Chorley and Tom Moseley15 May 2011 Ministers are to hold an emergency drought summit in an attempt to avert a crisis caused by one of the driest […]

Heathland fires rage after Britain’s hottest April on record

By Ben Mitchell and Mike Hornby, PA5 May 2011 Hundreds of firefighters are continuing to battle heathland fires which have been burning in locations across the UK for several days. … The hottest April on record, which saw only 21% of the expected rainfall in England and Wales, has caused vast areas of parched, tinder-dry […]

River Thames source dries up

April 27 (SWNS) — The source of the River Thames has dried up after the UK experienced the lowest recorded rainfall in March since 1929. The Thames head spring in Trewsbury Mead near Cirencester, Glos., has stopped flowing after the driest March in more than 80 years. It was fed from deep underground and joins […]

Britain’s taste for cheap food is destroying Brazil’s ‘other wilderness’

By Martin Hickman11 April 2011 An “upside-down forest” of small trees with deep roots, Brazil’s wildlife-rich outback is home to a 20th of the world’s species, including the spectacular blue and yellow macaw and giant armadillos. Yet this vast wilderness – as big the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain put together – is being […]

Scotland anglers appalled at sea lice infestations revealed by salmon farm inspections

By Lewis Smith12 April 2011 Data released under freedom of information legislation has uncovered what anglers say are “alarming” and “morally indefensible” levels of sea lice infestations at Scottish salmon farms. Official inspections of Scotland’s salmon farms over a two year period recorded 68 cases where levels of sea lice – which can be fatal […]

Cuts will destroy rarest habitats in Britain, warn conservationists

By Lewis SmithMonday, 28 March 2011 Catherton Common reverberates with the distinctive song of skylarks. It boasts stunning views over the Shropshire countryside and is one of the most valuable spots for plants anywhere in Britain. Just two years ago, its huge botanical diversity and nationally important populations of adders and other struggling native reptiles […]

Flooding at home, not polar bears, convinces people of man made climate change

Pictures of polar bears on melting ice caps make little difference to climate campaigns because people do not care about global warming until it happens on their doorstep, a survey has found. By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent 21 Mar 2011 Nick Pidgeon, Professor of Environmental Psychology at Cardiff University, showed for the first time that […]

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