By Staff WritersAug 16, 2010 Fortaleza, Brazil (AFP) – The United Nations Monday launched a campaign to save the planet from deserts that are threatening a third of the planet along with the livelihoods of more than a billion people. The decade-long initiative aims to “reverse and prevent desertification” and to soften the effects of […]
UPDATE: Desdemona failed to notice that this story is from 1998 and thanks readers for the QA. BBCOctober 10, 1998 The scale of the damage caused by recent forest fires in Russia’s Far East amounts to a world-wide ecological disaster, a United Nations team has said. The Russian news agency, Itar-Tass, said the team was […]
PricewaterhouseCoopers claims UK firms are “biting the hand that feeds” through negligent approach to ecosystem services By James Murray, BusinessGreen, 13 Jul 2010 The threat to businesses arising from unchecked biodiversity loss is larger and more immediate than that presented by climate change. That is the stark conclusion of a long-anticipated UN-backed report to be […]
By Derrick Z. JacksonBoston Globe Columnist / July 7, 2010 WHEN THE chief of naval operations of the United States starts rattling off global fishing statistics without notes and frets about climate change like an MIT scientist, we should all stand at attention. If Admiral Gary Roughead had his way, it would be full speed […]
Sydney (AFP) June 6, 2010 – Weather-related catastrophes brought about by climate change are increasing, the top UN humanitarian official said Sunday as he warned of the possibility of “mega-disasters”. John Holmes, the UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, said one of the biggest challenges facing the aid community was the problems stemming from changing […]
By Sebastian Smith (AFP) NEW YORK — The world faces the nightmare possibility of fishless oceans by 2050 unless fishing fleets are slashed and stocks allowed to recover, UN experts warned Monday. “If the various estimates we have received… come true, then we are in the situation where 40 years down the line we, effectively, […]
Nairobi, 10 May 2010 – Natural systems that support economies, lives and livelihoods across the planet are at risk of rapid degradation and collapse unless there is swift, radical and creative action to conserve and sustainably use the variety of life on Earth. This is one principal conclusion of a major new assessment of the […]
WASHINGTON, DC, April 29, 2010 (ENS) – World leaders have failed to fulfill their commitments to reduce the global rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, and have instead overseen “alarming” biodiversity declines, finds the first assessment of how the targets expressed in the 2002 Convention on Biological Diversity have not been met. Since 1970, human […]
By Thomas Hubert; Editing by Tim Cocks, David Lewis and Mark TrevelyanKINSHASAWed Apr 28, 2010 3:09pm EDT (Reuters) – United Nations peacekeepers in Congo have used helicopters to airlift endangered baby gorillas to a sanctuary after they were rescued in a conflict zone where they faced being captured or eaten. The animals ferried to safety […]
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 […]
