Severe drought forces release of water from Three Gorges Dam

YICHANG, May 7 (Xinhua) – The Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydropower project, is expected to increase its water discharges over three days in a bid to fight the severe drought that has ravaged Central China’s Hubei province and some southern provinces since February. The discharge speed of the dam will accelerate to 7,000 […]

Tarballs linger on Alabama’s uninhabited beaches – ‘They’ll be cleaning tarballs off those beaches for a long time’

By Ben Raines, Press-Register 8 May 2011 DAUPHIN ISLAND, Ala. – Tarballs linger on Alabama’s uninhabited beaches, clustering around the edges of sand dunes and sticking to seashells and driftwood. The public beaches of Orange Beach, Gulf Shores and Dauphin Island received deep cleanings over the winter and are still monitored daily. But the more […]

Iraq’s Tanjero River polluted and neglected

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan, Iraq, April 7, 2011 (ENS) – The Tanjero River, which runs southwest of the city of Sulaimani, was once a sizeable river flowing with clean water, but today it is reduced to a polluted stream filled with sewage, says the environmental group Nature Iraq. Anna Bachmann of Nature Iraq says that a visit […]

Fish species of Manipur on the brink of extinction

By Sobhapati Samom, Hueiyen News Service30 March 2011 Imphal: The largest global environmental network, International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN), has listed 15 fish species including seven from Manipur as ‘Endangered freshwater fish species’ in their recently released red list of threatened species report on the status and distribution of freshwater biodiversity in eastern Himalaya […]

Graph of the Day: Global Percentage of Watershed Covered by Water, 2011

At 197 million acres, the surface area of Canada’s boreal lakes and rivers alone are larger than all but 36 countries. According to a new report by the Pew Environment Group, Canada’s boreal forest contains the world’s largest and most pristine freshwater ecosystem on Earth. A Forest of Blue: Canada’s Boreal Forest, the World’s Waterkeeper […]

Iraq wastes 50 percent of water: UNICEF

Baghdad (AFP) March 21, 2011 – Fifty percent of water resources are wasted in Iraq, where six million people have no access to clean water, the United Nations said on Monday, the eve of World Water Day. “Iraq faces difficulties in meeting the target of 91 percent of households using a safe drinking water supply […]

Graph of the Day: Planned Deforestation in Riau Province, Indonesia, 2011

By Rhett A. Butler, www.mongabay.comMarch 17, 2011 Eyes on the Forest, a coalition of Indonesian NGOs, released maps showing that Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) and Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) control blocks of land representing 31 percent of the remaining forest in the province of Riau, one of Sumatra’s most forested provinces. Much […]

Large-scale industrial activities threaten Canada’s boreal forest

Contact: Elyssa Rosen03/16/2011 Ottawa, Canada – A first of its kind report by the Pew Environment Group reveals that Canada’s boreal, the world’s largest intact forest and on-land carbon storehouse, contains more unfrozen freshwater than any other ecosystem. As United Nations’ International Year of Forests and World Water Day coincide, world leaders are grappling with […]

Unregulated pesticide use in Asia destroys ecosystems and threatens resistant ‘pest storms’

March 6, 2011, Singapore (AFP) — The unbridled manufacture and use of pesticides in Asia is raising the spectre of “pest storms” devastating the region’s rice farms and threatening food security, scientists have warned. Increased production of cheap pesticides in China and India, lax regulation and inadequate farmer education are destroying ecosystems around paddies, allowing […]

California coastal cities prepare for rising sea levels

Newport Beach and other communities on California’s coast are planning to build up wetlands, construct levees and seawalls or move structures inland as climate change raises sea levels. By Tony Barboza, Los Angeles TimesMarch 6, 2011 Cities along California’s coastline that for years have dismissed reports of climate change or lagged in preparing for rising […]

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