By David Adamwww.guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 December 2009 18.20 GMT Lowland tropics, mangroves and deserts at greater risk than mountainous areas as global warming spreads, study finds Global warming creeps across the world at a speed of a quarter of a mile each year, according to a new study that highlights the problems that rising temperatures […]
By MARIAN WILKINSON ENVIRONMENT EDITORNovember 23, 2009 THE collapse of the Coorong wetlands at the mouth of the Murray River is shaping up to be one of the Australia’s worst environmental disasters, an author of a report on the region said yesterday. Bird numbers in the region have fallen dramatically and freshwater turtles continue to […]
MOSCOW (AFP) — Thawing permafrost caused by global warming is costing Russian energy firms billions of dollars annually in damage control and shrinking Russia’s territory, Greenpeace warned in a new study Friday. According to the report by the environmental watchdog, up to 55 billion roubles (1.9 billion dollars) a year is spent on repairs to […]
TARUNA JAYA, Indonesia – Across a patch of pineapples shrouded in smoke, Idris Hadrianyani battled a menace that has left his family sleepless and sick — and has wrought as much damage on the planet as has exhaust from all the cars and trucks in the United States. Against the advancing flames, he waved a […]
A severe drought believed to have been caused by the El Niño phenomenon has threatened water supplies in Bolivia, and has depleted the water level in Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is very close to reaching its lowest level ever recorded since 2003. [Felix Trujillo, Employee, National Meteorology and Hydrology Service]: “…The lowest level in […]
By Gerard Wynn BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) – Draining and burning of the world’s peat bogs accounts for about 5.5 percent of global carbon emissions but are currently excluded from governments’ climate targets and U.N. talks, a study found on Wednesday. Peat stores around twice as much carbon as all the world’s trees, but compared with […]
Shanghai (AFP) Oct 31, 2009 – China on Saturday opens a new bridge over the Yangtze that will pave the way for rapid development of the country’s “last virgin island,” Chongming — now just an hour’s drive from booming Shanghai. With a surface area 50 percent bigger than Singapore, the island has captured the imagination […]
By Ben Cubby, October 27, 2009 AUSTRALIA must create a new, expanded network of protected wetlands around its coastline or see many bird, animal and plant species become extinct as sea levels rise, the House of Representatives report says. It recommended that the Government should urgently assess the vulnerability of Kakadu National Park to the […]
This is the future of peat wetlands all over the world, wherever humans are drawing down the water table. Thousands of illegal wells were drilled around the Tablas de Daimiel wetland in Spain, a UNESCO biosphere site, to irrigate local fields. The water table fell 12 meters (40 ft), the underground peat dried out, and […]
• Less than 1% of Tablas de Daimiel remains as lagoons• Fires burning underground as illegal wells dry out peat By Giles Tremlett, in Madrid The EU has begun an investigation into a unique Spanish wetland park that is being devastated by underground fires. Local officials have admitted that mismanaged water resources at the […]
