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 […]
By Jeff Masters26 April 2011 According to the Interagency Fire Center, wildfires in 2011 have already burned nearly 2.3 million acres in the U.S. This is the greatest acreage on record so early in the year, and is more area than burned all of last year. The largest U.S. acreage to burn since 1960 was […]
By Jim Forsyth; Editing by Jerry Norton18 April 2011 SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – Texas Governor Rick Perry has requested a Major Disaster Declaration for the entire state, as brush fires which have burned more than 1.5 million acres continued on Monday. The fires have been whipped by 60-mile-an-hour wind gusts and fueled by brush dried out […]
Dallas, April 18 (CNN) — Texas authorities have made an arrest in connection with one of hundreds of blazes scorching the state in what a Forest Service official called the “perfect storm for wildfires.” … Firefighters are battling some of the driest conditions Texas has seen in nearly a century. April Saginor, a spokeswoman with […]
By KELLY DOHERTY, Associated Press23 March 2011 Up to 45 rare species of wallaby, bandicoot and other Australian animals could become extinct within 20 years unless urgent action is taken to control introduced predators and other threats, scientists warned Wednesday. Dozens of mammals, birds, lizards and other vertebrates in the remote northwestern Kimberley region are […]
Documenting the end of multicellular life on Earth requires a somewhat obsessive personality, which Desdemona has in spades. But the good people of the RSOE EDIS Climate Change Monitoring Service have gone far, far beyond the level of effort Des would ever expend, compiling a huge database of disasters in near-realtime. The latest mishaps are […]
18 March 2011 (AP) – Wheat prices rose Friday after Russia cut its forecast for this year’s harvest, renewing concerns that global supplies will tighten. Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said the forecast called for 84 million to 85 million tons of wheat to be harvested this year, compared to an earlier estimate of 85 […]
By TaminoMarch 21, 2011 … The 2010-2011 rise in food prices was triggered by a rise in cereals prices. It started in July of 2010, and still hasn’t relented. Sure, there are other factors too — and as usually happens, an increase in cereals prices can cause a “ripple effect,” leading to increased prices in […]
By Svetlana Kovalyova and Deepa Babington; Editing by Anthony BarkerMon Mar 7, 2011 MILAN/ROME (Reuters) – Climate change bringing floods and drought, growing biofuel demand and national policies to protect domestic markets could drive up global food prices and threaten long-term food security, the United Nations said. High and volatile food prices are a growing […]
By Jonathan Watts28 February 2011 One of the world’s most advanced rainforest restoration projects may be going up in smoke in southern China. A short while ago, I received a frantic phone call from Bulang Mountain in Xishuangbanna, where scientists and conservationists are fleeing 30m-high flames that, they said, were consuming trees in seconds. Witnesses […]
