Archive for March, 2010

Depopulation may be harming the Amazon rainforest

Mongabay: Urbanization may be having unexpected impacts in the Amazon rainforest by leaving forest areas vulnerable to exploitation by outsiders, report researchers writing in Conservation Letters. Conducting field surveys during the course of 10,000-kilometers of travel along remote Amazon rivers, Luke Parry of Lancaster University found that a sharp decrease in rural habitation has not been accompanied by a decline in harvesting of wildlife and forest resources, indicating that urban ...

Italy: Toads able detect earthquake days beforehand, says study

Guardian: Toads may be able to detect imminent earthquakes, according to scientists. The finding will add to the accounts through the centuries where animals, from dogs to rats, snakes and chickens, are said to have behaved strangely before an earthquake. In the study published today in the Journal of Zoology, a colony of toads deserted their mating site three days before an earthquake struck L'Aquila in Italy last year – the epicentre was 74km from the area where the animals had normally ...

Water poverty a vital issue for Egypt

National: A conference on environmental security in the Arab world opens in Alexandria today, just days after an Egyptian minister warned that his country has fallen below the water poverty line and amid a government campaign to educate citizens on the economical use of water. The conference, titled Scarce Water, Rising Water: Between Draughts and Flooding -- Arab Policies to Meet Environmental Challenges, will address challenges ranging from rising sea levels to desertification, with a warning ...

Germany: Sturgeons Return to the Danube

Inter Press Service: A century ago, when the Danube was still blue, it teemed with beluga sturgeon, as did the Rhine with salmon. But industrialisation and the construction of canals and dams have destroyed the habitat of both species of fish. These interventions, and other forms of altering water flows, prevent both sturgeon and salmon from swimming upriver to deposit their eggs, a millennia-old ritual that has been thrown off course and is leading to the extinction of these species. The ...

China: Drought may force power station to halt operation

Xinhua: The worsening drought in southwest China could force the Longtan hydropower station, the country's second largest in operation, to halt power generation in another month, a company official said Tuesday. The water level in the upper reservoir had been falling by 20 cm per day, said Chen Deqing, deputy chief of the hydropower station. Children pitch in for drought reliefChen said should the water level keep falling at the current speed, the power station would have to halt ...

New Frogs Appear; Their Discoverers Disappear

Inter Press Service: Shortly after it informed the world of the discovery of three new species of frogs, the environmental organisation Fundación Andígena closed its doors in Venezuela this month due to lack of financial support. "There is a lack of communication with and support and funds for environmental organisations in this extremely biodiverse country, which is currently experiencing water and power shortages linked to environmental questions," anthropologist César Barrio, executive director of ...

United Kingdom: Nature reserve that inspired Tolkien gets £376,500 grant

Telegraph: Birmingham's Moseley Bog, where the creator of The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit played as a child in the 1890s, will use the funding to restore aspects of the site and improve public access. The reserve is thought to have been the inspiration for Tolkien's mystical Old Forest and is also home to a scheduled ancient monument dating back to the Bronze Age. The Heritage Lottery Fund said a new open air performance and education space would be created as part of the project, ...

Water crisis in Trinidad: authorities

Agence France-Presse: Trinidad and Tobago is facing a crisis in its ongoing water shortage, with consumption levels recklessly high, authorities warned Tuesday. The Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) cautioned that at current consumption levels, water will not last until the end of the dry season in June. Despite strict water restrictions on citizens, water levels "are dropping at an unprecedented level in the nation?s reservoirs," WASA?s Corporate Communications Manager Ellen Lewis told ...

Global water crisis and cheaper technology sparks surge in desalination

Guardian: The world's unquenchable thirst for clean water drove a record increase in the desalination of seawater and reuse of sewage last year, new figures reveal, as water-stressed countries around the world try to build their way out of trouble. Making fresh water from the sea was once the preserve of cruise ships and oil-rich Gulf states that could afford the huge cost of energy required to remove the salt. But as rivers, lakes and aquifers dry up, rains become less reliable, and the cost ...

Climate Contributed To Angkor’s Collapse

redOrbit: Decades of drought, interspersed with intense monsoon rains, may have helped bring about the fall of Cambodia's ancient Khmer civilization at Angkor nearly 600 years ago, according to an analysis of tree rings, archeological remains and other evidence. The study, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may also shed light on what drives--and disrupts--the rainy season across much of Asia, which waters crops for nearly half the world's ...