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Archive for April, 2010
China: Record Drought Exposes Water Woes
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 12th, 2010
Inter Press Service: A once-in-a-century drought in south-west China has sparked concern over how China, which has one-fifth of the world's population but just 7 percent of its water, has managed its water supply and growing network of hydroelectric dams. In South-east Asia, where a number of countries have also been hit by the drought, the blame has fallen squarely the thirsty neighbour to the north, where many areas have not seen rain since October. Around 24 million people in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou ...
Philippines: Philexport calls for urgent government response on brewing power, water supply crisis
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 11th, 2010
Manilla Bulletin: The Philippine Exporters Confederation (Philexport) has called for an urgent government response to address issues arising from rapidly changing climate patterns like the brewing power and fresh water supply crises in the country. "The intermittent power outages in Luzon and crippling brownouts in Mindanao, coupled with long dry spell drying lakes, killing plants, fowls and animals in the Cagayan Valley and some regions in Mindanao stare us on the face today,' said Philexport ...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Philippines: Philexport calls for urgent government response on brewing power, water supply crisisGlacier National Park loses 2 more glaciers due to climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 11th, 2010
Thaindian News: The US Geological Survey has said that the Glacier National Park has lost 2 more glaciers, due to climatic changes. The US Geological Survey also hinted that by the end of the decade, the Park might lose all of its glaciers too. The glaciers are being lost, as the increase in the temperatures in the park, were in reality twice as that of the rest of the globe. These findings were made public, when the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization (RMCO) and Natural Resources Defense Council ...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Glacier National Park loses 2 more glaciers due to climate changeTribes of Amazon Find an Ally Out of ‘Avatar’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 11th, 2010
New York Times: They came from the far reaches of the Amazon, traveling in small boats and canoes for up to three days to discuss their fate. James Cameron, the Hollywood titan, stood before them with orange warrior streaks painted on his face, comparing the threats on their lands to a snake eating its prey. "The snake kills by squeezing very slowly,' Mr. Cameron said to more than 70 indigenous people, some holding spears and bows and arrows, under a tree here along the Xingu River. "This is how the ...
Heat wave swept several parts of country
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 10th, 2010
All India Radio: Heat wave swept several parts of the country today with mercury hovering over 40 degrees in many areas. In the national capital, the maximum temperature rose from yesterday's 40.1 degrees to 40.5 degree Celsius ,five degree above the normal. The temperature rose to 41 degrees in Kolkata and its neighbourhood while the districts of Purulia, West Midnapore and Bankura remained in the grip of a heat wave. Jharsuguda in western Orissa recorded highest temperature of 45 ...
Canada: Black gold in Alberta sands
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 10th, 2010
Irish Times: The process of extracting oil from the vast Canadian sands is a messy one, and with enormous profits at stake, what chance does the environment have? TO MOST environmentalists, the oil sands of Alberta are "Canada`s dirty secret". Described by Tar Sands 101 as "the largest industrial project in human history", the extraction of oil from bitumen (tar, in plain language) buried in the ground is blamed by them for causing air pollution, widespread deforestation and prodigious carbon ...
United States: Climatologist warns of epic drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 10th, 2010
KOCO: A local scientist said climate change could create the type of drought that Oklahoma hasn't seen since the Dust Bowl. The comments come as the state is about to mark the 75th anniversary of the worst dust storm in history, brutal conditions that led to a mass exodus out of parts of Oklahoma during the 1930s. "Drought happened and what caused it was poor farming practices," said climatologist Gary McManus. "We plowed up entire plains, soil was bare for the wind. There was ...
Ecuador: Environmental Inspection in Yasuni Park
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 10th, 2010
Inter Press Service: Representatives of Ecuador's ombudsman's office and environmental groups are visiting the Yasuni National Park on Saturday, home to some of the world's last indigenous people still living in voluntary isolation, in order to verify reports of illegal activity by oil companies. Ecuador's new constitution bans oil drilling in the "untouchable zone" declared by the government in the southern part of the park to ensure the survival of the Tagaeri and Taromenane indigenous communities, who ...
Sudan: ‘Hungriest place on earth’ cries out for food
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 9th, 2010
Associated Press: Three-day-old Odong Obong lay in the hospital bed, his pencil-thin arms almost motionless and his shriveled, gaunt face resembling that of an elderly man. Emaciated babies and young children throughout the ward bore the signs of hunger: exposed ribs and distended stomachs. Outside, old villagers reclined motionless in the shade, too frail to walk. The U.N. calls this the "hungriest place on Earth" after years of drought and conflict, with aid agencies already feeding 80,000 ...
Brazil: A Tragedy of Local and Global Dimensions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on April 9th, 2010
Inter Press Service: The people who live in the favela of Guararapes are probably unaware that the heavy rains that forced them to flee their homes were caused by a phenomenon that is affecting the whole planet: global warming. But in their own small world - a poor shantytown clinging precariously to the slopes of one of the numerous morros or tall, steep hills that dot the Rio de Janeiro skyline - they can clearly identify the local cause behind the tragedy: the artificial diversion of a stream that has ...