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Archive for June 21st, 2010
At least 24 die in Ghana floods
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 21st, 2010
Reuters: Flooding caused by heavy rains killed at least 24 people, destroying homes and washing out roads, emergency officials in the West African country said on Monday. Eleven bodies were found in around the capital Accra and another 13 elsewhere in the country, said Kofi Portuphy, coordinator of the National Disaster Committee. Many others were feared dead as search and rescue crews continued getting reports of missing people following two days of downpours, He said. Police in ...
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Ivory Coast: Prosecutor urges top fine for Trafigura toxic waste
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 21st, 2010
Reuters: The Dutch public prosecutor is seeking a maximum fine for commodities trader Trafigura, saying it violated environmental laws when transporting toxic waste that ultimately ended up in the open air in Ivory Coast. The prosecutor said Monday the privately-held company should pay 2 million euros ($2.5 million) in fines, charging it with exporting waste, concealing its harmfulness and forgery. "Trafigura has let its own interests prevail above health and the environment ... Other ...
Africa told to lead climate change war
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 21st, 2010
Daily Nation: Water Resources minister Charity Ngilu said at the Deutsche Welle global media forum in Bonn, Germany, on Monday that Africans were the worst affected by climate change. She said climate change should not be left to governments and civil society only. "Climate change should be in the school curriculum as our children know nothing about it," she said. "It is strange that in Kenya, only the Prime Minister is doing something about climate in the government," she added. The ...
Green Marines: Camp Lejeune Buys Into Solar Power
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 21st, 2010
National Public Radio: On the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps base in North Carolina, large, reflective rectangles line the rooftops of some of the homes. But they're not some high-tech military gadget or even a satellite dish to get the latest TV channels: They're solar panels for heating water. So many of these panels have gone up in one neighborhood that the community is quickly becoming the largest in the continental U.S. to heat water with solar energy. 'A Milestone' An American flag ...
United Kingdom: Green campaigners fear farm review will rip up rules
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 21st, 2010
Guardian: Green campaigners tonight warned of a "bonfire" of the rules safeguarding the environment, and health and safety in the countryside, after the government appointed a farming industry stalwart to chair a taskforce set up to slash regulations affecting farmers and food producers. Farming is rated as the number-one threat to biodiversity in the UK, and one of the top two causes of pollution in rivers, streams, lakes and coastal waters. The industry has the worst workplace death and ...
United States: Oil spill volunteers looking for way to help
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 21st, 2010
Associated Press: Debbie Gunnoe wanted to work as a volunteer cleaning tar balls and oil from the sugar white beaches of Florida Panhandle that she loves so much, but she's been rebuffed. BP PLC has turned away Gunnoe and other would-be volunteers because the oil giant is using only paid and trained workers to clean up the mess caused by its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, the retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and nearly 70 other like-minded citizens are helping in a less direct way ...
Millions face starvation in west Africa, warn aid agencies
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 21st, 2010
Guardian: Starving people in drought-stricken west Africa are being forced to eat leaves and collect grain from ant hills, say aid agencies, warning that 10 million people face starvation across the region. With food prices soaring and malnourished livestock dying, villagers were turning to any sources of food to stay alive, said Charles Bambara, Oxfam officer for the west African region. "People are eating wild fruit and leaves, and building ant hills just to capture the tiny amount of ...
As tiny UAE’s water tab grows, resources run dry
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 21st, 2010
Reuters: Driving along brand new highways with medians of lush trees and manicured grass, one could easily forget the United Arab Emirates sits on a sweltering desert coast with rapidly diminishing freshwater resources. The Gulf Arab nation's oil income has allowed it to subsidize extravagant water use for Emiratis, either those in gated communities sporting pristine pools and evergreen golf courses or for farmers clinging to ancient irrigation practices. Environmentalists warn the ...
Dutch court seeks fine over I.Coast toxic waste
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 21st, 2010
Agence France-Presse: Dutch prosecutors called Monday for a Swiss-based company whose chartered ship left Amsterdam and dumped allegedly deadly waste in the Ivory Coast in 2006 to be fined two million euros. Multinational Trafigura, waste treatment company Amsterdam Port Services (APS) and the Ukrainian captain of the Probo Koala are on trial in Amsterdam for allegedly breaking environment and waste export laws in Dutch territory. Seventeen people allegedly died after caustic soda and petroleum ...
Climate change will have ‘mixed’ effect on Asian rivers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 21st, 2010
SciDev.Net: Two of Asia's 'water towers', the Brahmaputra and Indus river basins, are likely to be severely affected by climate change while others will be less affected and could even benefit, research on Asia's rivers shows. One-fifth of the world's population is dependent on water from the Brahmaputra, Indus, Ganges, Yangtze and Yellow rivers – often referred to as Asia's water towers – which are fed by melt water from the Himalayas. Until now it was thought that all the Asian river basins ...