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Archive for August 16th, 2010
Rwanda harnesses volcanic gases from depths of Lake Kivu
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 16th, 2010
Guardian: It's dusk on Lake Kivu and the fishermen sing while paddling out in their catamarans, three canoes secured together with long wooden poles. As the twin volcanoes on the far shore disappear into the darkness the men spark kerosene lamps to attract the sambaza sardines into their nets. Across the vast lake their lanterns offer the only tiny sequins of light. At least that is how it used to be. Now, near the northern shore, the bright fluorescent bulbs illuminating a tall barge can be ...
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Pakistan floods: aid trickles through
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 16th, 2010
Guardian
Nick Clegg calls response to Pakistan floods ‘lamentable’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 16th, 2010
Press Association
BP spill health effects need to be tracked: experts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 16th, 2010
Reuters: Doctors in the Gulf Coast region need to be alert to both the short and long-term health effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, U.S. health experts said on Monday. Prior oil spills have shown that contact with oil and chemicals can affect the lungs, kidneys, and liver, and the mental strain can boost rates of anxiety, depression and post traumatic stress as many as six years later. The magnitude of the BP Plc spill is a far greater worry, said Dr. Gina Solomon, an ...
Chinese dam projects raise alarm in Asia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 16th, 2010
Asahi Shumbin: Rivers in Asia that cross national borders are becoming a new source of confrontation among nations. Water shortages will likely become even more severe due to economic development and global warming. That would make the water issue a major factor for Asia's national security. While 60 percent of the world's population lives in Asia, it only has 36 percent of the available water resources on Earth. One such river is the Brahmaputra, which flows from Tibet through India ...
Mankind is using up global resources faster than ever
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 16th, 2010
Telegraph: Think tank the New Economics Foundation (NEF) look at how much food, fuel and other resources are consumed by humans every year. They then compare it to how much the world can provide without threatening the ability of important ecosystems like oceans and rainforests to recover. This year the moment we start eating into nature's capital or 'Earth Overshoot Day' will fall on 21st August, a full month earlier than last year, when resources were used up by 23rd September. He said ...
Official: Russian disaster sign of global warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 16th, 2010
AP: Russia's heat wave, drought and wildfires -- which have killed dozens of people and destroyed millions of acres (hectares) of wheat -- are another indication that global warming is causing more weather extremes around the world, a Russian official said Monday. Alexander Bedritsky, the Kremlin's weather adviser, also cited other disasters that he believes may be related to rising world temperatures, including Pakistan's worst floods in recorded history, and France's 2003 heat wave, ...
Human Health Impact of Oil Spill Still Largely Unknown
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 16th, 2010
Time: Spend some time on the Gulf coast, and you'll quickly find out that people are worried. They're worried about the environmental effects of the BP oil spill, what 4.9 million barrels of crude - and some 2 million gallons of chemical dispersants - might do to the coastline, to the marshes and to the underwater ecology of the Gulf of Mexico. They're worried about the economic future of their region, whether fishing will ever bounce back, whether the tourists who stayed away from the Gulf coast ...
U.N. Decade Hopes to Push Back Encroaching Deserts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 16th, 2010
Inter Press Service: Desertification has long been recognised as a major environmental, economic and social problem for countries the world over. But despite major efforts, which started with the United Nations Conference on Desertification (UNOCD) in 1977, the process of land degradation is intensifying. Yukie Hori of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) told IPS that "the Plan of Action to Combat Desertification adopted at the 1977 conference did not draw enough attention to ...
Climate Change Debate Rises with Pakistan Floods
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on August 16th, 2010
Inter Press Service: "If this is not God's wrath, what is?" 40-year-old taxi driver Bakht Zada said of the massive floods in Pakistan that have swept away his life earnings. Speaking to IPS from Madyan city in Swat district in north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Zada might pin the blame for Pakistan's worst floods in 80 years on forces beyond humankind, but environment experts are debating whether they are linked to a much more earthly phenomenon – climate change. Three weeks after unusually ...