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Archive for January 15th, 2011
Many still missing in Brazil floods
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 15th, 2011
Reuters: Dozens of flood survivors desperate for news of missing relatives lined up outside a morgue in the town of Teresopolis on Saturday as criticism grew of authorities' response to one of Brazil's worst natural disasters which has killed nearly 600 people.
Nearly four days after rains sparked floods and massive landslides, officials in this scenic mountain town are still struggling to cope with the scale of the catastrophe. The steadily rising death toll in the region north of Rio de Janeiro hit 591...
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Italy and Panama continue illegal fishing, says new report
Posted by Mongabay: Morgan Erickson-Davis on January 15th, 2011
Mongabay: On Wednesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued its biennial report identifying six countries whose fisheries have been engaged in illegal, unreported, or unregulated (IUU) fishing during the past two years. The report comes at a time when one-fifth of reported fish catches worldwide are caught illegally and commercial fishing has led to a global fish stock overexploitation of an estimated 80 percent.
The countries listed in the report - Colombia, Ecuador, Italy,...
Sri Lanka floods: United Nations seeks emergency aid as death toll rises
Posted by Guardian: Gethin Chamberlain on January 15th, 2011
Guardian: The United Nations said today it would launch an appeal for emergency flood aid in Sri Lanka as rescue efforts were mounted to reach those marooned. As many as 390,000 people have been driven from their homes and at least 3,744 houses have been destroyed, according to the country's disaster management centre.
The death toll continued to rise as flooding swamped areas in the east of the country, leaving hundreds of people homeless. At least 37 people had been confirmed dead by this afternoon, and...
What was the role of warmists in the Queensland flood disaster?
Posted by Telegraph: Christopher Booker on January 15th, 2011
Telegraph: Ever more alarming facts are emerging to show how Brisbane's floods were made infinitely worse by cockeyed decisions inspired by the obsession of the Australian authorities with global warming. Inevitably, the country's warmist lobby has been voluble in claiming that such a "freak weather event' (as the BBC called it) is a consequence of man-made climate change. But far from being an unprecedented "freak event', the latest flood was nearly a foot below the level of one in 1974 and 10 feet below the...
Brazilian landslides bring anger in their wake
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 15th, 2011
Guardian: In the devastated countryside around Rio de Janeiro, the anger is growing. Late on Friday, many survivors of the floods and mudslides that have killed more than 500 people over the past week were still begging officials for aid.
Four nights of torrential rain have brought tragedy to these rural communities, and the authorities' response has sometimes been lumbering. In Teresópolis, a hilltop city 60 miles north of Rio, criticism is mounting of the government's efforts to rescue victims still stranded...
More than 1 million cut off in Sri Lanka’s deluge
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 15th, 2011
Time: When the rains began on Dec. 26 along the eastern coast of Sri Lanka, they brought with them a foreboding sense of unease. The day after Christmas still gives the chills to those living here since the day six years ago when the Asian tsunami pulverized communities living along the beach.
This year, the nightmare has returned, raining almost continuously now for over fifteen days over an area of about 4000 square miles. According to data from the Meteorology Department, it has not rained like this...
Ex-Met Office chief blames greenhouse gases for floods
Posted by Western Mail: None Given on January 15th, 2011
Western Mail: EXTREME weather events in Brazil and Australia, which have killed hundreds of people, point towards a global warming trend, a Welsh climate change expert said last night.
The strongest La Niña event for decades in the Pacific, which sees the cooling of the sea temperatures in the ocean`s tropical regions, has been linked to a number of natural disasters around the world.
Floods in Queensland have been directly linked to the phenomenon, while similar rains in Brazil and Sri Lanka are less easily...
Designing Defence Against Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 15th, 2011
Inter Press Service: As the impact of climate change worsens around the globe, a disaster-resilient village is poised to be a solution for urban poor battling the constant floods and typhoons that hit the Philippines.
The concept village, submitted by Johanna Ferrer Guldager of Denmark, is designed around elevated housing clusters. Each house employs green building technologies, such as the use of sustainable materials like bamboo for the floors, walls and roof. Roofs are used as a rainwater collection system leading...
This isn’t about climate change – but it may be the face of the future
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 15th, 2011
Independent: Rain in Brazil, rain in Australia and rain in Sri Lanka. Rain is the factor that links all three large-scale disasters unfolding before our eyes in these very different regions of the world.
To try to make sense of what is going on around us, it is understandable to draw comparisons. The images of flooded homes and stranded people from as far apart as Rio de Janeiro and Brisbane underscore the human anguish shared by all those caught up by these devastating natural disasters.
Heavy torrential...
United States: Salmon project marks new direction for Tongass Forest
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 15th, 2011
Associated Press: Public and private groups, which in the past were so fiercely divided over managing the temperate rainforest that their battles were called "The Tongass Wars," are collaborating on restoring the Sitkoh River.
The U.S. Forest Service announced last summer that it was taking a new direction in Tongass management by moving away from cutting old-growth trees and toward harvesting younger, second-growth trees and forest restoration work.
The Sitkoh River restoration project is one of the first significant...