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Archive for June 15th, 2011
Global warming not to blame for 2011 droughts
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 15th, 2011
New Scientist: ADD one more to the list: after the driest spring in more than 20 years, parts of eastern England are officially in a state of drought, according to the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. This comes hard on the heels of some of the worst droughts on record across the globe, from Texas to China. While global warming is an obvious suspect, there's no evidence that it is to blame. Though climate change models predict extended droughts and periods of intense rainfall for the end...
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Peasant activist shot dead in Brazil’s Amazon region
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on June 15th, 2011
Associated Press: Confiscated illegally logged timber floats down the Guam river delta in Pará, Brazil. A landless peasant activist has been killed by a gunshot to his head outside his home in Brazil, the fifth murder in a month amid a conflict over land and logging in Brazil's Amazon region.
The body of Obede Loyla Souza was found over the weekend in the dense forest surrounding his home in Esperança, a settlement in the state of Pará, said Hilario Lopes Costa, co-ordinator for the watchdog Catholic Land Pastoral...
Development of dry forests central to combating desertification: Ban
Posted by Irna: None Given on June 15th, 2011
Irna: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his message on World Day to Combat Desertification, June 17, 2011, emphasized that the management, conservation and sustainable development of dry forests are central to combating desertification. According to a press release issued by the UN Information Center (UNIC) here on Wednesday, the full text of his message reads:
“The people who live in the arid lands, which occupy more than 40 per cent of our planet, are among the world’s poorest and most vulnerable...