RSS Feed
Archive for November 29th, 2012
Haiti seeks $2bn to fight cholera outbreak blamed on UN soldiers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 29th, 2012
Guardian: Haiti is to call upon the international community for more than $2bn to fight cholera amid growing evidence that the world's worst epidemic was started by UN peacekeepers.
The government's 10-year plan to improve sanitation and water provision will be unveiled with the backing of foreign aid groups and the UN, which is accused of one of the greatest failures in the history of international intervention.
It follows reports of a recent spike in cholera cases in the wake of hurricane Sandy and...
Posted in 
Forest reveals climate change’s surprising damage to moose, maple syrup
Posted by PoughKeepsie Journal: None Given on November 29th, 2012
Poughkeepsie Journal: Higher sea levels. More intense storms. Drought.
These are the most common impacts associated with climate change.
But what about pond algae? Or diseased moose? Or less maple syrup?
In the December edition of the scientific journal BioScience, scientists detail how climate change has been affecting — and could further change — a forest ecosystem in New Hampshire. The study seeks to go beyond the most obvious impacts to understand how climate change is playing out at a unique location in...
Straw poll finds in favour of western Kenya’s water and carbon solution
Posted by Guardian: Clar Ni Chonghaile on November 29th, 2012
Guardian: Judy Sitati is going to a funeral. She is dressed in her best clothes and in her black handbag she carries a bottle of water. It is clear and safe – the product of a unique project financed by carbon credits.
"I used to buy firewood to boil water. I would spend 150 shillings [about £1] a week. Now, I use the money to buy books, or sugar for tea, or soap," says Sitati, who stops to chat to volunteers from the carbon for water project on a rutted road in Kenya's Western Province.
In April and...
Small sachets are big help for clean water in developing world
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 29th, 2012
Reuters: Greg Allgood tears open a small sachet and dumps the powder into a large plastic container filled with brown, murky water. After about five minutes of stirring, clumps of sludge form and sink to the bottom as the water starts to clear.
"You let it settle, pour it through a cotton cloth and then you wait 20 minutes and it's ready to drink," said Allgood, the U.S.-based director of Procter & Gamble Co's not-for-profit programme to provide clean water in developing nations and disaster zones.
"We...
Rainfall shifts pushing rural poor to migrate – study
Posted by AlertNet: Megan Rowling on November 29th, 2012
AlertNet: Migration driven by changing rainfall patterns is on the rise in poor rural communities, as farming families struggle to grow enough food amid worsening droughts and floods. And unless they are helped to cope, governments may face large-scale movements of destitute people in the future, new research says.
To prevent this, the study by CARE International and the U.N. University recommends adjusting agriculture to new climate conditions and to finding alternative ways for rural communities to make...