RSS Feed
Archive for February 29th, 2016
Malawi to import 50,000 tonnes of maize after drought worsens
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 29th, 2016
Reuters: Malawi will import 50,000 tonnes of the staple maize from Tanzania to avert hunger after a drought that affected 2.8 million people in the southern African nation, state officials said on Monday.
Agriculture is Malawi's mainstay, accounting for a third of the economy and providing livelihoods for 80 percent of the population of about 15 million people.
"With the 30,000 tonnes coming in from Zambia, we expect to add on another 50,000 tonnes from Tanzania that we have authorized (state-owned...
Posted in 
India: Groundwater Governance in Andhra Pradesh
Posted by Inter Press Service: Shyam Bahadur Khadka on February 29th, 2016
Inter Press Service: India is the largest user of ground water in the world. But reliance of this overexploited resource has reached its limits in many parts of the country. Nowhere is this more evident than in the drought-prone districts of Rayalseema, uplands of Prakasam, Krishna, East-West Godavari, parts of Nellore, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam in the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP). Forty per cent of the state's irrigation needs are met through groundwater. In the drought-prone Rayalseema region - which comprises Chittoor,...
Climate change ‘most existential crisis civilisation has known’, says DiCaprio
Posted by Guardian: Nigel M Smith on February 29th, 2016
Guardian: Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Oscar on Sunday, after being nominated four times previously. The actor was expected to win after dominating the best actor race all season, winning a number of precursor awards including a Bafta. Still, he said the industry-wide support he’s received over the past few months “feels incredibly surreal”.
“This year in particular I was overwhelmed by the support from fans and people in the industry,” he said backstage at the ceremony, shortly after winning his best...
On Native Ground OIL Drilling in the Arctic: Ecological Disaster Waiting to Happen
Posted by American Reporter: Randolph T. Holhut on February 29th, 2016
American Reporter: Are we so desperate for one last big fix of oil, that we're willing to destroy one of the world's last pristine and unspoiled regions?
The answer seems to be yes.
The U.S. Geological Survey released a report last week stating that the region inside the Arctic Circle contains about one-fifth of the world's undiscovered, recoverable oil.
The USGS report, the most comprehensive survey ever of energy resources in the Arctic, found that there is an estimated 90 billion barrels of oil - or about...