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United Kingdom: Coastal city flooding ‘could cost more than £600bn a year’
Posted by Independent: John Von Radowitz on August 18th, 2013
Independent: Flooding of major coastal cities could cost the world economy more than £600bn a year by 2050, say scientists. Three cities in the US – Miami, New York and New Orleans – and Guangzhou in China are together expected to shoulder 43 per cent of the burden. Other cities facing the highest flood losses in 2050 included Mumbai, Jakarta, Boston, Bangkok and Abidjan, while in Europe, the cities of Marseille, Naples and Athens were also at risk. The loss estimate is based on projections of climate change,...
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Half of the world food ‘is just thrown away’
Posted by Independent: John Von Radowitz on January 10th, 2013
Independent: As much as half of all the food produced in the world - two billion tonnes worth - ends up being thrown away, a new report claims. The waste is caused by poor infrastructure and storage facilities, over-strict sell-by dates, "get-one-free" offers, and consumer fussiness, according to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Each year countries around the world produce some four billion tonnes of food. But between 30% and 50% of this total, amounting to 1.2 to two billion tonnes, never gets eaten,...
Vast methane reservoir could be beneath Antarctic ice
Posted by Independent: John Von Radowitz on August 29th, 2012
Independent: A vast reservoir of the potent greenhouse gas methane may be locked beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, a study suggests.
Scientists say the gas could be released into the atmosphere if enough of the ice melts away, adding to global warming.
Research indicates that ancient deposits of organic matter may have been converted to methane by microbes living in low-oxygen conditions.
The organic material dates back to a period 35 million years ago when the Antarctic was much warmer than it is today...