postMigrator

Africa’s Deforestation Rate Twice World Rate

By postMigrator June 11, 2008 June 11, 2008 Uncategorized

Africa’s deforestation twice world rate, says atlas
Tue Jun 10, 2008 3:27pm EDT

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) – Africa is suffering deforestation at twice the world rate and the continent’s few glaciers are shrinking fast, according to a U.N. atlas on Tuesday.

Satellite pictures, often taken three decades apart, showed expanding cities, pollution, deforestation and climate change were damaging the African environment despite glimmers of improvement in some areas.

“Africa is losing more than 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) of forest every year — twice the world’s average deforestation rate,” according to a statement by the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) about the 400-page atlas, prepared for a meeting of African environment ministers in Johannesburg.

Study: Melting Arctic Ice Could Spur Inland Warming

By postMigrator June 11, 2008 June 11, 2008 Uncategorized

Melting Arctic ice could spur inland warming: study
Tue Jun 10, 2008 1:53pm EDT

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – If Arctic sea ice starts melting fast, polar bears and ring seals wouldn’t be the only creatures to feel it: A study released on Tuesday suggests it could spur warmer temperatures hundreds of miles (km) inland.

That means a possible thaw in the long-frozen soil known as permafrost, which in turn could have severe effects on ecosystems, human infrastructure like oil rigs and pipelines and the release of more global warming greenhouse gases in Russia, Alaska and Canada, the scientists said.

The End of Cheap Water: Case Study

By postMigrator June 11, 2008 June 11, 2008 RT Newswire

The Economist
Jun 5th 2008

Israel

Don’t make the desert bloom

Milk and honey is all very well. But what about the water?

THIS is the fourth consecutive year of drought in
Israel. Last winter it rained only about 65% of
the long-term average. The water level in the Sea
of Galilee, the source of nearly 30% of Israel’s
fresh water, is close to the danger line and
hardly rose during the winter even though the
pipeline that takes water from it was closed for
part of the year. This week the government
reacted with an emergency plan.

Grassy Narrows First Nations Victory!

By postMigrator June 10, 2008 June 10, 2008 RT Newswire

Message From JB Fobister from Grassy Narrows

http://understory.ran.org/

JB Fobister is a Grassy Narrows member who has been a key part of the community’s
work towards self-determination. He sends this message:

Six years ago when we blocked the main logging road near our small community people
told us we were crazy to take on two of the largest logging companies in the world.
We weren’t crazy, we were just fed up with watching our livelihood, our culture, our
medicine, our children’s future – our forests – being carried off our land right
before our eyes. We were tired after decades of letter writing, petitions, meetings,
protests, speaking tours, legal challenges and rallies, but we refused to give up.