Category: RT Newswire

National Geographic News: NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM/NEWS

“Water Mafias” Put Stranglehold on Public Water Supply
Tasha Eichenseher in Stockholm, Sweden
for National Geographic News  August 21, 2008

Worldwide corruption driven by mafia-like
organizations throughout water industries is
forcing the poor to pay more for basic drinking
water and sanitation services, according to a new
report.

If bribery, organized crime, embezzlement, and
other illegal activities continue, consumers and
taxpayers will pay the equivalent of U.S. $20
billion dollars over the next decade, says the
report, released this week at the World Water
Week conference in Stockholm, Sweden.

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“From 1948 to 2006, storms measured at extreme precipitation
increased 18% in the Pacific coastal states, including a 26% jump in
California, according to a 2007 analysis of federal climate data by
Environment California, an environmental group based in Los Angeles.
In the Los Angeles area, data show a 58% increase in torrential
storms.”

“”There is very little we can do effectively if it rains really hard,
except to get out of the way.”
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Wall Street Journal
September 2, 2008

Suspect: Global Warming
Beetle Infestations,
Drowning Bears;
Now, Big Mudslides

By JIM CARLTON

BIG SUR, Calif. — Add mudslides to the mix of global-warming worries.

With California’s fire season in full swing, residents in charred
areas such as the one around this bucolic resort face the prospect of
catastrophic slides on newly denuded hills when winter rains return.

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3-4 Degrees Celsius: Looking Grim

Humans could escape in scenarios where only 10 to 20 percent of
species go extinct. We would likely be reduced in number but
plausibly still do OK at a 30 percent extinction rate.
But as the evidence points toward “up to 50 percent” extinction rate,
we should expect very serious trouble for ourselves.

There has been broad, strong consensus in the climate science
community that we’d better avoid a warming of 2C (2 Celsius) above
today.
Lance
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“We are certainly not on track for a two-degree temperature increase
at the moment. We are much more on track for a three to four-degree
temperature increase and we need to be thinking about what that
actually means.”

“Certainly, if there’s not a good result at Copenhagen, the
two-degree target will look impossible,” he said. “There’s 18 months
of optimism to hold on to. If by Copenhagen it hasn’t been addressed
then it will look very bleak indeed.”
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Hurricane Gustav & the Houma Nation

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