Category: RT Newswire

USE ME! Essentially, this is a catch all for everything. This is probably the ONLY category where things that are not directly related to Rising Tide affiliates/allies should go. For example if a coal company goes out of business (and we didn’t directly cause it) it should probably only go here.

Food Security Requires New Approach to Water

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Published on Saturday, May 24, 2008 by Inter Press Service

Food Security Requires New Approach to Water
by Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, May 23 (IPS) – The ongoing food crisis, characterized by growing shortages and rising prices of staple commodities, has far reaching implications for the world’s scarce water resources, says a new study released here.

“More food is likely to come at a cost of more water use in agriculture,” according to the report titled “Saving Water: From Field to Fork“.

The emerging challenges facing the food sector include growing water scarcity; unacceptably high levels of under-nourishment; the proliferation of people who are overweight or obese; and of food that is lost or wasted in society.

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Amazon Indians Lead Battle Against Power Giant’s Plan to Flood Rainforest

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Published on Friday, May 23, 2008 by The Independent/UK

Amazon Indians Lead Battle Against Power Giant’s Plan to Flood Rainforest
by Patrick Cunningham in Altamira, Brazil

The Amazonian city of Altamira played host to one of the more uneven contests in recent Brazilian history this week, as a colourful alliance of indigenous leaders gathered to take on the might of the state power corporation and stop the construction of an immense hydroelectric dam on a tributary of the Amazon.

At stake are plans to flood large areas of rainforest to make way for the huge Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingu river. The government is pushing the project as a sustainable energy solution, but critics complain the environmental and social costs are too high.

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Major Flooding in Chile

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Floods displace 15,000 in Chile
Fri May 23, 2008 6:16pm EDT By Antonio de la Jara

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Heavy rains and flooding that killed five people and displaced thousands in south-central Chile have collapsed road and rail bridges, closed the world’s largest underground copper mine and left many in the capital without drinking water, the government said on Friday.

Many schools remained closed in Santiago and elsewhere after floodwaters churned up sediment at water treatment plants, while several rivers burst their banks farther south, deluging thousands of homes.

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Rise in Atmospheric Methane Points to Arctic Wetlands

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Methane rise points to wetlands
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website

Higher atmospheric levels of the greenhouse gas
methane noted last year are probably related to
emissions from wetlands, especially around the Arctic.

Scientists have found indications that extra amounts
of the gas in the Arctic region are of biological
origin.

Global levels of methane had been roughly stable for
almost a decade.

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