In the past year alone, say Chinese officials, levels in nine lakes on the Yunnan-Guizhou plateau (South China) have dropped by 70cm, marking a total loss of 300m cubic metres of water. The regional drought is now in its third year, and in that time 270-odd rivers and 410 small reservoirs have dried up [...]
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The Brazilian Amazon is now home to 24m people, many of them settlers who trekked those roads in the 1960s and 1970s, lured by a government promise that those who farmed “unproductive” land could keep it. Chaotic or corrupt land registries left some without secure title. Rubber-tappers, loggers, miners and charcoal-burners came too. The [...] Scientists working on the EC-funded research project Monacat, are looking at how nanomaterials can remove water pollutants such as nitrates. “Nitrate reduction has been studied for decades; it’s very hard to do and it isn’t commercially viable,” says Alexei Lapkin, professor of chemical engineering at the University of Warwick, who works on Monocat. Nitrates [...] The United States General Accountability Office is concerned that US Department of Energy (DOE) has not worked with Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and State Department to develop a systematic process for monitoring and evaluating the physical security of U.S. nuclear material overseas, including which foreign facilities to visit for future physical protection visits. In [...] The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has entrusted a Canadian company with managing a vast section of its forest, including containing deforestation, the environment ministry has announced. Ecosystem Restoration Associates (ERA) will handle a project covering nearly 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres) of woodlands in the Mai-Ndombe forest, in western Bandundu province, the statement said. [...] The protests in Chine in June 2011 have gone beyond predictable leftist agitation. The government seems surprised by the breadth of opposition to the proposed HidroAysén electricity scheme. The plan involves building five dams on two Patagonian rivers, flooding 5,900 hectares (14,600 acres) of nature reserves. Chile, with little oil and gas, faces an [...] Opponents of the colossal edifice [of the Three Gorges dam in China] have been emboldened by rare government admissions of environmental and other “urgent” problems caused by the dam. In private, officials have worried about the project for some time and occasionally their doubts have surfaced in the official media. But the government itself [...] Responding to the nuclear disaster is even harder [for Japan]. Mr Kan had initially sought to stay in power until the Fukushima nuclear plant has stabilised its reactors and reached a state of “cold shutdown”. But the timetable for that may already have slipped into 2012, which is too distant for those trying to [...] Close to 80 percent of the world‘s energy supply could be met by renewables by mid-century if backed by the right enabling public policies a new report shows, The findings, from over 120 researchers working with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), also indicate that the rising penetration of renewable energies could lead [...] Canada’s vast boreal zone contains the world’s largest intact old-growth forest and has more fresh water than the Amazon. Its flora help to slow climate change and it is a breeding ground for 3 billion migratory songbirds. Only 12% of the region is now formally protected, well below the 50% scientists say is necessary [...] |
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