20090929 AFRICA: The Drought Revisited

clipped from www.time.com Despite moderate rains last year, four of Ethiopia's 14 provinces have massive hunger problems. The worst-hit areas are Eritrea where the civil war has driven farmers from parched fields The heavy rains which are due in Somalia later this year will be crucial to the survival of thousands of people. But semi-arid Somalia cannot indefinitely support 4 million nomads in a total population of 5 million. The leftist military government is trying to force hundreds of thousands of nomads to settle as farmers on land that can be irrigated, or to become fishermen along the nation's 1,800-mile coastline. The proud nomads are contemptuous of both farmers and fishermen. But with their herds decimated and the continuing threat of starvation, they will probably give in. As an East bloc diplomat in the Somali capital of Mogadishu puts it: "The choice, for many, is to switch or starve."

20090928 The Making of Modern China

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1924825,00.html

clipped from www.time.com The Making of Modern China As the People's Republic of China gets ready to celebrate its 60th anniversary on Oct. 1, 2009, a look back at the watershed moments that helped make the nation what it is today

20090924 Has China Really Gotten Serious About Climate Change?

clipped from www.time.com A thick smog settles over Beijing. China, with 1.3 billion people grasping the higher living standards that industrialization and market economics have brought, had only just begun to spew CO2 into the atmosphere, and it was already the No. 1 emitter. If climate change was the great global threat that the doomsayers believed it was and if there was to be a more effective global response post Kyoto (the 1997 treaty that failed, 96-0, in the U.S. Senate), China's emissions were going to have to be dealt with. And Beijing knew it. Earlier this summer, Beijing said it would commit to outright reductions of its CO2 emissions more than 40 years from now — by the year 2050. The message from Beijing is now unmistakable: Hu and his cohorts are no longer ignoring climate change.

20090928 Fast Antarctic Ice: Go, Speed Glacier, Go!

clipped from www.time.com An iceberg drifts in the iceberg graveyard near the Weddell Sea "Back in the early 1990s," says Jay Zwally, a glaciologist with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and the principal scientist for the agency's ICEsat orbiter, "Greenland was losing ice at the margins but gaining in the center. It was in balance." Recently, though, NASA's gravity-mapping satellite, known as GRACE, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, has shown a net loss of about a Lake Erie's worth of ice every two years. In Antarctica, where many glaciers flow, not directly into the sea but into giant, floating ice shelves, it's the thinning or total collapse of the shelves — something that's been happening with increasing frequency According to a new report in Nature, glaciers are getting thinner all around the perimeter of Greenland, and in western Antarctica as well.

20090923 Three river delta areas sinking, report claims

clipped from www.chinadaily.com.cn Three river deltas in China are sinking due to global warming and excessive extraction of underground water, leaving millions of people with an increasing risk of floods, a recent scientific report showed. The Pearl, Yangtze and Yellow river deltas in China are among the 33 major deltas studied, with 24 of them found to be sinking, according to the report released by the University of Colorado. The three river deltas in China cover about 160,000 sq km and nearly 100 million people live in the areas surrounding these river deltas. "Most of the at-risk river basins are in the developing countries of Asia, but there are several in developed nations as well, including the Rhone in France and the Po in Italy," Altert Kettner from the university told British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). "This study shows there are a host of human-induced factors that already cause deltas to sink much more rapidly than could be explained by sea level alone," he said in the BBC report.

20090922 氣溫升2度就亡國 小島國疾呼限制為1.5度

clipped from hk.news.yahoo.com （法新社紐約    21日電） 當世界領袖齊聚紐約進行關鍵性的氣候變化談判時，小島國家今天警告，他們的時間不多了，海平面的升高有可能使他們從地圖上消失。 遍佈於全球各大洋的小島國所組成的小島嶼國家聯盟（AOSIS），希望在聯合國    哥本哈根（Copenhagen ）氣候變遷會議前的100天，能夠讓他們的聲音被聽見。 聯合國秘書長潘基文    和英國    前首相布萊爾（TonyBlair）也呼籲世界各國政府，在聯合國氣候週（Climate Week ）時公開承諾解決全球暖化    問題。 歐盟    領導人表示，如果其他各國也同意付出相同心力，他們願意致力於削減30%的二氧化碳排放量，使全球溫度上升不超過攝氏2度。 聯合國氣候變化談判員波爾（Yvo de Boer）告訴法新社：「小島國家必須要表達，這無異於是宣告它們的滅絕，因為氣候增加攝氏2度的結果是，所有的小島國都將消失。」 小島嶼國家聯盟則要求新的哥本哈根氣候協議，限制溫度上升盡可能遠低於攝氏1.5度。（譯者：中央社蔡筱穎）

20090921 珠三角地陷海升威脅最嚴重

clipped from hk.news.yahoo.com 美國    研究人員警告，中國的黃河    、長江和珠江三角洲，都面臨「地陷海升」的威脅，更屬於全球最危險的一級。 美國科羅拉多大學的研究人員，對全球33個人口密集的大型三角洲地區，進行衛星圖研究。結果發現，全球不少主要三角洲，均受到「地陷海升」（地面下陷、海平面上升）的雙重威脅。 他們根據所受威脅的程度，將各三角洲地區分為5個等級。中國的黃河三角洲、長江三角洲和珠江三角洲，都列入威脅最嚴重的一級，即面臨極為嚴重的洪水威脅。 黃河、長江和珠江三角洲面積約為16萬平方公里，人口接近一億。它們不僅是中國人口居住最密集地區，同時也是中國傳統的魚米之鄉和現代經濟最發達地區。 報告特別指出，珠三角    除了要面對地陷海升的威脅，同時還受到颱風的考驗，每年都要遭受嚴重的洪水威脅。

20090917 準國家級公園變私人墳場 座落馬屎洲 多次舉報 政府懶理

clipped from hk.apple.nextmedia.com 【本報訊】正計劃申報列為國家級地質公園的大埔馬屎洲，其中一幅農地未經申請下改變土地用途，現被發展成私人墳場，地政署及食物環境衞生署正調查墳場有否違法。有環保團體批評，去年底已發現有人在馬屎洲這片「具科學價值用地」上砍樹大興土木，曾多次舉報，但當局遲遲未有採取行動。 2009年 9月 馬屎洲懷疑違規改建的私人墳場，從大埔三門仔乘船數分鐘便可抵達，岸邊有臨時碼頭。 2003年 6月 在未建墳場前，該幅「農地」維持天然狀態，並無耕作。 放大圖片 被發展成私人墳場的是馬屎洲西南端水芒田的一幅農地，由大埔三門仔乘船約五分鐘便可抵達，墳場岸邊設有一個簡便碼頭。墳場名為遠福園，場內鋪上石板，設有神像、祭壇及墓碑等設施，估計可放置 3,000個墓穴。 地政署發言人表示，該幅土地是私人農地，無收過改建為墳場的申請；由於私人農地土地契約較寬鬆，地政署正徵詢法律意見工程有否違反地契，若證實違契，會要求業主恢復原有用途。 在馬屎洲上興建的私人墳場設有神像、祭壇及墓碑，估計可安葬 3,000個骨灰甕。 香港地貌岩石保育協會主席吳振揚指出，去年 9月開始見到水芒田出現大型鏟泥車進行工程。至今年 1月，他發現一大片樹林已被砍掉，岸邊石灘也被填平，加建了水泥平台、去水渠及石屎圍牆；後來又發現圍牆原來佔用了官地，當局才將圍牆拆除，但私人土地上的發展一直無停止。由去年至今，他曾多次向當局舉報土地違規發展，最近一次在 7月，但地政署一直未有採取任何行動阻止。 殯儀業商會永遠會長吳耀堂表示，在地上墓穴安葬骨灰的模式在內地較流行，每個售價二萬至五萬元不等。本港近年再無私人墳場，在未經批准的地點埋葬先人骸骨是犯法的。但由於食環署一直指私營骨灰龕毋須領牌，在私人土地安葬骨灰是否犯法，可能有疑問。 位於大埔三門仔對出的馬屎洲，島上大部份的岩石在 2.8億年前形成，是香港第二古老的岩石，有多種不同的地貌特徵，如摺曲及差異侵蝕等，亦是本港少數可清晰展示沉積岩層的地區之一。 1999年獲政府列為馬屎洲特別地區。港府正準備今年底向中央政府國土資源部提出申報，把馬屎洲等八組地點列為國家級地質公園。 src="http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/template/apple/images/art_end.gif" align=absMiddle>

20090916 Oil companies cough up for spills

clipped from www.chinadaily.com.cn Workers clean up a large patch of oil from a cargo ship that hit the rocks in Zhuhai port, Guangdong province, yesterday. The oil spill is covering more than 24,000 sq m. The accident was caused by Typhoon Koppu, which hit the country yesterday. [Li Jiansu Major oil companies will soon be required to contribute to a special fund to clean up damage from oil spills. Last year, 109 oil spills occurred in China's seawaters, leaking 354 tons of oil into the waters. The spills wreak havoc on sea life, fishing and tourism, and can cost millions of yuan to clean up and to compensate victims for the damage. Increased shipping traffic, including oil cargo ships to and from China's coast, in addition to the bigger size of tankers, is putting greater pressure on the ocean environment. China has joined a number of international conventions, and taken measures to prevent oil spills and to build up the emergency response capacity to deal with accidents.

20090916 建風力場議員有保留

clipped from hk.apple.nextmedia.com 【本報訊】中華電力擬於西貢對開海面興建風力發電場，西貢區議會昨討論時，大部份區議員持保留態度，憂慮於海面豎立風車會破壞原有天然景觀。香港地貌岩石保育協會也強調，興建風力場投資達 100億元，每年產生的發電量少於整體的 1%，沒有需要犧牲珍貴的地質遺址，換取有限的可再生能源。 政府早前有條件地接納中電在西貢興建風力場的環境評估報告，大部份西貢區議員憂慮天然地貌會遭破壞，也擔心在海面豎立 67台風車，會影響可持續性發展，區議會最終決定成立小組跟進。 香港地貌岩石保育協會主席吳振揚指出，西貢海域是政府擬發展地質公園的重點範圍，但政府容許中電研究在同一地域興建風力發電場，無疑是自相矛盾。他表示風力場不但嚴重破壞本港僅存的珍貴地質遺址，申請成為國際級地質公園的評分也會受影響。

20090908 Kilimanjaro's icy top may disappear within 10 years

clipped from www.chinadaily.com.cn Kilimanjaro's icy top, which provided the title for an iconic short story by Ernest Hemingway, has been waning for more than a century and photos taken lately show the geological marvel may soon disappear with the ice vanishing. Environmentalists say the time may be as short as within 10 years. Kilimanjaro, an extinct volcano near Tanzania's border with Kenya, is the highest peak in Africa at 5,963 meters and attracts hordes of tourists and climbers for its spectacular views. [Xinhua

20090906 China spends 1 trillion yuan on environments

clipped from www.chinadaily.com.cn YINCHUAN: China has spent nearly 1 trillion yuan (US$146 billion) on ecological conservation and environmental protection over the past decade, a senior official told an international seminar on ecological compensation held Sunday in northwest China. Of the total investment, more than 700 billion yuan went to projects to reforest cultivated land, return grazing land to protected grassland, protect natural forests and conserve river sources on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau and for the south-to-north water diversion program, according to Du Ying, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission. Another 200 billion yuan was used for pollution control in major river valleys and urban sewage treatment projects, Du said at the seminar that was held in Shizuishan city of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

20090902 Icecap photo shows 'mother nature in tears'

clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk Marine photographer and environmental lecturer Michael Nolan captured the pictures while on an annual voyage to observe the largest icecap in Norway Austfonna on July 16. He said the image looked just like mother nature in tears, "as if she was crying about our inability to reduce global warming". 'Tears' in the natural sculpture were created by a waterfall of glacial water falling from one of the face's 'eyes'. A crying face is revealed in an ice cap located on Nordaustlandet in the Svalbard archipelago in Norway "The geometry of the ice cap is changing. The fronts are retreating, the lower parts are getting thinner, with a thinning rate of about three feet-per-year while the interior of the ice cap is thickening with about 1.6 feet-per-year," he said. "The ice cap is losing about 1.6 cubic miles of ice every year."