The world is getting warmer and natural hazards are becoming more intense, likely bringing higher economic losses in the future. Today, four major weather perils result in expected economic losses of USD 200 billion annually. With more severe weather coming, economic losses are set to rise. The study analysis finds …
A mining company in Marinduque, 160 kin South of Manila in Philippines, has invited criminal charges from the government for leaking toxic waste into a 25-kni river. The Marcopper Mining Corporation had flouted mining, water and environmental norms by spilling tons of waste into the Boac river in central Philippines, …
The Panay cloudrunner -a rodent- like nocturnal mammal -previously unknown to science, has been discovered in the island of Panay in the central Philippines. The arboreal rodent which has been assigned the scientific name of Crateromys heaneyi, was discovered by local residents. The animal sports a chubby, masked face; small …
Survival International, a global organisation supporting tribal peoples, has launched a letter campaign to prevent the devastation of the lands of the Igorot tribals in the northern Philippines. Open cast mining in the lgorots' lands has already destroyed many of their rice terraces. According to the new code, private companies …
A water crisis could lie ahead for Asian nations, says a report by the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute. The shortage of water could have twin effects: a severe shortfall in rice production and a possible social conflict as competition hots up among industries, urban consumers and farmers in Asia …
Future shock could be near at hand for the inhabitants of the Asia and Pacific region. At a seminar on'Mega-cities management in Asia and the Pacific' held on October 24 at Manila, experts maintained that the lack of basic services for hundreds of millions of Asians in large cities were …
Farmers in Vietnam and the Philippines are literally being taught a lesson. Eager to incr crop yields, they were liberal ia using pesticides to contain leaf dar4 age, which has never affected crop yield in the first place. Some 9q farmers were recently interviewee by researchers at the Internationq Rice …
FOLLOWING the footsteps of cod, haddock, halibut, salmon and hosts of other seafish are the seahorses which are the latest victims of overfishing, According to Amanda Vincent, an Oxford biologist, some 20 million scahorses were consumed last year. Its demand in southeast Asia has overtaken the supply sharply. It is …
MEMBERS of the Samahang Mangangwil 79 (Sm79), or the Hook and Line Fishers'Organisation - a fisherfoWs organisation in San Diego, Philippines, did not attend the recent UN Conference on Straddling Stocks and Highly Migratory Species. Nor have they heard about the drama enacted between Canada and Spain off Newfoundland in …
Asian farmers are learning a new lesson: killing insects that eat up the leaves in their paddy fields is a futile opearation, because the pests make little difference to the rice yield. "You can remove half a plant's leaves and it will make the same amount of rice," explains Kong …
Filipinos in the island of Palawan are fighting to prevent an environmental catastrophe in their seas caused by cyanide fishing - a technique where cyanide is squirted on fish to stun and bag them. Since the dead ones are left to rot the corals gets irreversibly damaged. Now, Philippines' International …
President Fidel Ramos of Philippines is all set to solve the country's water problems once and for all. A radical shake-up of the Philippines' state-owned water facilities is on the wings. This will almost certainly entail at least partial privatisation of the Manila water utility in a revamp which foreign …
The Bugasong Greenbelt Foundation (OGF), a voluntary organisation in the Philippines, has launched an ambitious "Plant for Life- campaign. Launched from the Bugasong town of Antique province on June 12 this year, it was started,to return abandoned fields that have been colonised by the useless weed, Imperata cylindrica, or cogon …
Growing up in Minadanao, nature's last frontier in the Philippines, Joey Ayala learnt to mix words and music with the sounds of nature. Ayala, 38, is the most famous of the new breed of Filipino ethno-musicians. He plays the traditional hegalong, which is a 2-string instrument in the shape of …
SINCE Rachel Carson's Silent Spring , written in 1962, tried to wake the world to the damage pesticides can do both to human health and the environment, the limitations of chemical pesticides have been well documented. Five million people we poisoned by pesticides, of which some 40,000 die each year. …
Environmental management invariably raises complex and difficult issues. Economists usually tend to differ with environmentalists. While economists tend to look at the short-term, environmentalists emphasise the long-term. While growth and prosperity are important for the former, balance and harmony are the guiding principles for the latter. But the twain must …
THE CORDILLERA People's Alliance (CPA), a grouping of 120 indigenous people's organisations in northern Philippines, has called for a halt to the Human Genome Diversity Project. The project has been launched to collect blood samples, tissue and hair samples from endangered communities all over the world, to preserve biodiversity. However, …
After reports of the success of cloud seeding in the US, Australia and the Philippines, Union agriculture minister Balram Jakhar has become a strong votary of the practice. "There is no reason why cloud seeding cannot become a major component of our dry-land farming programmes," he says. The Indian Council …
IN A SIGNIFICANT reversal of trends, the Philippines is studying the conversion of its stalled 620 mw nuclear power plant in Bataan province into a non-nuclear one. President Fidel Ramos announced the decision after the government lost a suit filed by former President Corazon Aquino against Westinghouse Electric Corp of …
NORMAL life in the Philippines is often disrupted by nature -- typhoons andoccasionallyvolcanic eruptions. The archipelago of more than 70islands is struck by typhoons several times each yearmainly between June and December. These storms can cause extensive damage and in some yearsup to 25 typhoons hit the country. Volcanoes are …
IN MARCH 1991, Aeta tribals living in Pinatubo region felt a rumbling in the long-dormant volcano. Birds and animals also exhibited showed signs of agitation. Here is an account of what followed: April 2: A hydrothermal explosion shakes the area, forcing columns of steam upto 800 m high from vents …
