The global cost of disasters is growing: The economic burden of disasters is intensifying. While the direct costs of disasters averaged $70–80 billion a year between 1970 and 2000, between 2001 and 2020 these annual costs grew significantly to $180–200 billion. But the real cost is far higher. Disaster costs …
The cash-strapped Balochistan government on Saturday announced a budget of Rs71.19 billion for financial year 2008-09 which showed a deficit of Rs8.80 billion. "Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has promised to provide Rs3 billion special grant from his discretionary fund,' Balochistan Finance Minister Mir Asim Kurd informed the provincial …
World Food Program (WFP)-Nepal said more than 250,000 people in nine districts of the countries mid and far western regions were facing a precarious food security situation due to significant crop failures locally. "The food security situation in the mid and far western regions is very worrying,' said an emergency …
Land degradation due to climatic variations and human activities is likely to pose a severe threat to sustainable agriculture, said experts at a seminar in Dhaka on the occasion of World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought on Tuesday. About 6 million hectares of the total geographical area of Bangladesh …
Global warming will lead to increasing frequency of drought, which sometimes has greater negative impacts on crops than other natural calamities do, speakers at a seminar said yesterday. They called on researchers to develop drought- and flood-tolerant crop varieties, as the people have no alternative but to adapt to changing …
Xan Rice Nairobi: Ethiopia has appealed for $325 million in aid after drought and crop failure more than doubled the number of people needing emergency assistance to 4.6 million. Poor rains have affected much of southern and south-eastern Ethiopia since last year, significantly cutting harvests. The shortage of local cereals …
Its reservoir levels receding and its grounds parched, California has fallen officially into drought, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday, warning that the state might be forced to ration water to cities and regions if conservation efforts did not improve. A farm near Bakersfield has been put up for sale for …
Early last year, the bush storyteller Murray Hartin penned a 14-stanza poem in three hours flat. Rain From Nowhere is about a farmer on the brink of ruin who receives an empathetic letter from his father. A celebration of resilience and hope, it is as moving a piece of Australian …
Clutching an intricate bronze cross he used to dig graves during Ethiopia's 1984-1985 famine, priest Alemayu Gede prays drought and high food prices will not make him use it as a shovel again. At the height of the famine that caused more than 1 million deaths and spawned the Band …
Clutching an intricate bronze cross he used to dig graves during Ethiopia's 1984-1985 famine, priest Alemayu Gede prays drought and high food prices will not make him use it as a shovel again. At the height of the famine that caused more than 1 million deaths and spawned the Band …
This report demonstrates that climate change will continue to affect the lives and production systems o f the millions in India who reside in high-risk rural areas, with a mounting human toll that falls disproportionately upon the poor. Consequently there is an urgent need for action now to avoid higher …
Water crisis in Maharashtra is the making of the state's faulty strategy and misguided policies. A recent report, Combating drought in Maharashtra, explains how by critically analyzing Maharashtra's irrigation projects, recurrent floods and water policy. Released by Dushkal Hatavu Manus Jagavu (Maharashtra Drought Forum), a network of ngos, the report …
Libya on Tuesday shipped 30 tonnes of humanitarian relief to drought-stricken Niger, one of several African states struggling to cope with a surge in global food prices, Libyan state media said on Tuesday. Libya also sent a team of doctors and pharmacists to distribute the aid, which includes medicine, clothes …
Interannual variations in CO2 exchange across Amazonia, as deduced from atmospheric inversions, correlate with El Nino occurrence. They are thought to result from changes in net ecosystemexchange and fire incidence that are both related to drought intensity. Alterations to net ecosystemproduction (NEP) are caused by changes in gross primary production …
The Amazon Basin experiences severe droughts that may become more common in the future. Little is known of the effects of such droughts on Amazon forest productivity and carbon allocation. We tested the prediction that severe drought decreases litterfall and wood production but potentially has multiple cancelling effects on belowground …
This paper argues for a twofold perspective on human adaptation to climate change in the Amazon. First, we need to understand the processes that mediate perceptions of environmental change and the behavioural responses at the levels of the individual and the local population. Second, we should take into account the …
In 2005, southwestern Amazonia experienced the effects of an intense drought that affected life and biodiversity. Several major tributaries as well as parts of the main river itself contained only a fraction of their normal volumes of water, and lakes were drying up. Analyses of climatic and hydrological records in …
Future changes in meridional sea surface temperature (SST) gradients in the tropical Atlantic could influence Amazon dry-season precipitation by shifting the patterns of moisture convergence and vertical motion. Unlike for the El Nin
Understanding the interplay between climate and land-use dynamics is a fundamental concern for assessing the vulnerability of Amazonia to climate change. In this study, we analyse satellite-derived monthly and annual time series of rainfall, fires and deforestation to explicitly quantify the seasonal patterns and relationships between these three variables, with …
