EU/ERBD News
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In New Zealand’s worst natural disaster since 1931, at least 75 people were killed when an earthquake struck the South Island city of Christchurch, The Guardian reported. The tremor severely damaged buildings, disrupted water and gas lines and, Reuters said, sent 30 million tonnes of ice from the Tasman Glacier crashing into a nearby lake. ...
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A boom in livestock numbers is fuelling new animal epidemics worldwide and posing more severe problems in developing countries as their food security is threatened, Reuters said, citing a report by the International Livestock Research Institute. The researchers noted a lack of capacity in Africa and Asia to track and control disease outbreaks despite “rapid...
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Saudi Arabia may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating and may already have achieved “peak oil”, US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks and quoted by The Guardian show. The documents urge that a Saudi oil executive’s warning that crude reserves may have been overstated by nearly 40% be taken seriously. Johannesburg...
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Malaysia is destroying large areas of carbon-rich peat-swamp forests on the island of Borneo to expand oil-palm plantations, Reuters said, citing research by Wetlands International and the Dutch remote-sensing institute Sarvision. Palm-oil companies are under western pressure to halt expansion through forest clearance. India and China remain the oil’s...
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International accords on saving vulnerable forests are having little impact because they do not address core deforestation issues, such as the growing demand for biofuels and food crops, according to the International Union of Forest Research Organisations, Agence France-Presse said. In a report to be presented to the UN Forum on Forests, the group said too...
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A global environmental update
After weeks of massive flooding in Australia’s north-eastern state of Queensland, floodwaters spread south into Victoria, threatening communities along the Lodden River, the Associated Press reported. In Queensland, the waters swamped two-thirds of the state, devastated the country’s lucrative...
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A global environmental update
Australia's third-largest city, Brisbane, was slowly being submerged as unrelenting floodwater swept down the Brisbane River, inundating thousands of homes and businesses, Reuters reported. The central business district in the city of two million people was “a watery ghost town of high-rise towers”,...
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Record floods in Australia are causing catastrophic damage to infrastructure in the state of Queensland and have forced 75% of its coal mines, which fuel Asia’s steel mills, to halt work, Reuters quoted the state’s premier as saying. The flooding has affected an area the size of France and Germany. 2010 was exceptional for natural disasters...
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By Greenbang on Tuesday, 29th June 2010
If ever a time called for creative financing, now — 2010 in the UK — is the time.
It’s a classic case of immovable object (the need to cut fossil fuel energy use and carbon emissions) meets unstoppable force (the government’s decision to slash the deficit with a £40 billion austerity...
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The earth struck back this year, according to the Associated Press. Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super-typhoons, blizzards, landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter of a million people in 2010 — the deadliest year in more than a generation. And we have ourselves to blame most of the time, say scientists and disaster experts....
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