During the 1991 cyclone that killed 140,000 in Bangladesh, 90 percent of victims were women. During the 2004 Asian tsunami, 70 to 80 percent of those who died were women, according to the New York-based Women’s Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO).And in the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in the United States, African-American women – who were the poorest population in some of the affected states of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi – faced the greatest obstacles to survival... Read more...
India 'associates' with Copenhagen Accord - minister
New Delhi: The government has agreed to formally associate itself with the climate accord struck in Copenhagen last year, one of the last major emitters to do so, the environment minister said in a statement on Tuesday.
"After careful consideration, India has agreed to such a listing," Jairam Ramesh told parliament, referring to India's decision to formally join the more than 100 countries that have chosen to associate themselves with the non-binding Accord... Read more...
Manila: In 1960, the biggest earthquake ever recorded in world history hit Chile, striking the city of Valdivia with a magnitude of 9.5 on the Richter Scale. Its seismic waves generated a tsunami that reached East Asian countries, causing 32 deaths in the Philippines and 138 in Japan.
This got nearly repeated last week, when another great earthquake struck Chile with a magnitude of 8... Read more...
Alternative technologies and new green crops could revolutionise agriculture in the Middle East, say the organisers of an upcoming major agri-business trade event in Dubai.
“Industry experts have long advocated continued investment in relevant technology and equipments to increase the region’s ability to produce food locally and reduce reliance on imported produce,” said Goutam Malhotra, exhibition manager for Agra Middle East... Read more...
Hanoi: Serious efforts are under way to respond to the impact of climate change in Vietnam but a lack of capacity and resources remains a challenge, experts say. Vietnam has been identified as one of 12 countries at highest risk from climate change and is the most threatened by rising sea levels, according to World Bank studies... Read more...
Bangladesh: Dealing with climate change demands a more gendered approach
Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for all -- with this very theme, the women of the world will be observing International Women's Day 2010. The major concern of the present world is climate change and environmental degradation. In fact, involving women in protecting the environment would help societies develop the sense of responsibility needed to maintain a good balance between humans and the earth's resources... Read more...
Colombo: As a wife of a rice farmer and mother of two children aged nine and two, Sanjeevani Bandara’s days are packed with chores. Yet while she used to be able to keep up with all she has to do in a day, this Sri Lankan mother now finds herself struggling to accomplish even the most basic tasks... Read more...
Washington: Women hit hard by the effects of climate change -- drought, floods, sea level rise and crop failure -- gathered on Monday to plan a Capitol Hill push for U.S. legislation to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate "witnesses" from the United States, Peru, Senegal, Uganda and other countries aim to tell their stories to members of Congress on Tuesday in a lobbying effort timed to follow Monday's International Women's Day... Read more...
South Africa, India, Indonesia seek top UN climate job
Oslo: South Africa, India and Indonesia are vying to win the U.N.'s top climate change job, a key post to build trust between poor and rich in 2010 after the U.N.'s Copenhagen summit which set few binding targets.
Many analysts expect a developing nation candidate will succeed Yvo de Boer, a Dutch citizen who said last month he would step down as head of the U... Read more...
Nairobi: The head of the International Monetary Fund on Monday proposed a plan for the world's governments to pool together to raise money needed to adapt to climate change, a rare step for an organization that normally does not develop environmental policies.
IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the Fund is concerned about the huge amount of funding needed and the effect that will have on the global economy... Read more...
Ondangwa: Namibia has become one of the first African countries to launch the climate change adaptation programme. Supported by the United Nations Development Programme –UNDP – the Namibia Africa Adaptation Project (NAM-AAP) will aim to create systems to manage climate change risks and opportunities in the long-term... Read more...
Water resources: New skills are needed to manage aquatic systems
Johannesburg: Understanding and managing the disconnect between effective water resource management and the need for economic growth requires new sets of skills in all spheres of government, water management institutions and the private sector. In South Africa, this is still lacking in many respects... Read more...
Brussels: A plan to give the European Union's lending arm a beefed-up mandate for financing the fight against climate change has drawn a sceptical response from campaigners on green and economic justice issues.As part of a series of reforms being considered for the European Investment Bank (EIB), a team of so-called wise persons recommended in late February that the Luxembourg-based institution should distribute loans worth 2 billion euros (2... Read more...
Climate change in Mauritania: taking action before it is too late
“Even without climate change, Nouakchott is at risk of flooding, given that a large part of the city was developed in a depression zone named Aftout,” warned Demba Marico, National Coordinator of Mauritania’s Adaptation to Climate and Coastal Change Project. “When people build there, flooding is to be expected... Read more...
India lags Brazil, Russia, China in eco performance
India lags behind other countries such as Brazil, Russia and China in environmental performance as indicated in the 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI).
India is ranked 123 in the index, produced by a team of experts from the Yale University and Columbia University, released early this year. The rankings were based on the performance of 163 countries across 25 metrics aggregated into 10 categories including environmental health, air quality, water resource management, biodiversity and habitat, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, and climate change... Read more...
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