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On world water day, 650 million people can’t get a safe drink
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 16th, 2016
Reuters: Some 650 million people, or one in 10 of the world's population, do not have access to safe water, putting them at risk of infectious diseases and premature death.
Dirty water and poor sanitation can cause severe diarrheal diseases in children, killing 900 under-fives a day across the world, according to United Nations estimates - or one child every two minutes.
Among newborn babies, the World Health Organization says infections caused by a lack of safe water and an unclean environment cause...
Before Flint, Lead-Contaminated Water Plagued Schools Across U.S
Posted by National Public Radio: Jennifer Ludden on March 16th, 2016
National Public Radio: At Southwest Baltimore Charter School, preparing lunch takes a few extra steps.
"We don't use the water from the building for cooking, not at all," say cafeteria worker LaShawn Thompson, shaking her head.
Her colleague, Christine Fraction, points to a large water bottle sitting on the counter of a stainless steel sink.
"We having greens or something like that, we having vegetables, we'll just turn it over into the pan and then put in on the stove," she says.
Throughout the school, water...
Scientists help Vietnam’s rice farmers adapt to climate change, amid major drought
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 16th, 2016
IRIN: Scientists are developing more resistant varieties of rice to help farmers in Vietnam adapt to climate change, amid the country’s worst drought in 90 years. The drought, as well as the related flow of saltwater upriver, has destroyed 159,000 hectares of rice paddies and left almost one million people lacking drinking water, according to a new UN report. Another half million hectares are expected to be damaged by mid-year. In line with its work in other Asian countries, the Philippines-based...
Climate variations analyzed 5 million years back in time
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 16th, 2016
Science Codex: When we talk about climate change today, we have to look at what the climate was previously like in order to recognise the natural variations and to be able to distinguish them from the human-induced changes. Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute have analysed the natural climate variations over the last 12,000 years, during which we have had a warm interglacial period and they have looked back 5 million years to see the major features of the Earth's climate. The research shows that not only...
Photosynthesis more ancient than thought, and most living things could do it
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 16th, 2016
ScienceDaily: Photosynthesis is the process by which plants, algae and cyanobacteria use the energy from the Sun to make sugar from water and carbon dioxide, releasing oxygen as a waste product. But a few groups of bacteria carry out a simpler form of photosynthesis that does not produce oxygen, which evolved first. A new study by an Imperial researcher suggests that this more primitive form of photosynthesis evolved in much more ancient bacteria than scientists had imagined, more than 3.5 billion years ago....
Clean Water, Sanitation & Hygiene For All by 2030
Posted by Inter Press Service: Sanjay Wijesekera on March 15th, 2016
Inter Press Service: Last year we watched with cautious optimism as UN chief Ban Ki-moon welcomed the new Sustainable Development Goals, and called upon the world to meet them. Cautious, because we’d been here before. In 2000, the Millennium Development Goals were set – to try to lift people out of poverty, improve their health, protect the environment, and so on. They focused the attention of the world on clear, achievable targets. In the area of water, sanitation and hygiene, however, the MDGs did not try to reach...
United Kingdom: Supermarkets pledge to cut food waste 20% by 2025
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2016
Guardian: Britain’s leading supermarkets have pledged to drive down food and drink waste by a fifth within the next decade.
Retailers including Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons are backing a voluntary agreement, which also targets a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions created by the food and drink industry.
Some 24 local authorities, including the London Water and Recycling Board, and major brands and manufacturers such as Coca-Cola, Nestle and Pizza Hut have also committed to the agreement...
EPA Chief To Testify Before Congressional Panel On Flint’s Water Crisis
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 15th, 2016
National Public Radio: Renee Montagne talks to Gina McCarthy, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, about the federal government's role in the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
Tougher pollution laws put forward in wake of Palmer Queensland Nickel saga
Posted by Guardian: Joshua Robertson on March 15th, 2016
Guardian: Clive Palmer could be forced to shoulder the $100m cost of cleaning up his Queensland Nickel operation under proposed state laws that would expand the chain of corporate responsibility for pollution.
The Palaszczuk government has introduced a bill that would let environmental authorities pursue parent companies, executives or ultimate owners for the cost of rehabilitating industrial sites after the operator collapsed.
The environment minister, Steven Miles, in a speech to parliament on Tuesday,...
Tribute to a Slain Environment Activist
Posted by Inter Press Service: Amantha Perera on March 15th, 2016
Inter Press Service: Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores, was in her early 20s when she co-founded the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Honduras (Cophin), a group that campaigned for the rights of indigenous communities in the South American nation.
Influenced by a mother, who took in fleeing El Salvadorian refugees, Cáceres was fully committed to her cause. She told friends and colleagues that her struggle was against ‘deadly powers’ that put profit before the rights of her people. In the last two decades,...