A huge shelf of ice is on the brink of splitting from the continent at the bottom of the world. ... read more >>

- Kenya is facing a major drought affecting almost all regions

- Principal indicators of the drought are critical water shortages, the low-functioning of health services in the drought-affected districts, and significant drop out from schools by children

- According to GoK, 10 million people are food insecure; and at the risk of starvation.

- Poor rain seasons in the last two years, exac ... read more >>

A new study led by the U.S. Geological Survey and involving the University of Colorado at Boulder indicates tree deaths in the West's old-growth forests have more than doubled in recent decades, likely from regional warming and related drought conditions.

The study, published in the Jan. 23 issue of Science, documented tree deaths in all tree sizes in the West located at varying elevations, in ... read more >>

In one of the final acts of the Bush administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it will set "water quality standards for nutrients" for all Florida surface waters. The standards will apply to concentrations of the agricultural nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus in state waters.

The EPA has issued a formal determination under the Clean Water Act that "numeric" nu ... read more >>

Call for Abstracts Deadline Nears!
Submittal Deadline: January 26, 2009
New Topics Added! ... read more >>

Is it a feat of mo­dern engineering, or an environmental disaster in the making? China's Three Gorges Dam project has the potential to be both, depending on whether you talk to government officials or environmentalists. According to the Chinese government, Three Gorges is the solution to two of the country's biggest problems -- flood control and energy production. Yet many scientists say the dam ... read more >>

Scientists at Penn State University and the Virginia Commonwealth University have discovered a way to produce hydrogen by exposing selected clusters of aluminum atoms to water. The findings are important because they demonstrate that it is the geometries of these aluminum clusters, rather than solely their electronic properties, that govern the proximity of the clusters' exposed active sites. The ... read more >>

Soot from pollution causes winter snowpacks to warm, shrink and warm some more. This continuous cycle sends snowmelt streaming down mountains as much as a month early, a new study finds. How pollution affects a mountain range's natural water reservoirs is important for water resource managers in the western United States and Canada who plan for hydroelectricity generation, fisheries and farming. ... read more >>

These images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite shows the cause and effect of the large-scale seasonal flooding experienced on rivers throughout Siberia each year. Because many Siberian rivers flow from south to north, they flood regularly in the spring as meltwater from southern latitudes backs up against the still-frozen northern reaches of the ... read more >>

A good read about Sierra Leone politics using water availability as a symbol of power and planning:

It is not very often that a toilet sparks political debate.

And it is even rarer for a VIP ministerial toilet to be opened up for journalistic inspection.

But a little over a year ago I began a journey in a ministerial bathroom that would take me down an unusual path of inquiry - and end u ... read more >>