All of the studies suggest the worst impacts will be felt by the poorest people. Robinson, Ireland’s first female president, said: “Climate change is already having a domino effect on food and nutritional security for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. Child malnutrition is predicted to increase by 20 percent by 2050.”
But from Europe to the U.S. to Asia, no population will remain i ... read more >>

Australia, a close neighbour of small, low-lying South Pacific states at the frontline of climate change, should be the first country to formally recognise climate change refugees, the country's main refugee advisory body has said. The Refugee Council of Australia has told the Australian government that it should create a new refugee category for those fleeing the effects of climate change so tha ... read more >>

Protesters from around the world attacked mining company Rio Tinto for a string for alleged environmental and human rights breaches during a fiery meeting with shareholders in London on Thursday. Native Mongolian herders claimed that a $5bn (£3.3bn) expansion of the company's Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine in the Gobi desert threatened the fresh water supply of hundreds of nomadic people and the ... read more >>

Substandard" construction is being blamed for the collapse of an eight-story factory in Bangladesh on Wednesday. At least 150 people died and 1,000 were injured, according to early reports. A weak foundation could account for the collapse, as could a lack of sufficient reinforcing columns in open space, says Henri Gavin, a civil and environmental engineer at Duke University. Another possibility i ... read more >>

Supreme Court justices on Tuesday wrestled with the sensitive issue of whether a thirsty Texas water district has the right to access water across the Oklahoma state line. The case arose under the Red River Compact, an agreement between Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma that apportioned water within the Red River basin. The compact was approved by Congress in 1980. The Tarrant Regional Wate ... read more >>

The second phase of water release from the left bank canal of the Palkhed division for towns like Manmad and Yeola in Nashik district, which was scheduled for Friday has been put on hold.

This was done following a high court order regarding water release for the Jayakwadi dam in Aurangabad. Officials, meanwhile, removed more than 1,500 pipes from the bed of the left bank canal placed by farme ... read more >>

It shows the value of industrial projects to the water and wastewater treatment market: the construction and operation of industrial installations is set to generate just under a third of all revenues in the sector in 2013. On the municipal side, the growth in water and wastewater infrastructure spending is set to be driven by the Asia Pacific market, with China overtaking the US as the world’s l ... read more >>

Solar power and other distributed renewable energy technologies could lay waste to U.S. power utilities and burn the utility business model, which has remained virtually unchanged for a century, to the ground.
Back in January, the Edison Electric Institute — the (typically stodgy and backward-looking) trade group of U.S. investor-owned utilities — released a report that, as far as I can tell, we ... read more >>

Earth was cooling until the end of the 19th century and a hundred years later, the planet's surface was on average warmer than at any time in the previous 1,400 years, according to climate records presented on Sunday.
In a study spanning two millennia published in Nature Geoscience, scientists said a "long-term cooling trend" around the world swung into reverse in the late 19th century.
In the ... read more >>

Some 60% to 80% of fossil fuel reserves owned by listed firms could be classed as unburnable if politicians stick to CO2 emission limits, a report warns.

The research by the London School of Economics and NGO Carbon Tracker says firms spend billions of pounds of shareholders' money on exploration.

It says 200 listed firms spent £440bn in 2012 chasing more coal, oil and gas.

It says if th ... read more >>