Forests

Signing their lives away: Liberia’s private use permits and the destruction of community-owned rainforest

A quarter of Liberia’s total landmass has been granted to logging companies in just two years, following an explosion in the use of secretive and often illegal logging permits, an investigation by Global Witness, Save My Future Foundation (SAMFU) and Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) shows.

Publication Date: 
04/09/2012
Global Witness
Tags:
Tropical Forests, Private Sector, Liberia, Deforestation, Timber Industry, Conflicts, Africa
Climate Change

A mechanism for land–ocean contrasts in global monsoon trends in a warming climate

A central paradox of the global monsoon record involves reported decreases in rainfall over land during an era in which the global hydrologic cycle is both expected and observed to intensify. It is within this context that this work develops a physical basis for both interpreting the observed record and anticipating changes in the monsoons in a warming climate while bolstering the concept of the global monsoon in the context of shared feedbacks. The global-land monsoon record across multiple reanalyses is first assessed.

Publication Date: 
01/09/2012
J. Fasullo
Climate Dynamics
39
5
1137–1147
Tags:
Monsoons, Climate Change, Rainfall Pattern, Hydrology, Indian Ocean, India, South America, Africa, Remote Sensing, Global Warming
Health

“Prevalence of extensively drug-resistant TB increasing”

New study reveals alarming levels in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America that are resistant to four powerful antibiotics

Prevalence of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR- TB) is increasing due to expanded use of second-line drugs in people suffering from multidrug-resistant (MDR) diseases, reveals a new study. This large, prospective study of resistance to second-line drugs for MDR-TB shows that the prevalence of resistance is high (43.7 per cent) and that the risk of XDR-TB (6.7 per cent) in the eight countries studied is worrying.

Publication Date: 
01/09/2012
Aarti Dhar
Hindu (New Delhi)
Tags:
Africa, Asia, Tuberculosis, Drugs, Medical Research, India, Women, Unemployment, Health Effects, Health
Natural Disasters

World Bank issues hunger warning after droughts in US and Europe