Green Times

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Thursday he would press Group of Eight (G8) leaders at their summit in Japan next month to tackle the world food crisis, climate change and the flagging fight against global poverty.On the eve of his departure on a two-week, three-nation Asian tour, the secretary general said the July 7-9 summit […]

The Astralian Federal Government is offering $500,000 for water providers in the Murray-Darling Basin to modernise their systems to cope with climate change.

But any water saved appears to be earmarked to improve the health of rivers and waterways.
Water Minister Senator Penny Wong has encouraged Riverina irrigation corporations to apply for the funds to prepare plans […]

The European Commission last week hosted a high-level conference on the relationship between soil and climate change, and the role of soil management in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Organic matter plays a fundamental role supporting soil fertility, retaining water, sustaining biodiversity and regulating the global carbon cycle. But organic matter is in decline, and […]

A new project to help the Government of Côte d’Ivoire and others in the region manage hazardous waste was launched today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).The project is designed to tackle issues raised by the incident in 2006 when the dumping of toxic waste from the vessel Probo Koala in Abidjan left several […]

Food supply and environmental issues will dominate next month’s summit of the Group of Eight major industrial nations in Japan, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said on Monday.”Water and food issues are critical not only to health, but also to socio-economic development,” said Fukuda in a video message at the World Economic Forum on East Asia […]

Leaders at a summit on the world’s food crisis quickly laid out their disagreements on a key issue: how much the rush for environmentally friendly biofuels is contributing to soaring prices that are causing hunger and unrest worldwide.Most countries and international organizations meeting today at the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization cited multiple causes, […]

An understanding how environmental processes and agricultural practices interact to determine the transport and fate of agricultural chemicals in the environment is essential for effectively addressing the widespread degradation of surface and ground waters from past, present, and future agricultural activities. While considerable research has been conducted at field or smaller scales, the holistic understanding […]

Consumers are dumping the contents of one in every three shopping bags they buy straight into bins, which means tons of food going to waste, said Environmental Affairs Deputy Minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi.”International conservation experts found that the global community dumps over 50 million tons of unused food each year to landfills,” Mabudafhasi said yesterday during […]

The US south-west, a region that is experiencing one of the fastest rates of population growth, faces dramatic challenges in the next 50 years from drought, wild fires and changing ecosystems caused by global warming, a report from the Bush administration warns.The paper, commissioned by the US department of agriculture, looks at the likely impact […]

Shocked by rising food prices? Get used to it — and be ready for water shortages, too, says a sweeping new scientific report rounding up likely effects of climate change on the United States’ land, water and farms over the next half-century.Some effects already can be felt, says the report released Tuesday, which synthesizes results […]