Ecology and Environment

To begin with, Somalia is situated in the so-called Horn of Africa, bordering with Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and the Indian Ocean. Its territory covers over 637,000 kilometres, hosting around 10 million inhabitants who speak Somali, Arabic, Italian and English, and are mostly Muslim Sunnis.

Population growth and water stress are driving Earth to a food and environmental crunch that only better farming techniques and smarter use of the ecosystem will avert, a UN report issued on Monday said.

Ecuador’s first wind farm to generate electricity will begin to be built in September in the southern province of Loja, according to the Electricity Corporation of Ecuador (Celec). The project, worth 34 million US$, will provide a total of 15 megawatts to the national power system, and should be operational in 2012.

Thousands of protesters faced off with riot police in northeast China to demand a chemical plant be relocated after a toxic pollution scare sparked urgent evacuations, state media said. Residents in the port city of Dalian gathered in front of the municipal government’s office, shouting demands as hundreds of police looked on, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

In moments when public opinion is turning against nuclear energy due its inherent dangers to the environment and nuclear proliferation, Algeria takes a different path

Families in Nisisioken Ogale, near a Nigerian National Petroleum Company pipeline, are drinking water from wells contaminated with benzene, a known carcinogen, at levels over 900 times above UN World Health Organization guidelines.

In recent weeks, radiation levels have spiked at the Fukushima nuclear power reactors in Japan, with recorded levels of 10,000 millisieverts per hour (mSv/hr) at one spot. This is the number reported by the reactor’s discredited owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co, although that number is simply as high as the Geiger counters go

Imagine a big swimming pool, as big as the Mediterranean sea—2,5 million km2. Imagine 150-200 million people sitting on its edges (resident costal population); other 300 millions coming from abroad every year (tourists), and 2.000 big ships and oil tankers crossing its waters at any given minute –let alone industries and oil refineries.

The UN Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development recognizes that the challenges inherent to the global water crisis can’t be met by governments alone. All key sectors of society have to be engaged and mobilized to collectively address the problem. Dr. Reza Ardakanian says the media can play an important role in mobilizing different players to respond to the water crisis.

Shek Kwu Chau is a restricted access island near Cheung Chau Island, off Hong Kong, reserved for volunteer drug rehabilitation affairs, but now figuring in a government zoning plan that would have a massive incinerator built 10 metres from its wonderful rocky shores to the destruction of its special wildlife features and in-shore fishing. Nearby islanders are protesting.