CNN has been so kind to produce the Ecowar TV-series: I have been watching a bit of their Planet in Peril – Battle Lines series lately.
World’s most valuable resource, a curse for most Nigerians
Hundreds of billions of dollars has been made from the Niger Delta’s oil reserves and many people have gotten very rich. Conversely, the average Nigerian has suffered as a result of the country’s oil prosperity. […] there have been more than 6,000 oil spills in the Niger Delta — that is equal to more than 10 times the amount spilled from the Exxon Valdez in 1989. Yet, there is no international outcry and rarely are the spills reported
Surveying elephants with jubilation and horror
over the last four decades, the number of Central African elephants has dwindled from nearly two hundred thousand to several thousand: the pace of the loss has been hugely shocking and disturbing. The global demand for ivory combined with war in neighboring Sudan has nearly killed off the Central African elephant.
Polar bears resort to cannibalism as Arctic ice shrinks
“The Arctic sea ice melt is a disaster for the polar bears,” according to Kassie Siegel, staff attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity. “They are dependent on the Arctic sea ice for all of their essential behaviors, and as the ice melts and global warming transforms the Arctic, polar bears are starving, drowning, even resorting to cannibalism because they don’t have access to their usual food sources.”
Legal battle over forest is victory for Paraguayan Indians
A small tribe of Indians in Paraguay who have had virtually no contact with the outside world won a legal battle this week when rights groups stopped a Brazilian company from continuing to bulldoze the forest to clear land for cattle ranches.
Global warming could increase terrorism, official says
Climate change “will aggravate existing problems such as poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership and weak political institutions,” Thomas Fingar said. “All of this threatens the domestic stability of a number of African, Asian, Central American and Central Asian countries.”