Climate

Lake Victoria beset by environmental problems

Kisumu, Kenya - Lake Victoria, the largest freshwater lake in Africa, is shrinking, dropping some six feet in the last four years. Over 30 million people in three East African nations depend on the lake’s water for their livelihoods and biologists fear that if the overdraw from the lake doesn’t decrease, Victoria could surfer from serious ecological problems. Read the story »

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North Pole May Be Ice Free for First Time This Summer

The Arctic could be ice-free this summer for the first time in known history, National Geographic reports. The freeing of Arctic ice wasn’t predicted to happen until at least 2013, but last year’s summer conditions have expediated the process. If the ice-melts, new passages for shipping will temporarily open, but the ecological costs could be castrophic. Read the story »

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Water confirmed on Mars

TUSCON, Arizona - Scientists relishing confirmation of water ice near the surface beside NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander anticipate even bigger discoveries from the robotic mission in the weeks ahead. Read the story »

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Reports + Studies

Frigid Future for Ocean in Saturn’s Moon

Enceladus, the sixth-largest moon of Saturn, may not be as wet and warm at its core as scientists had hoped. The tiny moon, whose diameter is roughly 500 km across, could fit in the length of the United Kingdom. Read the story »

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Vanishing Lake Chad — A Water Crisis in Central Africa

by C.T. Pope

Once the third-largest source of freshwater in Africa, Lake Chad is disappearing according to new satellite images — putting millions of people in four Central African countries at risk of losing their primary water supply. Read the story »

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Water confirmed on Mars

TUSCON, Arizona - Scientists relishing confirmation of water ice near the surface beside NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander anticipate even bigger discoveries from the robotic mission in the weeks ahead. Read the story »

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Health

Aquatic canaries - using fish to test city water

Taipei, Taiwan - Singaporean scientists have developed a simple automated way to monitor city water supplies: use a computer to watch fish. Read the story »

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Angola: blessed water needs no sterilization

ANGOLA - A survey of Angolan households has revealed less than half of caregivers always treat water with a reliable method before giving it to children. And one third of those interviewed by Population Services International (PSI) believes water is blessed by God and does not need to be sterilized before use.

More than a quarter of children in the surveyed households had experienced diarrhoea (usually caused by water-borne bacteria) in the 15 days before completing the questionnaire and 7 percent of respondents reported a case of cholera in their household in the last 2 years.

Read more here.

Source : Inter Press Service

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China: Chemical spill threatens water

BEIJING - A truck has overturned and spilt a powerful chemical into a river in southwestern China, threatening the drinking water of more than 200,000 people, the official Xinhua agency said on Monday. Read the story »

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