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Massive Evacuation as Millions Hit by India Floods

A flood-affected woman watches from inside her makeshift tent at Madhepura town in India's eastern state of Bihar August 29, 2008. Villagers were eating uncooked rice and flour mixed with polluted water in an eastern Indian state, officials said on Friday, as hunger and diseases accompanied the worst-ever floods in 50 years. The Kosi river burst a dam in neighbouring Nepal earlier this month and surged into Bihar state, swamping village after village as authorities failed to evacuate millions on time. (Reuters/Krishna Murari Kishan/India)

PATNA, India - More than 300,000 people trapped in India's worst floods in 50 years have been rescued but nearly double that number remain stranded without food or water, officials said Saturday.

About 60 people have died and three million have been affected since the Kosi river breached its banks earlier this month on the border with Nepal and changed course, swamping hundreds of villages in eastern Bihar state.

Posted in Environment

The Failure to Learn From Katrina

Nearly lost amid the political hoopla of two presidential nominating conventions is a sombre milestone. Today is the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's deadly strike on the Gulf of Mexico coast, a catastrophe that nearly destroyed New Orleans and, with its aftermath of botched rescue efforts, has done more than anything but the Iraq war to discredit the Bush presidency.

Posted in Environment, Politics, Climate Change

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 28, 2008
2:28 PM

CONTACT: Food and Water Watch
Kate Fried, Food & Water Watch (202) 257-0057
Erin Greenfield, Food & Water Watch (202) 683-2500

Food & Water Watch to Take Back the Tap at Slow Food Nation:

50,000 People to Say No to Bottled Water at Landmark Bottled Water-Free Event

SAN FRANCISCO - August 28 - Tomorrow, some 50,000 people will enjoy access to clean, safe tap water at Slow Food Nation thanks to Food & Water Watch. The consumer advocacy group is partnering with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to develop accessible and visible water stations at the festival. Water stations will serve filtered municipal tap water using state of the art technology from US Pure Water/The Water Store and will display visual materials to educate attendees about San Francisco's watershed and the campaign to promote tap water consumption.

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Posted in Environment, Privatization, Water

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 28, 2008
2:24 PM

CONTACT: Environmental Groups
Will Rostov, Earthjustice, (510) 550-6725
Matt Vespa, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 436-9683 x 309

Groups Ask California Energy Commission to Address Greenhouse Gas Emissions From New Power Plant,

Consider Climate Impacts From Use of Imported Liquefied Natural Gas

SACRAMENTO - August 28 - On behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice moved today to intervene in a power plant licensing proceeding before the California Energy Commission. The groups seek to ensure that the commission does not allow proponents of the Carlsbad Energy Center Project, a power plant proposed for San Diego County, to ignore its global warming emissions.

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The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 180,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Earthjustice is a nonprofit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. The organization brings about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations, coalitions and communities.

Posted in Energy, Environment, Climate Change

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 28, 2008
2:00 PM

CONTACT: Center for Biological Diversity
Dr. Robin Silver, (602) 799-3275

Motion Filed to Extend Review of Endangered Desert Nesting Bald Eagle

PHOENIX - August 28 - Conservationists and American Indians filed a court request Wednesday requesting an extension of a deadline for protecting Arizona's desert nesting bald eagle to allow Arizona's Indian nations, communities, and tribes time to demonstrate that the eagle's historical range is more extensive than acknowledged by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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Posted in Environment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 28, 2008
1:59 PM

CONTACT: World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
Lee Poston
lee.poston@wwwfus.org
202-299-6442

New Hope for Sumatra's Elephants and Tigers as Indonesia Doubles Size of Key National Park

WWF-Supported Effort Provides Oasis for Wildlife Amidst Deforestation

JAKARTA, Indonesia - August 28 - World Wildlife Fund (WWF) hailed today's commitment by the government of Indonesia to more than double the size of Sumatra's Tesso Nilo National Park, one of the last havens for endangered Sumatran elephants and critically endangered Sumatran tigers.

Tesso Nilo National Park was created in 2004 but only 94,000 acres of forest were included. With today's declaration, the government of Indonesia will extend the national park into 213,000 acres by December 2008 and integrate an additional 47,000 acres into the national park management area of 250,000 acres.

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Posted in Environment, Deforestation

Raft Made of Plastic Bottles Crosses Pacific

Marcus Eriksen arrived in Honolulu on Aug. 27, 2008, after he and friend Joel Paschal completed a three-month voyage from Long Beach, Ca. to Honolulu in a raft made of 15,000 plastic bottles and a Cessna 310 fuselage. (AP PHOTO/ BRITT YAP)

HONOLULU - Tanned, dirty and hungry, two men who spent three months crossing the Pacific on a raft made of plastic bottles to raise awareness of ocean debris finally stepped onto dry land.

"We made it," hollered Marcus Eriksen to a crowd of about two dozen gathered at Ala Wai Harbor on Wednesday. "Where's the food?"

Friends greeted Eriksen and fellow eco-mariner Joel Paschal with lei, fresh food and beer to celebrate the end of their nearly 4,200-kilometre voyage on what they call the JUNK raft.

Posted in Activism, Environment

North Pole Ice Cap Melting Faster Than Ever

File NASA satellite image of the Arctic region. The Arctic ice cap keeps melting under the effects of global warming and in August saw its second largest summer shrinkage since satellite observations began 30 years ago, US scientists said. (AFP/Nasa/Amsre-e/File)

WASHINGTON - The Arctic ice cap keeps melting under the effects of global warming and in August saw its second largest summer shrinkage since satellite observations began 30 years ago, US scientists said.

Measurements on August 26 showed an ice cap of 5.26 million square kilometers (2.03 million square miles), just below the 5.32 million square kilometers (2.05 million square miles) observed on 21 September 2005, making it the second biggest summer Arctic ice-cap melt in history, said the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

Posted in Environment

Slow Food Nation to Release Healthy Food and Agriculture Declaration

"We, the undersigned, believe that a healthy food system is necessary to meet the urgent challenges of our time," begins the final draft of the Declaration for Healthy Food and Agriculture. Initiated by Roots of Change and half a year in the drafting, it will be released August 29 at Slow Food Nation (SFN) at San Francisco's City Hall.

Posted in Environment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 27, 2008
10:55 AM

CONTACT: Amnesty International USA
AIUSA media office
202-544-0200 x302

Lake Filling in Cambodia Must Not Lead to Forced Evictions,

Urges Amnesty International and the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions

Human Rights Organization Says at Least 3,000 Cambodian Residents to Be Affected

WASHINGTON - August 27 - The filling of Boeung Kak Lake in central Phnom Penh should immediately stop until a proper process that ensures human rights protection is in place, said Amnesty International and the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) today.

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Posted in civil rights, Environment, Human Rights, Asia
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