Ahead of the World Bank's Spring Meetings here this week, government ministers from almost 40 developing countries are meeting with UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake, UK International Development Secretary of State Andrew Mitchell, Chair of the United Nations Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation HRH the Prince of Orange, and major donors and water and sanitation sector organizations, to discuss speeding up global access to water and sanitation.

Climate change will make conserving the world’s biodiversity — including the human benefits associated with conservation, such as clean air and water — much more challenging and expensive, research reveals.

Sustainable Brands Conference 2012

According to a group of international researchers convened by Conservation International, climate change may in some cases drive up costs by more than 100%.

A tsunami alert was issued in Maldives yesterday after Indonesia’s geophysical agency reported a powerful earthquake off Banda Aceh province.
Wednesday’s quake was measured at a preliminary 8.9-magnitude. The geophysical agency said it had not received reports of damage from Aceh quake or rise in water levels.
Tremors were felt in the capital Male’ and the islands. There were reports that high-rise buildings and offices Male’ and the islands shook for at least seven minutes.

At least 72 people were killed when the tropical storm Irina hit northern Madagascar in late February, causing floods and landslides, authorities said on Thursday.

Three people were also reported missing and some 77,911 displaced, said the National Office for Disaster and Risk Management, BNGRC. The storm destroyed 1,348 homes.

Irina passed through the country on February 26-27, mostly in the north of the island.

About 16 people were killed this week when a cyclone lashed Madagascar, rescue authorities said Wednesday. About 65 people were injured and about 11,000 people were left homeless after Cyclone Giovanna pummeled the country’s eastern seaboard, causing power failures in parts of the port city of Tamatave, rescue officials said. The death toll could rise, they said. On Tuesday, the authorities cut off power in the capital, Antananarivo, and ordered drivers to stay off the roads and businesses to shut their doors as torrential rains persisted.

By 2100, global climate change will modify plant communities covering almost half of Earth's land surface and will drive the conversion of nearly 40 percent of land-based ecosystems from one major ecological community type -- such as forest, grassland or tundra -- toward another, according to a new NASA and university computer modeling study.

Over two dozen countries, including Pakistan, will take part next week in a full-scale test of the Indian Ocean`s tsunami alert system, using the 2004 Sumatra quake as the basis for the exercise, Unesco said on Thursday.

Exercise IOWAVE 11 will re-enact the seismic events of Dec 26, 2004, simulating a 9.2-magnitude quake that occurs northwest of Sumatra, sending waves across the Indian Ocean that strike the coast of South Africa 12 hours later.

Gibson Guitar Corp., a big user of ebony and other scarce woods, for years has allied itself with Greenpeace and other environmental groups to show it was serious about preserving forests.