Extinction of Species .ORG

A British aid charity is warning that by 2060 more than a billion people worldwide will live in cities at risk of catastrophic flooding as a result of climate change. A study by Christian Aid says the US, China and India are among the countries most threatened. It says the Indian cities of Kolkata and Mumbai will be most at risk. The eight most vulnerable cities on the list are all in Asia, followed by Miami in the US. The report urges governments to take action to reduce global warming and invest in disaster reduction programmes. Dr Alison Doig, the report's author, told the BBC World Service that people living in large coastal cities were particularly at risk. "I think it's cities like Kolkata, Dakar, the big mega-cities of the south and the emerging economies where the people are most vulnerable to exposure to sea-level rises and to higher rain events," she said. "Flooding in these cities can cause massive damage, but can also threaten life." Dr Doig warned that Florida was likely to suffer extensive flooding. "The whole of Florida is totally vulnerable," she said. "It is so low-lying, it is virtually swampland reclaimed. So significant climate change... raising water half to a full metre this century, will take out an awful lot of Florida and a significant amount of Miami." The study says that the priority should be to rapidly reduce carbon emissions and limit temperature increase by switching from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy.

The massive bleaching hitting the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia is likely that country's "biggest ever environmental disaster," says Dr. Justin Marshall, who has studied the reef for three decades. Only 7 percent of the reef has escaped bleaching, according to researchers at the ARC Center of Excellence. Marshall, a professor at the University of Queensland, says the destructive phenomenon is happening in an area the size of Scotland. "Before this mass bleaching started, we already were at the point of losing 50% of the coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef. This, I think, will probably take another 50% off what was left," Marshall says. Over the course of the last six months, Marshall and his colleagues with the citizen science project Coral Watch have documented the degradation of reef structures near Lizard Island, one of the worst-hit areas. They photographed the same formations of coral multiple times, showing clearly the pace of the destruction.

Mud in reservoir: Levels in the Cantareira reservoir system remain dangerously low. Fires to clear land for agriculture in Sao Felix Do Xingu municipality, Para, Brazil - June 20, 2009. In Brazil's biggest city, a record dry season and ever-increasing demand for water has led to a punishing drought. It has actually been raining quite heavily over the last few days in and around Sao Paulo but it has barely made a drop of difference. The main reservoir system that feeds this immense city is still dangerously low, and it would take months of intense, heavy rainfall for water levels to return to anything like normal. So how does a country that produces an estimated 12% of the world's fresh water end up with a chronic shortage of this most essential resource - in its biggest and most economically important city? It's interesting to note that both the local state government and the federal government have been slow to acknowledge there is a crisis, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. That might have been a politically expedient position to take during the recent election campaign, when the shortage of water in Sao Paulo was a thorny political issue, but the apparent lack of urgency in the city and wider state now is worrying many. At the main Cantareira reservoir system, which feeds much of this city's insatiable demand for water, things have almost reached rock bottom. Huge pipes suck out what water remains as the reservoir dips below 10% of its usual capacity.

Ivory tusks seized during an anti-smuggling operation are displayed during a Hong Kong Customs press conference on October 20, 2012 Officials travelling to Tanzania with Chinese President Xi Jinping went on a buying spree for illegal ivory, an environmental activist group has said. The delegation bought so much ivory prices in the local market soared, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) said in a report. Tanzania rejected the report as "stupid nonsense". China said the allegations were "groundless". Conservationists say demand for ivory in China is fuelling poaching. In recent years, poaching has increased across sub-Saharan Africa, with criminal gangs slaughtering elephants for ivory. Tanzania is the largest source of poached ivory in the world, according to the EIA. 'Security checks averted' The EIA report cited a trader in Tanzania's main port city, Dar es Salaam, named as Suleiman Mochiwa, who met undercover investigators. He said that when the Chinese government and business delegation arrived, ivory prices in the local market doubled to $700 (£438) per kilo during the visit. Earlier this year China destroyed a large quantity of confiscated ivory for the first time "The [delegation]... used the opportunity to procure such a large amount of ivory that local prices increased," the report says. Investigators alleged that the Chinese buyers could take advantage of a lack of security checks for those in the country on a diplomatic visit.

Reef in Bermuda. Healthy coral reefs have declined by about 50% in the past 40 years Many of the Caribbean's coral reefs could vanish in the next 20 years, according to a report published by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Data from more than 35,000 surveys suggests that habitats have declined by more than 50% since the 1970s. The report's authors believe that over-fishing and disease is mainly to blame. They say the trend could continue if nothing is done, but with protection the reefs could bounce back. Carl Gustaf Lundin, director of IUCN's Global Marine and Polar Programme, said the findings were alarming. "The reefs support a number of different countries and populations," he said. "Tourism is one of the biggest industries, and the health of the reef is essential to the well-being of many of the people living there. And of course they are immensely beautiful and wonderful places as well." Reef overrun with algae The reefs are becoming over-run with algae, which suffocates the coral. The report, which was also authored by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, looked at data collected between 1970 and 2012 from 90 reef habitats and is the most comprehensive assessment of corals in this region.