Gray cranes flock over the Agamon Hula Lake at the Hula valley in northern Israel on February 24, 2009. More than half a billion birds of some 400 hundred species pass through the Jordan Valley to Africa and back to Europe when summer comes. Some 25,000 Gray Cranes stayed this winter in the Agamon Hula Lake instead of migrating to Africa, taking advantage of the safety of this artificial water source. Local farmers feed the birds with corn in a bid to prevent them from destroying their agriculture fields.
Picture taken on August 13, 2009 shows an aerial view of a village ravaged by floods and mudslides sparked by Typhoon Morakot in Liukuei, in the southern Taiwanese Kaohsiung county. The death and destruction wreaked on Taiwan by Typhoon Morakot was a disaster waiting to happen, aggravated by decades of unrestrained environmental abuse, critics say. Sixty years of intense use of the small island’s natural resources left it increasingly fragile and vulnerable to a major blow such as that dealt by Morakot, which left more than 700 people dead or missing in August.
Jordanians stand in a semi deserted field near the Dead Sea south of Amman on November 9, 2009. The Dead Sea may soon shrink to a lifeless pond as Middle East political strife blocks vital measures needed to halt the decay of the world’s lowest and saltiest body of water, experts say.
Handout picture released by the Brazilian Environment Ministry showing a deforested area in the rain forest in southern Para state, on October 2008. The Brazilian government announced today that the rain forest’s deforestation increased 3 percent beetwen 2007 and 2008.
This September 10, 2008 NASA handout image received on September 12, 2008 shows a picture of Hurricane Ike downlinked by the crew of the International Space Station, flying 220 statute miles above Earth. The center of the hurricane was near 23.8 degrees north latitude and 85.3 degrees west longitude, moving 300 degrees at 7 nautical miles per hour. The sustained winds were 80 nautical miles per hour with gusts to 100 nautical miles per hour and forecast to intensify.
A field is submerged in flood waters 19 October 2001 near Alberti in the Buenos Aires province of Argentina. Millions of dollars in farming production have been lost due to the inundations
This 30 December 2006 file photo shows chimneys of the the largest steelmaker in the Balkans,"Kremikovtzi", during sunset near the Bulgarian capital Sofia. India’s Global Steel Holdings is close to selling Bulgarian steelmaker Kremikovtzi to Ukrainian billionaire Konstantin Jevago, Kremikovtzi’s chief executive director Alexander Tomov said 25 January 2008.
A view of the swamp of Mediano, located in the province of Huesca, is pictured on April 16, 2008. The water levels of the swamp never exceed a certain limit due to prolonged droughts in Spain. The national meteorolical institute has said Spain has had 40 percent less rain than normal in the meteorological year which began October 1. Water reserves across Spain have fallen to 46, 6 percent of capacity, a 20 percentage point drop over the level recorded a decade ago
Pictures of micro seaweeds in a basin on May 18, 2009 at the Seche environmental plant in Le Vigeant, southern France. Seche Environnement, a French group specialised in the treatment and storage for all types of non-radioactive waste, produces green fuel from seaweeds
Volunteers try to clear a dam which is filled with discarded plastic bottles and other garbage, blocking Vacha Dam, near the town of Krichim on April 25, 2009
View of the south wall of the Perito Moreno glacier February 28, 2008 in the Park and National Reservation Los Glaciares, an ecotourism destination in Patagonia, Argentina, declared by the UNESCO as Natural World Heritage Site. The glacier Perito Moreno, in the province of Santa Cruz, is one of the most significant natural attractions of Argentina 30km long and with a total surface of 257km. The magnitude of this mass of ice, seems to float on lake Argentino some 70m above the water surface.
Tourists climb up the Perito Moreno glacier during a mini-trekking on February 28, 2008 in the Park and National Reservation Los Glaciares, an ecotourism destination in Patagonia, Argentina, declared by the UNESCO as Natural World Heritage Site. The glacier Perito Moreno, in the province of Santa Cruz, is one of the most significant natural attractions of Argentina 30km long and with a total surface of 257km. The magnitude of this mass of ice, seems to float on lake Argentino some 70m above the water surface
A life-like 16ft high sculpture of an iceberg featuring a stranded polar bear and its cub is pictured on the River Thames in London on January 26, 2009. A giant polar bear sculpture sailed on the River Thames on Monday to raise awareness of the melting ice caps and mark the launch of the new Natural History TV channel Eden.
The remains of a cow which died following a severe drought affecting the region lies in a field flooded by last night heavy rains, in Benito Juarez some 400 km south of Buenos Aires on January 26, 2009. Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner declared an agricultural state of emergency, after the drought devastated production across the country, a major world food exporter. The drought has cost the country four billion dollars and has burdened the state with some 1.88 billion dollars in lost tax revenue, according to some private estimates.
This picture taken on November 25, 2009 show chimneys emiting smoke in the city of Hegang in China’s industrial northeast province of Heilongjiang. The EU said November 30, 2009 that cataclysmic climate change cannot be averted without Chinese leadership, as the two sides wrapped up a summit with China defending its efforts against global warming
This picture taken 01 November, 2007 shows an exploited forest in Pelalawan, outside Pekanbaru, Riau Sumatra. Indonesia’s vast forests have long been seen by governments and businesses alike as a resource to be exploited for massive profit. Widespread deforestation has made Indonesia become the third largest emitter of carbon in the world, the contribution coming most dramatically in the form of near-annual forest fires on islands such as Sumatra and Borneo
A man rides a carriage in Havana’s waterfront on October 30th, 2007, as tropical storm Noel approaches the island. At least eleven people were killed and 13 were missing as tropical storm Noel lashed the Caribbean island of Hispaniola shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic
Firemen battle a fire near the village of Andritsena on the Peloponnese peninsula, 27 August 2007. Greece battled raging forest fires for a fourth day today and charged seven people with arson as a growing international force gathered to battle the flames that have claimed more than 60 lives
he dry riverbed of the Gan river, which flows into Poyang lake and is a major tributary of the Yangtze, as the river dries up near the Jiangxi capital of Nanchang, 05 December 2007, due to the drought that began in July. Water levels in Poyang Lake in Jiangxi province, China’s largest fresh water lake, are nearing record lows as a drought exacerbates, causing severe water shortages for industrial and residential users
A polar bear sits on the Hudson Bay fresh ice next to a hole in the ice and close to the shore waiting for a seal meal for, 15 November 2007, outside Churchill, Mantioba, Canada. Polar bears return to Churchill, the polar bear capital of the world, to hunt for seals on the icepack every year at this time and remain on the icepack feeding on seals until the spring thaw
A Rainbow forms over the Ulu Baram rainforest in the Miri interior, eastern Malaysian Borneo state of Sarawak, 13 December 2007. Wealthy countries and a US green group donated 160 million USD on 11 December for a new climate-change project aimed at encouraging poor developing nations to conserve their tropical forests. The World Bank-led plan was launched in Bali amid negotiations over a new framework on climate change once Kyoto Protocol commitments to curb gas emissions end in 2012
Activists of the environmental organization Legambiente display placards reading "Stop global warming" during an action on Piazza San Marco in Venice on December 7, 2009.
People release balloons with messages for the Copenhagen global climate meet, in Kathmandu December 7, 2009.