Tag Archives: levels

International, News

Chief greenhouse gas hits two-million-year high

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For first time in 2 million years, levels of chief greenhouse gas hit 400 parts per million

By Associated Press, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air are now the highest they’ve been in about 2 million years.

Pieter Tans, who monitors levels for the U.S. government, says carbon dioxide levels have hit 400 parts per million.

When measurements of this chief greenhouse gas were first taken in 1958, carbon dioxide levels were at 315. Levels are now growing about 2 parts per million per year.

That’s 100 times faster than at the end of the Ice Age. The measurements taken in Hawaii, at the world’s oldest monitoring station, are considered the global benchmark. Last year, regional monitors briefly hit 400 ppm in the Arctic. Generally carbon levels peak in May then fall slightly.

Courtesy: Yahoo News
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/first-time-2-million-years-levels-chief-greenhouse-195059292.html

Current Issues, Human Rights, News, Pakistan, Sindh, Sindhi

Malnutrition levels in Sindh reached 21% to 23%, according to the WFP. That is above African standards. The emergency standard is 15%

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Pakistan ‘crop shortage’ warning

By M Ilyas Khan, BBC News, Islamabad

Lowering wheat prices would create food shortages in Pakistan and encourage smuggling, officials say, responding to criticism from the UN.

On Wednesday the UN’s food relief agency said the government set prices too high and malnutrition was rising.

But an official at Pakistan’s food ministry told the BBC farmers would simply switch to more lucrative crops if wheat prices went down.

Devastating floods across Pakistan in 2010 damaged acres of arable land.

Although crop yields in 2011 are projected to be healthy, prices are too high for an impoverished population, the director of the UN’s World Food Programme told journalists on the sidelines of humanitarian meetings in Geneva on Wednesday.

“The crop outlook is not bad but the food security situation remains difficult because prices remain so high,” Wolfgang Herbinger said.

Smuggling risk

Malnutrition levels in the southern province of Sindh had reached 21% to 23%, according to the WFP.

“That is well above African standards. The emergency standard is 15%,” Mr Herbinger said. …

Read more : BBC