Environment

NAIROBI, Kenya -- The home of the world’s largest concentration of flamingos, Lake Nakuru National Park in central Kenya, is drying up for the second time in two decades.

The shallow lake in the Rift Valley, one of the world’s most visited parks and also a home for 55 mammal species, shrank considerably in the early 1990s due to drought but shortly returned to normal levels. It could now disappear altogether in another eight years if the destruction of the nearby Mau forest were not contained, experts warned.

FERGHANA, Uzbekistan -- The Aral Sea borders two countries, Kazakhstan to the north and Uzbekistan to the south. The government of Uzbekistan has taken steps to preserve the shrinking sea, including water management policies and conservation technologies. It is also participating in the International Fund for Saving Aral Sea, whose other members are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan. 

And teenagers in the Ferghana region of Uzbekistan are pushing for better ways to irrigate crops and to conserve the use of water in their houses.

BRASILIA, Brazil -- The 49th anniversary of Brazil’s capital city, on April 21, filled the Ministries Esplanade with cultural attractions, outdoor activities, and more than 1 million celebrants. And the daylong celebration, which lasted well into the night, turned the expansive garden surrounded by government buildings into a massive rubbish heap.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – The morning of October 28 was unusually rainy for a tropical Caribbean country, but most Dominicans didn’t question it. The wind was cool and refreshing, weather that’s always welcomed in the muggy city of Santo Domingo.

However, by 4 p.m. the same day, the rain strengthened, banging down like pellets on the roofs. The wind hissed through windows as shutters rattled against one another.

By 9 p.m., a merely rainy day had developed into a full-fledged tropical storm by the name of Noel, and satellite pictures showed billows of clouds enveloping the entire island.