Mongolia Online | Published News | Environment

Why The Mongolian ‘Ninjas’ Keep On Digging?

mongoliaonline — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:36:33 EDT

Gold production in Mongolia is growing rapidly and it saw a seventeen-fold increase between 1991 and 2001. But the real boost came in July 2001, when a Canadian company called Ivanhoe Mines found a large gold and copper deposit at Oyu Tolgoi (turquoise hill). Foreign investment in the country on explorations soared. And the great Mongolian gold rush began with mining companies from aroun

501 Vote(s)

Mongolian Cabinet holds meeting in Gobi desert to draw attention to climate change

mongoliaonline — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 05:21:50 EDT

GASHUUNII KHOOLOI, Mongolia - Top Mongolian officials donned dark green baseball caps reading "Save our planet" and set up chairs and tables in the sands of the Gobi desert for a Cabinet meeting aimed at drawing attention to climate change.

The meeting of 12 government ministers was held in scorching heat Friday in Gashuunii Khooloi, a sandy valley in South Gobi p

134 Vote(s)

Abu Dhabi to help Mongolian falcons to spread their wings

mongoliaonline — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 05:06:02 EDT

ABU DHABI // With financial support from Abu Dhabi, conservationists have started to build the first of 5,000 artificial nests in the Mongolian steppes in a bid to increase the number of breeding Saker Falcons.

The Saker Falcon population has been declining rapidly due to capture for the falconry trade, loss of habitat and pollution.

140 Vote(s)

Earthquake hits eastern Mongolia

mongoliaonline — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:42:58 EDT

An earthquake measuring 4.9 on the Richter scale hit Zuunbayan County, Dornogobi Province, in eastern Mongolia Friday morning, the Mongolian Astronomical and Geophysical Research Institute said.

A researcher from the institute said the epicenter was initially determined at 44.5 degrees latitude and 109.6 degrees longitude, 30 km west of Zuunbayan County and 250 km from

27 Vote(s)

Heat Wave Sweeps across Mongolia

mongoliaonline — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:02:07 EDT

Heat waves will continue to sweep across many parts of Mongolia until Aug. 25, Mongolia's meteorological authorities reported Saturday.

With temperatures at 36-39 degrees Celsius, the eastern part of the country and the areas along River Orhon and River Selenge in northern Mongolia will experience a sultry weather in the summer heat, reported Mongolia's Institute of Me

26 Vote(s)

Mongolia to export up to 240 saker falcons this year

mongoliaonline — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 10:44:10 EDT

ULAN BATOR, Jun. 12, 2010 (Xinhua News Agency) -- Mongolia had set a quota of 240 saker falcons for export this year, Minister of Environment, Nature and Tourism L. Gansuh said Friday.

Speaking on a new hunting regulation at a press conference, the minister said foreigners would be allowed to hunt 240 of the most prized birds of prey, which cost 12,000 U.S. dollars each.

13 Vote(s)

Mongol herders reeling after harsh winter

mongoliaonline — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 22:02:26 EDT

SOUTH HANGAY PROVINCE, Mongolia - They call it the zud, a prolonged period of heavy snows and paralyzing cold that adds to the challenges of living on a treeless expanse nearly the size of Alaska. But this year's zud followed a punishing summer drought that stunted the grass and left Munkhbat Lkhagvasuren's herds emaciated and his family in debt after borrowing money for fodder.

45 Vote(s)

Mongolia counts carcasses after harsh winter

mongoliaonline — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 21:54:56 EDT

UYANGA, Mongolia-Before he can fully tend to his dwindling herd, Demberel has to bury the dead cows, goats and sheep in earth barely thawed from Mongolia's worst winter in decades.

Fetid and fly-ridden, the carcasses lie stacked by the hundreds around a burial pit dug by Demberel and a dozen fellow herders. A truck brings dozens more carcasses. Others lie in piles or strewn in n

47 Vote(s)

Silent spring for Mongolians after winter kills herds

mongoliaonline — Wed, 12 May 2010 03:34:33 EDT

(Reuters) - The winter camps of southern Mongolia are quiet during this year's breeding season, after an unusually harsh winter wiped out herds and left nomadic families with little but debt to their name.

The bitter winter killed an estimated 8 million animals, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), leaving exhausted, poverty-stricken herders st

2 Vote(s)

China arrests two Mongolians for smuggling snow leopard skins

mongoliaonline — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:38:54 EDT

Beijing - Chinese police arrested two Mongolian citizens after finding two snow leopard skins and a snow leopard skull hidden inside their jeep at a border checkpoint, state media said Tuesday.

Police in the remote Alxa League of north China's Inner Mongolia region spent 10 hours searching the vehicle that had more than 40 hidden compartments, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

2 Vote(s)

Mongolian dzud kills millions of domestic animals

mongoliaonline — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:16:52 EDT

By James Sawyer
Imagine trying to survive in temperatures below minus 50 degrees F (minus 47 degrees C) for more than a month.

It happened in Mongolia this winter--weather so cold that livestock and other animals were dying painfully at a rate of a quarter of a million deaths every week, resulting in the loss of millions of animals over the season.

Imagine

1 Vote(s)

How conservation can help Mongolia's herders fight the dzud

mongoliaonline — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:45:55 EDT

Half of all Mongolia's livestock could be dead by spring -- victims of a drought-freeze punch known as a dzud. How could grassland conservation help herders cope with such climate-change intensified phenomena?

Evan Girvetz, Cool Green Science Blog describes the root causes for this particularly devastating dzud and suggests some ecosystem-based solutions to help make the livelihoo

1 Vote(s)

Extreme Weather | Mongolia

mongoliaonline — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:45:27 EDT

Dead sheep, goats, horses and cattle are strewn throughout a barren and snowy landscape on Mongolia's remote steppes.

For the nomadic herdsmen and women who inhabit this unforgiving land, the level of death and destruction is not normal.

Sheila Zhao spent nine days traveling with another photographer and a small entourage of local officials through two of Mongolia’s worst

1 Vote(s)

Struggling to survive Mongolia's freezing winter

mongoliaonline — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 03:10:47 EDT

In Mongolia, what aid agencies are calling a slowly unfolding disaster is underway as extreme cold continues to devastate nomadic herder communities. As the BBC's Chris Hogg reports, about 10% of the country's livestock has perished and thousands of families have lost everything.

2 Vote(s)

Arctic winter threatens Mongolian way of life

mongoliaonline — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 02:43:41 EDT

Thousands of nomadic Mongolian herders are facing impoverishment after the onslaught of a bitter cold winter which has decimated their livestock.

An estimated 4.5 million animals have perished on the freezing Mongolian steppes depriving families of their only source of income.

2 Vote(s)

BBC News - In pictures: Mongolia's severe winter

mongoliaonline — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 17:24:30 EDT

BBC News published a series of photographs depicting the gruesome truth of the severe winter in Mongolia.

2 Vote(s)

Death stalks the frozen land of Genghis Khan

mongoliaonline — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:12:13 EDT

By Peter Foster in Uliastai. Published: 8:00AM GMT 21 Mar 2010

Mongolia is experiencing the worst famine in a generation, as Peter Foster found when he spent time with nomads in the one of the most inhospitable terrains on earth.

The looming catastrophe is so serious that the United Nations has issued an urgent appeal for assistance for this remote co

2 Vote(s)

MONGOLIA TO JOIN GLOBAL INITIATIVE TO HIGHLIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE

mongoliaonline — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:18:32 EDT

Ulaanbaatar, MONTSAME Mongolia, for the first time, is to join a global initiative to highlight climate change. The lights will go out in towns and cities around the world this month as part of the global initiative. More than 1,100 cities and towns in some 100 countries from Mongolia to Madagascar, Nepal to New Zealand, will switch off their lights for an hour this Satu

3 Vote(s)

Mongolia's big freeze

mongoliaonline — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:54:04 EDT

March 14, 2010 A slow natural disaster is taking its toll on Mongolia's herders, killing thousands of livestock and putting livelihoods at risk.

The phenomenon is known as the Dzud - a severe summer drought followed by an extra harsh winter.

With heavy snows covering up already sparse grazing land, millions of animals have perished.

Al Jazeera'

1 Vote(s)

Mongolia goes green!!! « Kiva Stories from the Field

mongoliaonline — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:30:41 EST

Yes, it might be the dead of winter in Mongolia, with temperatures hovering around -30 degrees Fahrenheit, but the loan products here have been turning green. Thanks to the hard work of the Eco Products Team at XacBank in Mongolia, Kiva lenders saw an introduction of 3 new types of personal consumption ‘green loans’ in December 2009.

1 Vote(s)

Ulaanbaatar’s clean air is everyone’s responsibility

mongoliaonline — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:44:52 EST

Ulaanbaatar is already the coldest capital of the world, but it need not be its most polluted.

When Ulaanbaatar's one million citizens breathe, their lungs act like air filters, catching and storing harmful dust. Scientists call this dust "Particulate Matter" (PM). If PM is smaller than 10 microns or "PM10" it can cause severe respiratory illnesses. These illnesses can lead to

1 Vote(s)

A harsh winter and uncertain future for Mongolia's pastoralists: In Mongolia, many nomads despair

mongoliaonline — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:43:16 EST

NOT just North America and Europe are pulling out of harsh winters. Mongolia has had its bitterest winter in decades. Nearly 3m of the country’s livestock, something approaching a tenth of the total, are said to have died, and some Mongolians. Now, with the glitter of huge mining projects on the horizon, questions are being raised about the future of nomadic herding, which for millennia

1 Vote(s)

Garbage dump

amstravels — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:27:23 EDT

UB's Ulaanchuluut dumpsite is to be closed, forcing waste pickers who make a living from selling recyclable materials off the site.

3 Vote(s)

H5 Bird Flu Found in Mongolian Swans

enkhee — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:57:26 EDT

MONGOLIA - The veterinary authorities have reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) that they have found what may be highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in wild birds.

The Mongolian veterinary authority sent an Immediate Notification dated 28 May to OIE, reporting the suspicious death of a group of swans.

Nine migratory swans were found dead at Doitiin tsagaan Lake i

3 Vote(s)

Urban Air Pollution Analysis for Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

hidodorj — Sun, 17 May 2009 11:17:52 EDT

An analysis of urban air quality in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and possible long-term strategies for reducing air pollution; given the changing demographics, industrialization, and motorization. These trends have spurred an increase in the demand for energy (primarily met by coal combustion) in several sectors including transport, construction, heating, industrial production, and have resulted in cha

6 Vote(s)