Environment

Faulty warnings, deforestation turned Philippine rains ‘deadly’: study

MANILA, March 1, 2024 (AFP) – Faulty warning systems, poverty and deforestation of mountains in the southern Philippines turned recent unseasonably heavy rains into deadly disasters, scientists said in a report Friday. More than 100 people were killed in landslides and floods in January and February on the country’s second-largest island of Mindanao as the northeast monsoon and a low pressure trough brought downpours. A study by the World Weather Attribution group found the unsually […]

From edge of extinction to Australia’s croc ‘paradise’

By Andrew LEESON If you want a snappy death, one expert’s advice is to leap into a river near the Australian city of Darwin — within minutes, you’ll be in the jaws of one of the hundreds of crocodiles that stalk its murky waters. That’s the promise of Grahame Webb, whose conservation efforts are credited with helping wrestle Australia’s saltwater predators back from the verge of extinction. “You can’t sugarcoat crocs; these are seriously dangerous,” […]

Oranges wither, cows go hungry in drought-hit Sicily

By Ella IDE Marilina Barreca has two grim options: feed her cows tainted fodder or set them to graze on barren hillsides as Sicily battles a crop-devastating drought which is sucking reservoirs dry. Regional authorities in the southern Italian island declared a state of emergency earlier this month, after the winter rains hoped for following last year’s punishingly hot summer failed. “The situation is tragic,” Barreca told AFP as she looked out over the Madonie […]

Vietnam’s ‘rice bowl’ cracks in monster heatwave

HANOI, Feb 28, 2024 (AFP) – Southern Vietnam, including business hub Ho Chi Minh City and its “rice bowl” Mekong Delta region, suffered an unusually long heatwave in February, weather officials said Wednesday. Several areas of the delta are also suffering drought and farmers are struggling to transport their crops due to low water levels in the region’s canals. The intense period of heat began on February 9, meteorologists told AFP, with temperatures reaching up […]

US and Canada experience record heatwave followed by rapid cold snap

WASHINGTON, Feb 28, 2024 (AFP) Cities across the United States and Canada reached record February temperatures this week, with multiple municipalities experiencing summer-like heat despite three remaining weeks of winter. The midwestern city of Saint Louis, in Missouri, saw the mercury hit 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday, the highest temperature ever recorded in that month, after the heat peaked at 80F on Monday. An El Nino weather pattern is at play, in […]

2 million animals dead as extreme winter weather hits Mongolia

By Byamba-Ochir Byambasuren with Khaliun Bayartsogt in Ulaanbaatar More than two million animals have died in Mongolia so far this winter, a government official said Monday, as the country endures extreme cold and snow. The landlocked country is no stranger to severe weather from December to March, when temperatures plummet as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 Fahrenheit) in some areas. But this winter has been more severe than usual, with lower than […]

New Zealand opens first ‘kiwi hospital’ for injured birds

By Ryland JAMES WELLINGTON, Feb 23, 2024 (AFP) – New Zealand on Friday opened its first hospital exclusively treating kiwi birds, and vets have already nursed the first patient back to health — a chick nicknamed “Splash” that tumbled into a swimming pool. Rising numbers of the once-threatened national bird have led to the construction of a purpose-built facility in Kerikeri, a three-hour drive north of Auckland. The Department of Conservation told AFP the new […]

‘Zombie’ blazes and drought: Canada headed for another brutal fire season

By Marion THIBAUT MONTREAL, Feb 23, 2024 (AFP) – Beneath the ground in Western Canada, dozens of so-called “zombie fires” that started last year are still burning. And even though it’s the dead of winter, the lack of snow this year is compounding ongoing drought conditions, leaving Canadians already bracing for another brutal forest fire season. “We are having an exceptional winter after an exceptional summer,” laments Josee St-Onge, a spokesperson for Alberta firefighters. It’s […]

Rampant water pollution threatens Iraq’s shrinking rivers

By Salam FARAJ BAGHDAD, Feb 21, 2024 (AFP) – Stricken by drought and depleted by upstream dams, Iraq’s once mighty rivers the Tigris and Euphrates are suffocating under pollutants from sewage to medical waste. In a country where half the population lacks access to safe drinking water, according to UN figures, state institutions are to blame for a man-made disaster which is turning rivers into waste dumps. “What is strange about water pollution in Iraq […]

Cambodia looks to import Indian tigers to revive big cat population

Cambodia hopes to import four tigers from India this year under an agreement signed with New Delhi aimed at reviving the population of big cats in the kingdom, an environmental official said Monday. Cambodia’s dry forests were once home to scores of Indochinese tigers but conservationists say intensive poaching of both tigers and their prey has devastated their numbers. The last sighting of a tiger in the Southeast Asian kingdom was from a camera trap […]

Bangkok says work from home as pollution blankets city

BANGKOK, Feb 15, 2024 (AFP) – Bangkok city employees have been told to work from home to avoid harmful air pollution, as a layer of noxious haze blanketed the Thai capital on Thursday. City authorities asked for cooperation from employers to help workers in the city of some 11 million people avoid the pollution, which is expected to last into Friday. The air monitoring website IQAir ranked Bangkok among the 10 most polluted cities in […]

Amazon rainforest may face tipping point by 2050: study

By Kelly MACNAMARA The Amazon rainforest is facing a barrage of pressures that might tip it into large-scale ecosystem collapse as soon as 2050, according to new research Wednesday warning of dire consequences for the region and the world. The Amazon, which holds more than 10 percent of the world’s biodiversity, helps stabilise the global climate by storing the equivalent of around two decades of emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide. But stress from deforestation, drought, […]