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by Samir Tounsi Agence France-Presse MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) – As dawn breaks over Mexico City’s floating gardens, Omar Menchaca paddles his kayak through a maze of canals collecting garbage left by visitors to one of the last vestiges of the ancient Aztec capital. In the silence of the early morning, before the hordes of tourists arrive, the 66-year-old retiree fishes plastic bottles and other debris from the waters of Xochimilco. “I came here to […]
by Carlos MANDUJANO Agence France-Presse LIMA, Peru (AFP) – Hand fed fish and given gentle yet rigorous baths, penguins and other sea birds are slowly regaining their strength at a Peruvian zoo after a major oil spill that claimed many of their friends. Of about 150 oil-stained birds rescued alive after the January 15 spill of some 12,000 barrels of oil, half later died. The survivors — penguins, cormorants and pelicans — are being nursed […]
CALLAO, Peru (AFP) – Spanish energy giant Repsol on Thursday vowed to finish by March cleaning up a devastating oil spill that has polluted beaches and killed wildlife. Almost 12,000 barrels of crude spilled into the sea off Peru on January 15 as a tanker unloaded oil at a Repsol owned refinery. “We expect that if the weather allows us then, in mid-March” the cleaning of beaches and islands off the coast will be completed, […]
by Paola LÓPEZ Agence France-Presse PUERTO MADEROS, Ecuador (AFP) – There is oil in the water, on the rocks and in the sand where children normally play on the banks of the Coca River in Ecuador. Residents of Puerto Maderos make no effort to hide their anger at the latest crude spill to hit the Ecuadoran Amazon. “This damage is not for a month, two months… it will be 20 years” before things return to […]
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AFP) – The Czech Republic and Poland on Thursday signed a deal on a giant coal mine near the Czech and German borders to end a dispute that has caused a stand-off between Warsaw and Brussels. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki “signed an agreement” in Prague on the Turow lignite mine, the Polish prime minister’s office said on Twitter. “We managed to push away a stone […]
by Nick Perry Agence France-Presse NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) – In his 15 years defending one of Nairobi’s last green spaces, Simon Nganga has seen off brazen attempts to seize what’s left of the lush forest bordered by highways and housing estates. Persistent efforts by developers and powerful individuals to seize chunks of the bush as their own were defeated under historic laws enacted to protect Kenya’s dwindling forests from unchecked logging and environmental destruction. But […]
by Daniel ARONSSOHN Agence France-Presse BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) – The European Commission on Wednesday defied angry dissent from EU governments and protests from green campaigners to give a sustainable finance label to investments in both gas and nuclear power. Austria warned it will go to court to try to halt the measure, while Germany — which backed the inclusion of gas — called extending the labelling to nuclear “unacceptable”. Critics of nuclear energy point to […]
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) – Extreme weather events such as heatwaves and floods have cost Europe almost 510 billion euros and around 142,000 lives over the past 40 years, according to a new report published Thursday. In its study, the European Environment Agency (EEA) called for continued adaptation measures at both individual and state level. A small number of extreme events, about three percent of the total, were alone responsible for about 60 percent of the […]
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) – Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon set a new record for January just three weeks into the year, according to data released Wednesday, a worrying sign of the surging destruction of the world’s biggest rainforest. Nearly 360 square kilometers (140 square miles) of forest cover — an area more than six times the size of Manhattan — were destroyed in the Brazilian Amazon from January 1 to January 21, said […]
QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) – An oil spill caused by a ruptured pipeline in Ecuador’s Amazon region leaked almost 6,300 barrels into an environmental reserve, according to information provided Wednesday by the company that owns the conduit. The firm OCP said it had “collected and reinjected 5,300 barrels of crude into the system” since the accident on Friday when heavy rains caused a boulder to fall on the pipeline in a mountainous region. OCP said the […]
VIENNA, Austria (AFP) – Austria will challenge a European Commission decision to give a sustainable finance label to investments in nuclear power, the environment minister said Wednesday. The European Commission defied protests from green campaigners and dissent in its own ranks to give a sustainable finance label to investments in both gas and nuclear power on Wednesday. The EU argues that both have a role to play as cleaner power sources during the transition to […]
by Peter Martell Agence France-Presse VARISEIA, Cyprus (AFP) – In a long-abandoned village in the UN buffer zone that divides Cyprus, an endangered curly-horned wild sheep offers hope not only for wildlife but that bitter ethnic divisions might slowly be healed. The mouflon, a majestic breed endemic to the Mediterranean island, is one of many species flourishing in the no-man’s-land created when inter-communal strife sliced Cyprus in two in the 1960s. “Without human influence, the […]
