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by Laure FILLON Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Air quality is improving in countries under coronavirus quarantines, experts say, but it is far too early to speak of long-term change. Images by the US space agency NASA are clear, in February the concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) fell dramatically in Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic, passing from an indicator that was red/orange to blue. NO2 is mainly produced by […]
NEW YORK, New York (Eagle News) — “The city that never sleeps,” New York City, New York, is the most populous city in the United States. Which is hard to believe when you watch EBC New York Bureau Corespondent Joanne Soriano’s vlog about “Social Distancing in New York City.” © Eagle News
by Kelly MACNAMARA with AFP bureaux PARIS, France (AFP) — As nations around the world fight the coronavirus pandemic with mass lockdowns and travel bans, UN experts warn that some three billion people lack even the most basic weapons to protect themselves: soap and running water. The outbreak has infected some 200,000 people and killed 9,000, scorching through populations across the globe after emerging in China late last year. While Europe has become the center […]
ROME, Italy (AFP) — The city of Venice is enjoying crystal clear waters in its world-famous canals due to a lack of debris from tourists and near-zero boat traffic under Italy’s ongoing coronavirus lockdown. The clear waters are a tiny bright spot in the beleaguered but beautiful city, whose economy has been virtually wiped out since tourists fled the area beginning last month, spooked by the spread of coronavirus in the country’s north. Since March […]
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AFP) — The Czech premier, whose country depends on nuclear energy and coal, said Monday the European Union should shelve its landmark green law seeking carbon neutrality as it battles the novel coronavirus. “Europe should forget about the Green Deal now and focus on the coronavirus instead,” Prime Minister Andrej Babis told reporters, without explaining how the two are connected. “Europe is now the biggest epicenter of the coronavirus in the world,” the […]
Singapore, Singapore (AFP) — Oil prices extended the gloom on Monday after a Saudi-Russian price war and an equities meltdown sparked by the coronavirus pandemic saw their biggest weekly losses in more than a decade. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) briefly fell below $30 a barrel, or 5.5 percent, in morning Asian trade before regaining its footing. It was trading at $31.14 a barrel at around 0200 GMT, down nearly two percent from Friday’s […]
by Pascale TROUILLAUD SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — At first glance, it looks like any other shantytown in Brazil: a precarious jumble of tin-roof shacks and shoddy streets. But look closer, and the community garden, rainwater harvesting system and environmental education program are visible too: this “favela” is remarkably green. On the outskirts of Sao Paulo, a concrete jungle of 12 million people, the impoverished community of Vila Nova Esperanca (Village of New Hope) is […]
by Marlowe HOOD PARIS, France (AFP) — Greenland and Antarctica are shedding six times more ice than during the 1990s, driving sea-level rise that could see annual flooding by 2100 in regions home today to some 400 million people, scientists have warned. The kilometers-thick ice sheets atop landmasses at the planet’s extremities sloughed off 6.4 trillion tonnes of mass from 1992 through 2017, adding nearly two centimeters (an inch) to the global watermark, according to […]
NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) — Kenya’s only female white giraffe and her calf have been killed by poachers, conservationists said Tuesday, in a major blow for the rare animals found nowhere else in the world. The bodies of the two giraffes were found “in a skeletal state after being killed by armed poachers” in Garissa in eastern Kenya, the Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy said in a statement. Their deaths leave just one remaining white giraffe alive […]
By Paula RAMON Agence France-Presse GUARUJA, Brazil (AFP) — Violent rain has killed scores of people and forced thousands from their homes this year in Brazil’s most populous states, a disaster experts blame on climate upheaval but also rampant urbanization. Flash floods, landslides and other havoc wrought by torrential rain have killed at least 29 people in recent days in the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Another 25 are missing. That comes after […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australian scientists are developing the country’s first satellite designed to predict where bushfires are likely to start, following months of devastating fires. The Australian National University said Wednesday a team is creating a “shoebox-sized” satellite that will measure forest ground cover and moisture levels using infrared detectors. It is hoped the data will help determine where bushfires are likely to start and where they may be difficult to contain. The technology […]
FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany (AFP) — Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler said Tuesday it aims to slash average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from new cars sold in Europe by 20 percent in 2020, as EU-wide limits bite. “This is a very big year for us and a year where we are taking electrification to the next level,” chief executive Ola Kallenius said in a telephone conference. “This year alone we are looking at cutting up to 20 […]
