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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — Thousands of people have signed a petition for koalas to be introduced to New Zealand to escape Australia’s devastating bush fires, but the proposal has been given the thumbs down by officials. A group calling itself the Koala Relocation Society said koalas were “functionally extinct in Australia” but could thrive in New Zealand which has nearly 30,000 hectares planted in eucalypts. There have been estimates of up to a billion […]
by with Glenda Kwek in Sydney / Holly ROBERTSON Agence France Presse Massive bushfires in southeastern Australia still have a “long way to go”, authorities have warned, even as colder conditions brought some relief to exhausted firefighters and communities on Saturday. After a blustery night that saw a series of massive infernos in New South Wales and Victoria states merge into a mega-blaze four times the size of Greater London, temperatures dropped and rain fell […]
by Poornima WEERASEKARA HENAN, China (AFP) — Water has been a source of death as well as a source of life for a generation in Shenqiu, a region fed by a tributary of China’s heavily polluted Yangtze river and pockmarked with notorious “cancer villages”. Residents often faced a bitter choice: drink dirty, discolored water and risk sickness, or pay high prices for bottled water and risk poverty. But artist-turned-environmentalist Huo Yalun has been on a […]
by Johnny Lieu Agence France-Presse SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Tiger burns in Australia’s bushfires? It’s a 2012 photo from Indonesia. Young girl rescues koala? Actually an artist’s impression. Social media is packed with powerful images of Australia’s bushfires — but many are fake. As deadly blazes tear across southeastern Australia, false or deliberately misleading images and claims have proliferated online, in languages from Arabic to Hindi. AFP Fact Check works to debunk online misinformation. Here […]
by Holly ROBERTSON Agence France Presse SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Snipers took to helicopters in Australia on Wednesday to begin a mass cull of up to 10,000 camels as drought drives big herds of the feral animals to search for water closer to remote towns, endangering indigenous communities. Local officials in South Australia state said “extremely large” herds have been encroaching on rural communities — threatening scarce food and drinking water, damaging infrastructure, and […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia’s bushfires have burned so intensely that they have hurled smoke as far away as Chile. They have also created their own weather systems, including deadly “firestorms” that produce dry lightning and cannot be contained. – How do firestorms happen? – Scientists are still trying to understand how firestorms are created although weather, terrain, vegetation and the characteristics of the fire itself all play a role. But the basics are […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — No-frills US airline JetBlue will go carbon neutral for all domestic flights starting this summer, the company announced Monday. The carrier said it will be the first major US airline to do so in a bid to reduce its contributions to global warming. The company also said it would begin using “sustainable aviation fuel” on flights from San Francisco later this year. “We reduce where we can and offset where […]
by Glenda KWEK Agence France-Presse SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — At least half of Australia’s only disease-free koala population, a key “insurance” for the species’ future, is feared dead with more badly hurt after bush-fires swept through an island sanctuary, rescuers said Sunday. Kangaroo Island, a popular nature-based tourist attraction off the coast of South Australia state, is home to many wild populations of native animals including the much-loved koala, where the populated was estimated at […]
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Barcelona imposed a ban Thursday on older, more polluting vehicles during most of the day in a bid to reduce air pollution in Spain’s second largest city. Gasoline-powered cars registered in Spain before 2000, and diesel-powered cars registered before 2006 are now banned from most city streets on weekdays between 7:00 am and 8:00 pm and face a fine of at least 100 euros ($112) if they violate the rule. All banned vehicles […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — This year was the hottest ever registered in Russia, the country’s weather chief said on Monday, as climate change pushes global temperatures to record highs. “This year in Russia was the hottest for the entire period of instrumental observations,” the head of the Gidromedtsentr weather service, Roman Vilfand, told Russian news agencies. He said Moscow’s average temperature for 2019 had hit 7.6-7.7 degrees Celsius (45.7-45.9 degrees Fahrenheit), beating the previous […]
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (AFP) — A black rhino believed to be the oldest in the world has died in Tanzania at the age of 57, according to authorities in Ngorongoro where the animal was living. The female rhino, named Fausta, died of what is believed to be natural causes on December 27 in a sanctuary, after living most of her life in the wild, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority said in a statement on […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — At least 15 natural disasters linked to climate change this year caused damage of over $1 billion and seven of them cost at least $10 billion, British charity Christian Aid said Friday. This year is set to be the second hottest year in history and each of the disasters in the report has a link with climate change, Christian Aid said. “Extreme weather, fueled by climate change, struck every corner of […]
