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by Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — “Strike for climate”. With that simple plea, 16-year-old Swede Greta Thunberg has inspired children worldwide to boycott classes under the anxious gaze of adults who don’t quite know how to react. Every Friday since August, Greta, as she is known to all, has staked out a spot in front of parliament in Stockholm, demanding that her government step up the fight against climate change. In […]
MADRID ,Spain (AFP) — A new species of bat has been discovered in wooded areas of Europe, an international team of researchers said on Tuesday, as well as another “very rare” species that lives in caves in North Africa. The findings add to the family of roughly a thousand species of bats, an order of mammals which are capable of transmitting and receiving ultrasound, allowing them to fly and navigate in total darkness. The new […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia officially declared a Great Barrier Reef rodent extinct on Tuesday, making it the first mammal believed to have been killed off by human-induced climate change. The rat-like Bramble Cay melomys — whose only known habitat was a small sandy island in far northern Australia — has not been spotted in a decade. Researchers from Queensland determined a key factor in its disappearance was “almost certainly” repeated ocean inundation of the […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — This handout picture released by the Tierpark Berlin shows the still unnamed female 11-week-old icebear cub during a first veterinary examination at the Tierpark zoo in Berlin, on February 14, 2019. /Steffen FREILING / TIERPARK BERLIN / AFP
HOBART, Australia (AFP) — Tasmania’s ancient rain-forest and alpine flora species face an uncertain future, scientists have warned, after out-of-control bush-fires consumed vast tracts of wild bush land. As authorities downgraded emergency warnings Friday, with wetter weather — and even some snow — bringing respite from more than a month of rolling fires, scientists warned they are still assessing the damage to the island’s unique environment. Wildfires have scorched over 205,000 hectares (500,000 acres) in […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Runoff from recent floods in northern Australia is flowing onto parts of the Barrier Reef, scientists said Friday, starving coral of light and providing fodder for the predatory crown-of-thorns starfish. Parts of northern Queensland are still reeling after nearly two weeks of unprecedented rainfall that turned roads into rivers and inundated hundreds of homes with floodwater. Scientists at James Cook University say the floods swelled a number of rivers along hundreds […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Environmental campaigners have filed an unprecedented lawsuit in a bid to halt the so-called “drive hunting” of dolphins in Japan, arguing the practice is cruel and illegal. In drive hunting, fishermen force dolphins into a cove by beating on boats to disorient them. The panicked animals often get tangled in nets, suffocate and drown. Activists say some dolphins smash into rocks and die of injuries, while others are killed by fishermen […]
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Nearly half of all insect species worldwide are in rapid decline and a third could disappear altogether, according to a study warning of dire consequences for crop pollination and natural food chains. “Unless we change our way of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades,” concluded the peer-reviewed study, which is set for publication in […]
by Natsuko FUKUE Agence France-Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — As spring approaches in Japan, the country’s weather forecasters face one of their biggest missions of the year: predicting exactly when the famed cherry blossoms will bloom. Japan’s sakura or cherry blossom season is feverishly anticipated by locals and visitors alike. Many tourists plan their entire trips around the blooms, and Japanese flock to parks in their millions to enjoy the seasonal spectacle. “People pay more […]
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Billions of tonnes of meltwater flowing into the world’s oceans from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets could boost extreme weather and destabilize regional climate within a matter of decades, researchers said Wednesday. These melting giants, especially the one atop Greenland, are poised to further weaken the ocean currents that move cold water south along the Atlantic Ocean floor while pushing tropical waters northward closer […]
GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AFP) — After painstakingly recreating an Antarctic environment in the balmy climate of central Mexico, the Guadalajara Zoo has welcomed two baby Adelie penguins into the world. The pair, born in late December, made their public debut this week as their parents, Blanquita and Pippin, began allowing them to venture out from between their feet for the first time. The babies will be named after undergoing medical exams in another eight to 10 […]
by Robin MILLARD Agence France-Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — A mission to explore uncharted depths in the Indian Ocean was launched on Wednesday, hoping to discover hundreds of new species and find out what impact plastic is having way below the surface. The First Descent expedition, led by British-based ocean research institute Nekton, is set to send submersibles as deep as 3,000 meters off the Seychelles from March to test the health of the […]
