Environment

‘Zebra’ tribal bodypaint cuts fly bites 10-fold: study

by Patrick GALEY Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Traditional white-striped bodypainting practiced by indigenous communities mimics zebra stripes to reduce the number of potentially harmful horsefly bites a person receives by up to 10-fold, according to new research published Wednesday. Tribes in Africa, Australia and southeast Asia have practiced bodypainting in cultural ceremonies for generations. Traditionally mixed from clay, chalk, ash and cattle dung, the white or grey paint is widely thought to […]

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Fixing the environment: when solutions become problems

by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — In a world where climate change, air and water pollution, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, ozone depletion, and other environmental problems overlap, a fix in one arena can cause trouble in another. Here are a few examples of what might be called Earth’s “zero-sum” dilemma in the 21st century. Water vs. ocean pollution A study released Monday shows for the first time that more than 16,000 […]

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Desalination produces more toxic waste than clean water

by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — More than 16,000 desalination plants scattered across the globe produce far more toxic sludge than fresh water, according to a first global assessment of the sector’s industrial waste, published Monday. For every litre of fresh water extracted from the sea or brackish waterways, a litre-and-a-half of salty slurry, called brine, is dumped directly back into the ocean or the ground. The super-salty substance is made […]

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Thailand to make it rain as pollution chokes Bangkok

BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Thailand is set to deploy rainmaking planes to seed clouds in an effort to tackle the pall of pollution that has shrouded the capital in recent weeks. The weather modification technique involves dispersing chemicals into the air to aid cloud condensation, which should in theory result in rain. “The Department of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation… expects the rainmaking to be done tomorrow (Tuesday) but it depends on wind and humidity […]

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Million dead fish cause environmental stink in Australia

  SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — As many as a million fish are believed to have died along the banks of a major river system in drought-battered eastern Australia, and the authorities warned Monday of more deaths to come. The banks of the Murray-Darling Rivers are thick with rotten fish, with officials putting the number of dead at hundreds of thousands and saying the toll is likely closer to one million. Further high temperatures forecast for […]

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Rise of renewables creating ‘new world’: report

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — The rapid growth of renewable energy sources and the demise of fossil fuels are causing major changes in global politics, a special commission said in a report Friday. The shift “will alter the global distribution of power, relations between states, the risk of conflict, and the social, economic and environmental drivers of geopolitical instability,” said a the commission set up by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Solar, […]

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Poland denies cull aimed at wiping out wild boar

WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — Polish authorities on Thursday denied any plans to wipe out nearly all Poland’s wild boar to stem an outbreak of disease threatening its pork industry as petitions against a mass cull drew hundreds of thousands of signatures. Environmentalists and scientists have warned that a mass cull set for the last three weekends of January could upset the ecosystem and even inadvertently spread African swine fever (ASF), which is deadly to wild […]

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World’s oceans are heating up at a quickening pace: study

TAMPA, United States (AFP) — The world’s oceans are heating up at an accelerating pace as global warming threatens a diverse range of marine life and a major food supply for the planet, researchers said Thursday. The findings in the US journal Science, led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, debunk previous reports that suggested a so-called pause in global warming in recent years. The latest technology shows no such hiatus ever existed, raising new […]

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Singapore eco-tourism plan sparks squawks of protest

by Sam Reeves Agence France Presse SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — Singapore is creating a vast eco-tourism zone in a bid to bring in more visitors, but environmentalists fear the development will damage natural habitats and are already blaming it for a series of animal deaths. While it may be best known as a financial hub with scores of high-rise buildings, tropical Singapore is still home to patches of rainforest and an array of wildlife, from […]

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Energy-related carbon emissions rose in US in 2018: study

PARIS, France (AFP) — Carbon dioxide emissions significantly increased in the United States in 2018, according to a study released Tuesday by research firm Rhodium Group. Analysts estimate that energy-related CO2 emissions grew 3.4 percent from 2017 to 2018, which would be the largest increase in the United States since 2010. The estimate was based on US government energy statistics and other public and private data on oil consumption and power generation for the first […]

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Iguanas reintroduced to Santiago Island in Galapagos

QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) – A group of more than 1,400 iguanas have been reintroduced to an Ecuadoran island in the Galapagos archipelago around two centuries after they disappeared from there, authorities said on Monday. The Galapagos land iguanas from North Seymour Island were freed onto Santiago Island as part of an ecological restoration program, the National Galapagos Park authority said in a statement. The last recorded sighting of iguanas in Santiago Island had been made […]

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Bolivian bees under threat from coca pesticides

by William WROBLEWSKI Agence France-Presse COROICO, Bolivia (AFP) — High up in the Bolivian cloud forest, a woman tends to her bees, smoker in hand, working from hive to hive under a canopy of leaves to delicately gather panels of honeycomb. It’s a bucolic scene that experts say won’t last, for the bees are dying. The culprit — as in so many other cases across the world — is pesticide. The difference in Bolivia is […]

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