Environment

Thousands sign petition to close Chinese aquarium holding polar bears captive

GUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) — More than 330,000 signatures have been collected calling for the closure of the Grandview Aquarium in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, in which two polar bears and many other animals have been kept for visitors to take selfies with, Hong Kong-based charity Animals Asia said in a press release on July 13. The aquarium has been making headlines since it opened in January, after Chinese netizens posted photos of dead […]

After warming fast, part of Antarctica gets a chill – study

REUTERS — The Antarctic Peninsula, among the fastest warming places on Earth last century, has since cooled due to natural swings in the local climate, scientists said on Wednesday (July 20), adding that the respite from the thaw is likely to be brief. Rapid warming until the late 1990s on the peninsula, which snakes up towards South America, triggered the break-up of ancient ice shelves, which are vast expanses of ice floating on the sea […]

70 whale corpses discovered in Chile

SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — Some 70 dead whales have been found in southern Chile less than a year after more than 330 whales washed up in a remote Patagonian inlet. The animals are not of the same species discovered in last December’s die-off, the biggest single event of its kind known to science, the Chilean fisheries service said. “They are smaller than those we saw last time,” national fisheries director Jose Miguel Burgos said. Teams […]

Massive sewage spill forces closure of Los Angeles beaches

LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Several beaches in the Los Angeles area were shut down on Tuesday after nearly 2.5 million gallons (9.5 million liters) of sewage spilled out from a ruptured line, officials said. The spill — described as one of the biggest in recent memory — began Monday afternoon, when the top of a sewer pipe collapsed, sending debris into the pipe and causing overflow. Repair crews managed to stop the leak […]

Long-whiskered tree mice lead Philippines biodiversity claim

MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — A Philippines island has the world’s largest collection of unique mammal species, scientists have discovered, as the area’s habitats face danger from hunting and logging. Twenty-eight new species of cloud rats and earthworm-eating mice have been discovered by US and Filipino scientists in a 15-year study, boosting the number of non-flying mammal species on Luzon to 56, the Chicago Field Museum said in a statement released Friday. The team, which published […]

Tiger cubs thrill Manila Zoo visitors

MANILa, Philippines (Eagle News) — A pair of newborn Bengali tigers and a thirsty orangutan charmed Filipino zoo visitors, as the captive-bred cubs playfully competed with the poney-tailed ape for a milk bottle. The two-month old tigers, named Duterte and Leni after the country’s top two officials, were joined by the orangutan during snack time at a private zoo in Manila. The ape, with a chute of hair jutting up from the top of its […]

Study finds Greenland lost 1 trillion tons of ice in just 4 years

REUTERS — Between 2011 and 2014 Greenland shed 1 trillion tons of ice – that’s according to new data from the European Space Agency. The ice loss in those four years alone, corresponds to a 0.75 mm contribution to global sea-level rise each year – about twice the average of the preceding two decades. The latest data was gathered using the space agency’s CryoSat satellite combined with a regional climate model to map changes in […]

Mexico to plant 18 million trees against pollution

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) — Authorities will plant 18 million trees in Mexico City and its surrounding suburbs as part of efforts to combat air pollution, the government said Monday. Environment Minister Rafael Pacchiano dubbed it a “historic reforestation” to reinforce the “green belt in the megalopolis.” The greater Mexico City area was hit by the worst air pollution in more than a decade in March, prompting authorities to restrict traffic for the 5.4 million […]

New Zealand’s crowdfunded beach becomes public park

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — A New Zealand man whose ambitious crowdfunding campaign raised millions of dollars to buy a pristine South Island beach and make it public parkland said Monday it was “surreal” to see his dream realized. Duane Major’s push earlier this year to take Awaroa beach out of private hands and make it a national park quickly went viral, attracting 40,000 donations to raise a total of NZ$2.3 million (US$1.7 million). Major, […]

Australian mangrove die-off blamed on climate change

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Thousands of hectares of mangroves in Australia’s remote north have died, scientists said Monday, with climate change the likely cause. Some 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres), or nine percent of the mangroves in the Gulf of Carpentaria, perished in just one month according to researchers from Australia’s James Cook University, the first time such an event has been recorded. The so-called dieback — where mangroves are either dead or defoliated — was […]

All-Weather Urban Corridors for Clark and Angeles City

Ever worried about your car stalling in knee-deep floods? Or missing your flight due to impassable roads? A new study for Angeles City and the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga aims to ensure that the flow of goods, services and people remain undisrupted by assessing the vulnerability of roads to temperature increases and floods and identifying ‘All-Weather Urban Corridors.’ An All-Weather Urban Corridor is a network of roads with the ability to withstand the effects of extreme weather conditions, […]

Skeleton with stone-encrusted teeth found in Mexico ancient ruins

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) — Archeologists have discovered near Mexico’s ancient ruins of Teotihuacan the 1,600-year-old skeleton of an upper-class woman whose skull was intentionally deformed and teeth were encrusted with mineral stones. The woman, between 35 and 40 years old when she died, was buried with 19 jars that served as offerings, the National Anthropology and History Institute said. Her cranium was elongated by being compressed in a “very extreme” manner, a technique commonly […]