Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
by Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – A giant iceberg that detached from Antarctica in 2017 released the equivalent of 61 million Olympic-sized swimming pools of fresh water as it melted, according to research published Thursday, raising questions over the impact on the marine ecosystem. The monstrous iceberg was twice the size of Luxembourg when it separated from the Larsen ice shelf, which has warmed faster than any other part of Earth’s southernmost […]
by Kelly MACNAMARA Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – Scientists have discovered a vast reef of “pristine” rose-shaped corals apparently unharmed by climate change in deep water off the coast of Tahiti, UNESCO announced Thursday. Mapping approximately three kilometres (two miles) long and up to 65 metres (213 feet) wide, UNESCO said it was “one of the most extensive healthy coral reefs on record”. The UN heritage agency said it was “highly unusual” to find […]
by Marion DOUET Agence France-Presse LAKE KIVU, Rwanda (AFP) – The engineers aboard the floating power station on Lake Kivu could only watch nervously as the volcano in the distance erupted violently, sending tremors rumbling through the water beneath them. It was not the lava shooting from Mount Nyiragongo last May that spooked them, but the enormous concentrations of potentially explosive gases within Kivu, one of Africa’s great Rift lakes lying between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic […]
LIMA, Peru (AFP) – Peru demanded compensation Wednesday from Spanish energy giant Repsol over an oil spill caused by freak waves from a volcanic eruption near Tonga in the South Pacific. Authorities sealed off three beaches on Monday after 6,000 barrels of oil were spilled during the offloading of a tanker at the Pampilla refinery off the coast near Lima. The Repsol oil spill “is the worst ecological disaster in Lima in recent times, and […]
MIAMI, Florida (AFP) – The plan to restore the Florida Everglades, the largest wetlands in the United States, will receive a federal investment of $1.1 billion to protect the region against the effects of climate change, the White House said Wednesday. “The Administration is making the largest single investment in the Everglades in US history,” the White House said in a statement. The money, which comes from already approved funds in President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion […]
SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) – A Chilean appeals court on Friday suspended a million-dollar state lithium tender issued two days earlier that had generated controversy for coming just two months before the end of conservative President Sebastian Pinera’s term. “Bearing in mind that the contested act is in full execution, it is agreed not to innovate, paralyzing the bidding and award process for the lithium, while this appeal is resolved,” said the court in Copiapo in […]
by Laure FILLON / Marlowe HOOD Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – Expanding nature preserves will not be enough to stem a rising tide of extinctions, a panel of experts warned Wednesday, taking aim at a draft treaty tasked with rescuing Earth’s animal and plant life. Setting aside at least 30 percent of both land and oceans as protected zones is the cornerstone target of the so-called global biodiversity framework to be finalised in May at […]
by Julia ZAPPEI with Denise HRUBY in Zwentendorf, Austria Agence France-Presse VIENNA, Austria (AFP) – As the EU moves to label energy from nuclear power and natural gas as “green” investments, Austria is gearing up to fight this, including with a legal complaint. The European Commission is consulting with member states and European lawmakers until Friday on its plans. A final text could be published by end of the month and would become EU law […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) – ExxonMobil pledged Tuesday to reach “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions in its operations by 2050, but stopped short of extending the promise to products it sells throughout the global economy. The petroleum giant’s promise covers “Scope 1” and “Scope 2” emissions, which account for carbon emissions from ExxonMobil operations, as well as emissions associated with the purchase of heating or cooling at its facilities, according to a company press […]
BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) – A 14-year-old environmental activist has been shot dead in Colombia, indigenous groups and officials said, in the latest such attack in the world’s deadliest country for environmentalists. Breiner David Cucuname was one of two people killed while taking part in a rural security patrol Friday by an indigenous guard in the southwestern Cauca department plagued by violence between illicit armed groups. The group of the Nasa indigenous community, armed only with […]
PARIS, France (AFP) – Paris city authorities unveiled a “manifesto for beauty” on Tuesday containing plans to spruce up the City of Lights where an online campaign highlighting ugliness and filth has piled pressure on mayor Anne Hidalgo. Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said that several recent initiatives from the Socialist-Green alliance that runs the capital would be scrapped, including allowing Parisians to plant their own gardens on public space. Under a 2015 scheme, locals were […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – Scotland, fresh from hosting the COP26 climate summit, on Monday awarded offshore wind project concessions for almost £700 million ($960 million, 840 million euros). Crown Estate Scotland announced in a statement that it has granted 17 concessions via an auction process to energy companies including BP, Royal Dutch Shell and SSE, as well as Spain’s Iberdrola and France’s TotalEnergies. The final awards received a total of 74 bids, totalled £699.2 […]
