Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) – The past decade has been the hottest on record, the UN said Wednesday, warning that the higher temperatures were expected to fuel numerous extreme weather events in 2020 and beyond. The World Meteorological Organization, which based its findings on analysis of leading international datasets, said it also confirmed data released by the European Union’s climate monitor last week showing that last year was the second hottest on record, after 2016. “The […]
KANGAROO ISLAND, Australia (AFP) – Dozens of injured koalas arrive at the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park’s makeshift animal hospital each day in cat carriers, washing baskets or clinging to wildlife carers. Injured in bushfires that have ravaged the wildlife haven off the coast of South Australia state, there are so many marsupials currently requiring urgent treatment that carers don’t have time to give them names — they are simply referred to by a number. Among […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – Rupert Murdoch’s younger son James has called out his father’s media empire for “denial” of climate change, calling it a disappointment in light of wildfires in Australia, a report said Tuesday. The Daily Beast reported that James Murdoch and his activist wife Kathryn had harsh words for his family’s company, which operates US-based Fox News as well as newspapers in the US, Britain and Rupert Murdoch’s native Australia through its […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) – Helicopter-borne marksmen killed more than 5,000 camels in a five-day cull of feral herds that were threatening indigenous communities in drought-stricken areas of southern Australia, officials said Tuesday. Aboriginal leaders in South Australia state said extremely large herds of the non-native camels had been driven towards rural communities by drought and extreme heat, threatening scarce food and drinking water, damaging infrastructure, and creating a dangerous hazard for drivers. The cull in […]
BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) – Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil soared 85 percent in 2019, compared with the previous year, official data showed Tuesday. The 9,166 square kilometers (3,539 square miles) cleared was the highest number in at least five years, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research. In 2018, the deforested area was 4,946 square kilometers. The sharp increase overlapped the first year in office of President Jair Bolsonaro, a climate […]
by Patrick GALEY PARIS, France (AFP) — The world’s oceans were the hottest in recorded history in 2019, scientists said on Tuesday, as manmade emissions warmed seas at an ever-increasing rate with potentially disastrous impacts on Earth’s climate. Oceans absorb more than 90 percent of excess heat created by greenhouse gas emissions and quantifying how much they have warmed up in recent years gives scientists an accurate read on the rate of global warming. A […]
STRASBOURG, France (AFP) – Marine LAOUCHEZ Going green can be a costly business, as the EU’s executive body will make clear on Tuesday when it launches a one-trillion-euro plan to finance its goal of making the bloc carbon neutral by 2050. That figure represents a 10-year investment to be sourced from public funds and leveraged private sector money. It is part of Europe’s “Green Deal” — an ambitious rethinking of the economy, transport and energy […]
by Nina LARSON GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — A new virus from the same family as the deadly SARS disease has spread beyond China’s borders for the first time with a case emerging in Thailand, UN and Thai officials said on Monday. Thai doctors diagnosed with a Chinese traveler with mild pneumonia on January 8 later confirmed to have been caused by the so-called novel coronavirus — which has already given rise to 41 pneumonia-like […]
by Marlowe HOOD PARIS, France (AFP) — Thirty percent of Earth’s surface across land and sea should become protected areas by 2030 to ensure the viability of ecosystems essential to human wellbeing, according to a UN plan released Monday. The draft proposal to halt the degradation of Nature and the gathering pace of species loss will be vetted by nearly 200 countries gathering in October for a make-or-break biodiversity summit, the 15th since 1994. Up […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) – Siemens boss announced Sunday that the German conglomerate has decided to remain involved in a controversial Adani Carmichael coal mining project in Australia, despite massive environmental criticism as the country faces unprecedented bushfires. The contract for some 18 million euros ($20 million) calls for Siemens to supply rail infrastructure for the Carmichael mine in Queensland, near the Great Barrier Reef. “We have just finished our special meeting…. We have evaluated all […]
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 […]
