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by Kelly MACNAMARA Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Some send divers in speed boats, others dispatch submersible robots to search the seafloor, and one team deploys a “mud missile” — all tools used by scientists to scour the world’s oceans for the next potent cancer treatment or antibiotic. A medicinal molecule could be found in microbes scooped up in sediment, be produced by porous sponges or sea squirts — barrel-bodied creatures that cling to […]
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France-Presse Paris, France (AFP) — Conservationists were celebrating Wednesday the first sightings in 24 years of the dusky tetraka, a yellow-throated songbird native to Madagascar for which ornithologists had feared the worst. A expedition to remote regions of the island nation confirmed two recent sightings of the bird. Scientists also learned something about the petite bird’s behaviour that could help explain how it escaped notice for so long, even if it […]
by Mikhail FLORES Agence France-Presse BARAS, Philippines (AFP) — From her house in a Manila suburb, Rowena Jimenez can’t see the bare mountains around the built-up city. But she feels the impact of deforestation every time her living room floods. Slash-and-burn farming, illegal logging, open-pit mining and development fueled by population growth have stripped the once-densely forested Philippines of much of its trees. In Manila, where more than 13 million people live, low-lying areas are […]
LA URIBE, Colombia (AFP) — For years, the crystal clear river flowing between giant boulders served as a strategic guerilla route in Colombia’s bloody armed conflict. But today tourists bob happily down it in multi-colored inflatables, accompanied by birdsong and the rush of water. The Guape Canyon, a 35-meter (115-foot) deep natural wonder in the town of La Uribe in the southern Meta department, was hidden for decades by the fighting between Bogota and the […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Major industrial and economic centers in China and the United States are among the most vulnerable regions in the world to the increasingly destructive power of climate change-driven weather extremes, according to a comprehensive analysis Monday. The new findings underscore the urgent need for governments to focus on decarbonization and adaptation measures such as flood-proofing — and show the economic fallout from climate change could be grave and widespread. Nine of […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — More than one third of the Amazon rainforest may have been degraded by human activity and drought, researchers said Thursday, and action is needed to protect the critically important ecosystem. In a study published in the journal Science, the researchers said the damage done to the forest which spans nine countries is significantly greater than previously known. For the study, they examined the impact of fire, logging, drought and changes […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan plans to start releasing more than a million tons of treated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean this year, a top government spokesman said Friday. The plan has been endorsed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but the government will wait for “a comprehensive report” by the UN watchdog before the release, chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters. Cooling systems at the plant […]
A top Thai conservation official was arrested on corruption charges on Tuesday, with police saying he was caught receiving a bribe and that $144,000 in cash was found in his office. Rutchada Suriyakul na Ayutya, director-general of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, was appointed in February. He managed efforts to protect the kingdom’s environment and endangered animals, overseeing more than 150 national parks. “The officials have arrested him while the money […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain’s National Trust on Wednesday said nature and wildlife at the charity’s sites had been harmed by extreme weather in the past year and warned it could become the “new normal”. The heritage conservation charity’s climate change adviser Keith Jones said it was a “stark illustration of the sort of difficulties many of our species will face if we don’t do more to mitigate rising temperatures”. “We’re going to experience […]
Goma, DR Congo (AFP) M23 rebel activity in volatile eastern DR Congo is threatening mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park and leaving the endangered species vulnerable to poachers, a spokesman said on Tuesday. About a third of the global population of mountain gorillas lives in the park, a renowned wildlife reserve spanning 7,800 square kilometres (3,000 square miles) on the border with neighbouring Uganda and Rwanda. But M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of […]
by Issam Ahmed and Roland Lloyd Parry Agence France-Presse MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — Countries reached a historic deal on Monday to reverse decades of environmental destruction threatening the world’s species and ecosystems, in what the UN chief hailed as “a peace pact with nature.” After the marathon COP 15 biodiversity summit in Montreal ran into the small hours, chair Chinese Environment Minister Huang Runqiu, declared the deal adopted and banged his gavel, sparking loud applause. […]
Montreal, Canada (AFP) by Issam Ahmed and Roland Lloyd Parry Countries gathered at a UN meeting on biodiversity in Montreal were inching closer Sunday to a deal to protect 30 percent of the planet by 2030 and to stump up $30 billion in yearly aid for the developing world to save their ecosystems. Fraught talks to seal a “peace pact for nature” came to a head as summit chair China presented a long-awaited compromise […]
