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HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) – Vietnam on Wednesday arrested a high-profile environmentalist known for taking on the energy industry on suspicion of tax evasion, state media said. Nguy Thi Khanh, 46, has been one of the few voices in Vietnam prepared to challenge plans to increase coal power to fuel economic development. Her organisation GreenID, Vietnam’s best-known environmental NGO, convinced the government to reduce some of its coal targets and sparked a national conversation about rising […]
by François PICARD Agence France-Presse HOUSTON, United States (AFP) – “You get used to it. The walls shake,” says Sam, a resident of Midland, a town in west Texas where hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas — known as “fracking” — is causing more and more earthquakes. “Then another tremor comes a second later, like a truck passing nearby,” said the 44-year-old, who did not wish to disclose his last name. Echoing his words, three […]
SAINT-JEAN-DE-LUZ, France (AFP) – Environmental organisation Sea Shepherd on Tuesday filed a legal complaint against the owners of a large fishing vessel after tens of thousands of dead fish were spotted off France’s Atlantic coast. The NGO last week published footage of what it said were more than 100,000 dead fish floating in the sea some 300 kilometres (186 miles) off the southwestern port city of La Rochelle in the Bay of Biscay. The fish, […]
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) – Mozambique, whose coastline has been ravaged by rising sea levels and tropical storms, announced plans on Tuesday to plant over 100 million trees to restore its battered mangroves. Large portions of mangroves along the country’s 2,500-kilometre-long (1,500-mile-long) coastline have been decimated by high seas and the harvesting of firewood for charcoal. The Ministry of Sea and Inland Waters said it plans to plant up to a 100 million trees over […]
by Stéphane ORJOLLET Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – Plastic has infiltrated all parts of the ocean and is now found “in the smallest plankton up to the largest whale” wildlife group WWF said on Tuesday, calling for urgent efforts to create an international treaty on plastics. Tiny fragments of plastic have reached even the most remote and seemingly-pristine regions of the planet: it peppers Arctic sea ice and has been found inside fish in […]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) – Dubai is ending the free distribution of single-use plastic bags in a drive towards more sustainable practices for the glitzy emirate known for its unbridled consumerism. From home deliveries to supermarkets and shops, single-use plastic bags are ubiquitous across the emirate. “In line with enhancing environmental sustainability and encouraging individuals to reduce the excessive use of plastics, the Executive Council of Dubai has approved the policy to limit single-use […]
ABERDARE, Kenya (AFP) – A fire that raged for two days in Kenya’s Aberdare National Park has been extinguished after burning through hundreds of hectares of wilderness, a government forest official said on Monday. The blaze started Saturday and dozens of forest rangers, firefighters and volunteers had struggled to control the fire from spreading, as suspicions of arson emerged. The park was etched in history when Britain’s Elizabeth II, then a princess on a 1952 […]
by Juan Sebastian SERRANO Agence France-Presse BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) – More than 100 African hippos descended from fewer than a handful imported as exotic pets by drug lord Pablo Escobar, face an uncertain future in Colombia. After the government added Escobar’s so-called “cocaine” hippos Friday to a list of “introduced, invasive species,” experts say killing them may be the only viable option. From the few individuals once housed at Escobar’s Hacienda Napoles estate, the hippos’ […]
by Samir Tounsi Agence France-Presse MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) – As dawn breaks over Mexico City’s floating gardens, Omar Menchaca paddles his kayak through a maze of canals collecting garbage left by visitors to one of the last vestiges of the ancient Aztec capital. In the silence of the early morning, before the hordes of tourists arrive, the 66-year-old retiree fishes plastic bottles and other debris from the waters of Xochimilco. “I came here to […]
by Carlos MANDUJANO Agence France-Presse LIMA, Peru (AFP) – Hand fed fish and given gentle yet rigorous baths, penguins and other sea birds are slowly regaining their strength at a Peruvian zoo after a major oil spill that claimed many of their friends. Of about 150 oil-stained birds rescued alive after the January 15 spill of some 12,000 barrels of oil, half later died. The survivors — penguins, cormorants and pelicans — are being nursed […]
CALLAO, Peru (AFP) – Spanish energy giant Repsol on Thursday vowed to finish by March cleaning up a devastating oil spill that has polluted beaches and killed wildlife. Almost 12,000 barrels of crude spilled into the sea off Peru on January 15 as a tanker unloaded oil at a Repsol owned refinery. “We expect that if the weather allows us then, in mid-March” the cleaning of beaches and islands off the coast will be completed, […]
by Paola LÓPEZ Agence France-Presse PUERTO MADEROS, Ecuador (AFP) – There is oil in the water, on the rocks and in the sand where children normally play on the banks of the Coca River in Ecuador. Residents of Puerto Maderos make no effort to hide their anger at the latest crude spill to hit the Ecuadoran Amazon. “This damage is not for a month, two months… it will be 20 years” before things return to […]
