Tag: Environment

Germany’s climate militants fight for parliamentary seats

by Yann SCHREIBER with Pauline CURTET in Garmisch-Partenkirchen Agence France-Presse MONCHENGLADBACH, Germany (AFP) – Dressed in a rainbow-coloured unicorn costume, Kathrin Henneberger once camped on a beech tree, trying to save a forest from destruction. Come Monday, she hopes to be one of Germany’s newly elected MPs. The 34-year-old counts among one of Germany’s most prominent climate militants standing in Sunday’s general elections for a seat in parliament. After years of occupying coal mines or […]

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UK reaches deal to boost CO2 production after shortage

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – Britain has signed a deal enabling it to restart production of captured carbon dioxide for three weeks, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said Tuesday, after a shortage of the gas had sparked renewed food supply concerns. Two UK fertiliser plants accounting for up to 60 percent of Britain’s CO2 supply — which is vital for the food industry — shut last week due to spiking natural gas costs. But Kwarteng announced […]

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S.Africa regulator approves controversial floating power plants

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) – South Africa’s energy regulator on Tuesday approved generating licenses for three controversial floating power plants, stoking environmental concerns as Africa’s most industrialised nation grapples with electricity shortages. Turkey-based Karpowership, one of the world’s largest floating power plant operators, in March won a government tender to supplement South Africa’s fragile electricity supply with gas-to-power projects at three ports. But the environment ministry subsequently blocked Karpowership’s permit application over concerns about the environmental […]

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Endangered penguins in South Africa die from bee stings

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa (AFP) – A swarm of bees has killed 63 endangered African penguins on a beach outside Cape Town, the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds said on Sunday. “After tests, we found bee stings around the penguins’ eyes,” said the foundation’s David Roberts, a clinical veterinarian. “This is a very rare occurence. We do not expect it to happen often, its a fluke. “There were also dead bees on […]

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Giant sequoias wrapped in foil to protect from US forest fires

LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — The world’s biggest trees were being wrapped in fire-proof blankets Thursday in an effort to protect them from huge blazes tearing through the drought-stricken western United States. A grove of ancient sequoias, including the 275-foot (83-meter) General Sherman Tree — the largest in the world — were getting aluminum cladding to fend off the flames. Firefighters were also clearing brush and pre-positioning engines among the 2,000 ancient trees in […]

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Faroe Islands to re-evaluate dolphin-hunting after outcry

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) – The Faroe Islands, an autonomous territory of Denmark, said Thursday it would take another look at the practice of dolphin-hunting after the slaughter of more than 1,400 of the mammals earlier this week sparked an outcry. “The government has decided to start an evaluation of the regulations on the catching of Atlantic white-sided dolphins,” the northern archipelago’s prime minister, Bardur a Steig Nielsen, said in a statement. “Although these hunts are considered […]

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Indonesia court finds president negligent over pollution in landmark case

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — In a landmark victory for Indonesian environment campaigners, a court on Thursday ordered President Joko Widodo to clean up Jakarta’s notorious air pollution, ruling that the leader and other top officials had been negligent in protecting citizens. The capital and its surroundings form a megacity of about 30 million people, which routinely ranks among the most polluted cities in the world. Experts have warned for years about the threat posed by […]

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UNESCO announces 20 new biospheres in 21 countries

ABUJA, Nigeria (AFP) – UNESCO on Wednesday added 20 new sites in 21 countries to its global network of biosphere reserves, the UN agency’s designation for specially protected regions. New biosphere reserves are designated each year to promote sustainable development, protect terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems and encourage conservation. For the first time, Lesotho, Libya and Saudi Arabia joined the list. In Lesotho, the Matseng Biosphere Reserve covers an area of 112,033 hectares in the northern […]

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Tunis residents decry beaches too polluted for swimming

by Akim Rezgui with Francoise Kadri in Tunis EZZAHRA, Tunisia (AFP) — Tahar Jaouebi looks out from a beach south of Tunis remembering the 1990s, when the water was still clean enough to bathe in. “Now I can’t swim any more, and neither can my son,” he says. Jaouebi, 47, is one of hundreds of protesters who formed a human chain over the weekend to highlight the pollution plaguing the coast south of the Tunisian […]

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Donkey milk soap soaking up fans in Jordan

by Mussa Hattar MADABA, Jordan (AFP) — Friends and family initially mocked one Jordanian family’s new venture making soap from donkey milk. But now, a year on, the company is cleaning up as customers bray for more. Atan Donkey Milk Soaps produces 100 percent natural soaps from its farm in Madaba, 35 kilometres (21 miles) southwest of Amman, where it keeps 12 donkeys, and a small manufacturing workshop in the Jordanian capital. Although other regions […]

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Merkel’s record mixed as she takes wheel at last IAA show

by Sophie MAKRIS Agence France-Presse BERLIN, Germany (AFP) – No German leader’s diary would be complete without a visit to the venerable IAA motor show, which welcomes Angela Merkel on Tuesday for the last time in her chancellorship. But the biennial celebration of all things auto-related is mired in controversy this year as Germany struggles to adapt its flagship industry to the electric and digital revolution. Merkel, who is quitting politics after an election on […]

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Conservation meet mulls moratorium on deep sea mining

by Laure FILLON Agence France-Presse MARSEILLE, France (AFP) – The world’s top conservation forum will vote this week on whether to recommend a moratorium on deep sea mining, with scientists warning that ecosystems degraded while dredging the ocean floor 5,000 metres below the waves could take decades or longer to heal. The proposed ban is among a score of measures deemed too controversial to be decided remotely ahead of the International Union for the Conservation […]

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