Tag: Environment

Tottenham Spurs aiming to stage world’s first ‘net-zero carbon’ match

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – Tottenham are aiming to host the “world’s first net-zero carbon” football match at an elite level when the Premier League team face Chelsea on September 19. Spurs have joined forces with the British government and broadcaster Sky to raise awareness of the dangers of climate change. The London club hope the fixture, branded “GameZero”, will inspire fans to reduce their own carbon footprints. The eco-friendly London derby comes less than […]

Funding needed to tackle life-shortening air pollution: report

by Natalie HANDEL PARIS, France (AFP) — Even as air pollution shaves years off life expectancy, fossil fuel projects get more funding than clean air initiatives, a global report said Tuesday. An annual survey by the Clean Air Fund, which looks into how much money is given to the fight against air pollution by donor governments and philanthropic organisations, found that air quality is low on the list of funding priorities. Less than one percent […]

Crews work to contain oil spill in Gulf after Ida’s passage

WASHINGTON D.C., United States (AFP) – Workers have deployed containment booms and skimmer devices as they attempt to contain a sizable oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico discovered after Hurricane Ida roared through the area, the US Coast Guard said Sunday. The spill is in waters off Port Fourchon, Louisiana — near where Ida made landfall — in a region that is a major hub of the US petrochemical industry. An oil slick now […]

Conservation meet mulls plan to protect 80% of Amazon

by Marlowe HOOD Agence France-Presse MARSEILLE, France (AFP) – Should 80 percent of the Amazon be declared a protected area by 2025? The world’s top conservation body is on Sunday poised to decide whether its 1,400 members can vote on this controversial proposal, put forward by indigenous groups. Submitted under an emergency provision to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the measure calls for a “global action plan” to halt rampant deforestation […]

Climate action cannot wait for pandemic to end, medical journals warn

PARIS, France (AFP) — Global warming is already affecting people’s health so much that emergency action on climate change cannot be put on hold while the world deals with the Covid-19 pandemic, medical journals across the globe warned on Monday. “Health is already being harmed by global temperature increases and the destruction of the natural world,” read an editorial published in more than 220 leading journals ahead of the Cop26 climate summit in November. Since […]

Floating Dutch cow farm aims to curb climate impact

by Charlotte VAN OUWERKERK Agence France-Presse ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AFP) — Among the cranes and containers of the port of Rotterdam is a surreal sight: a herd of cows peacefully feeding on board what calls itself the world’s first floating farm. In the low-lying Netherlands where land is scarce and climate change is a daily threat, the three-storey glass and steel platform aims to show the “future of breeding”. The buoyant bovines live on the top floor, […]

Swiss glaciologist bears witness to relentless Alpine glacier melt

by Eloi ROUYER Agence France-Presse SWITZERLAND (AFP) — After hiking for hours across the mountain and a vast expanse of white, Swiss glaciologist Matthias Huss crouches down near the middle of the massive glacier and checks the measurements. Analysis of the data gathered from Aletsch, the largest glacier in the Alps, paints a dire picture of the toll that climate change is taking on the behemoth. Aletsch glacier alone holds about a fifth of the […]

Colombian photographer documents world’s largest variety of butterflies

by Hector Velasco JARDIN, Colombia (AFP) — Like the more than 3,000 species of butterflies in Colombia, agronomist Juan Guillermo Jaramillo underwent his own metamorphosis several years ago, as his passion for photographing nature took an unexpected twist. The 65-year-old, who used to run an animal feed business, originally took photographs of birds, but he is now a key figure in the world of Colombian butterflies. Jaramillo is the co-author of an inventory that led […]

Drought diplomacy helps boost Israel-Jordan ties

by Ben Simon JERUSALEM, Undefined (AFP) — As scientific warnings of dire climate change-induced drought grow, many in Israel and Jordan cast worried eyes at the river running between them and the critical but limited resources they share. This month the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change showed unequivocally that the climate is changing faster than previously feared, heaping pressure on finite water supplies even as demands grow greater than ever before. But experts say […]

Plastic threatens migratory species in Asia-Pacific: UN

by Kelly MACNAMARA PARIS, France (AFP) — From endangered freshwater dolphins drowned by discarded fishing nets to elephants scavenging through rubbish, migratory species are among the most vulnerable to plastic pollution, a UN report on the Asia-Pacific region said Tuesday, calling for greater action to cut waste. Plastic particles have infiltrated even the most remote and seemingly-pristine regions of the planet, with tiny fragments discovered inside fish in the deepest recesses of the ocean and […]

Researchers discover world’s ‘northernmost’ island

Scientists have discovered what is believed to be the world’s northernmost landmass — a yet-to-be-named island north of Greenland that could soon be swallowed up by seawaters. Researchers came upon the landmass on an expedition in July, and initially thought they had reached Oodaaq, up until now the northernmost island on the planet. “We were informed that there had been an error on my GPS which had led us to believe that we were standing […]

Experts estimate endangered Galapagos pink iguana population at 211

QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) — Scientific experts sent to the Galapagos Islands to count a critically endangered lizard species estimate there to be just 211 pink iguanas left, local authorities said Friday. Around 30 scientists and Galapagos park rangers took part in the expedition this month on Wolf Volcano, in the north of Isabela Island — the largest on the archipelago. “In the census, 53 iguanas were located and (temporarily) captured, 94 percent of which live […]