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LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — One of California’s iconic giant sequoia trees was recently found to be still smoldering and smoking in an area of the state devastated by massive wildfires last summer, National Park authorities said Wednesday. “Scientists and fire crews were surveying the effects from the 2020 Castle Fire in Sequoia National Park, when they observed a still smoldering and smoking giant sequoia tree that appears to be caused from last year’s […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Sydney was enveloped in a thick bank of hazardous bushfire smoke Monday, forcing authorities in Australia’s largest city to scale back controlled forest burning nearby. Ferries were cancelled and the city’s five million residents were told to stay indoors if necessary, as air pollution levels spiked. Levels of hazardous PM 2.5 pollution — particles that can seep deep into the lungs and cause respiratory illnesses — were among the worst in […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — A towering wall of sand rushed over factories and apartment blocks in northwestern China’s Gansu province as seasonal sandstorms barrelled across the country, causing air pollution and traffic accidents. Aerial images as it struck showed an apocalyptic scene as a billowing cloud of yellow dust smothered Gansu’s Linze county on Sunday. State media CCTV reported multiple car accidents in the province caused by low visibility, while meteorologists have warned people to […]
by Patrick GALEY PARIS, France (AFP) — The vast melting of Greenland’s ice sheet caused by unusually high temperatures in 2012 had a lasting impact on its ability to absorb and store future meltwater, new research showed Tuesday. Authors of the research said it was evidence of how one-off or rare weather events could have a lasting impact on Earth’s frozen spaces and a knock-on effect on global sea levels. In summer 2012, much of […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — More than one million households and businesses in Taiwan’s heavily industrialized central regions were put on water rationing Tuesday, as the island battles its worst drought in 56 years. The shortage is expected to particularly impact the water-intensive microchip manufacturing sector during a global shortage of semiconductors that power everything from cars to iPhones and computers. The state water company is now cutting supplies in Taichung, Miaoli and northern Changhua county […]
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AFP) — Nepal is experiencing its worst fire season in almost a decade, officials said Tuesday, as huge blazes rage across the country’s forests, engulfing the Himalayan nation in a shroud of brownish haze. Air quality in the capital Kathmandu was ranked on Tuesday as the worst in the world, according to monitoring site IQAir, with some international flights delayed as thick smoke blanketed the city. “The highest number of wildfires have been […]
by Handrianus Emanuel LEMBATA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia’s navy readied hospital ships Wednesday to help treat injured survivors of a cyclone that has killed about 160 in the archipelago and neighboring East Timor, as fears grow over coronavirus outbreaks in cramped evacuation shelters. Helicopters were also dropping food and other essentials into remote villages, while sniffer dogs were deployed to search for the dozens still missing after weekend floods and landslides devastated the Southeast Asian […]
by Leila MACOR MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Emergency crews in central Florida were working Sunday to prevent an environmental catastrophe at a leaking reservoir that risked sending millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater toward nearby homes and into the Tampa Bay. More than 300 homes near the site of an abandoned phosphate mine and fertilizer-production facility in Manatee County were under mandatory evacuation orders, and Governor Ron DeSantis on Saturday declared a state of […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Ice sheet melting at the end of the last ice age may have caused sea levels to rise at 10 times the current rate, a study published Thursday by a team led by scientists from Britain’s Durham University said. Based on geological records, the researchers estimate that oceans worldwide rose 3.6 metres per century over a 500-year period some 14,600 years ago. The findings raise a red flag about the […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US government on Monday unveiled plans to bolster offshore wind farms with the goal of supplying energy to more than 10 million homes by 2030, as part of President Joe Biden’s efforts to fight climate change. The objective of the initiative — which will be carried out by the departments of commerce, the interior, transport and energy — is to produce 30 gigawatts of wind power in the country […]
By Agence France Presse From Singapore to Buenos Aires, cities around the world turned off their lights Saturday to mark Earth Hour, with this year’s event highlighting the link between the destruction of nature and increasing outbreaks of diseases like Covid-19. After starting in Asia, the call to action on climate change made its way around a planet reeling from the coronavirus pandemic. As the day came to an end, it was the turn […]
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AFP) — Seven people were injured and 15 more missing on Wednesday as forest fires ripped through Argentine Patagonia, official sources said. Some 200 people had to be evacuated and around 100 homes were damaged by fire in an area of forests and lakes popular with tourists close to the Andes mountain range. “I’m going to file a criminal complaint because it was an intentional fire,” said Environment Minister Juan Cabandie in […]
