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by Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS PARIS, France (AFP) — Bottle-fed babies may ingest more than a million pieces of microplastics each day, new research showed Monday highlighting the abundance of plastics in our food products. There is growing evidence that humans consume huge numbers of the tiny particles, formed when larger pieces of plastic break down, but very little is known about the knock-on health consequences. Researchers in Ireland looked at the rate of microplastic release in […]
by Yannick PASQUET Agence France-Presse BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Researchers on the world’s biggest mission to the North Pole returned to Germany on Monday, bringing home devastating proof of a dying Arctic Ocean and warnings of ice-free summers in just decades. The German Alfred Wegener Institute’s Polarstern ship returned to the port of Bremerhaven after 389 days spent drifting through the Arctic trapped in ice, allowing scientists to gather vital information on the effects of […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian authorities Wednesday opened an investigation into suspected toxic waste pollution off the Kamchatka peninsula on its Pacific coast which has led to the mass death of marine animals. Locals sounded the alarm in late September as surfers experienced stinging eyes from the water and sea creatures including seals, octopuses and sea urchins washed up dead on the shore. The Russian branch of Greenpeace has described the situation as an “ecological […]
by Kelly MACNAMARA Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — An unusual vine discovered by a 91-year-old volunteer nature guide in Japan has a “unique” way of using its leaves to curl around its fruits to envelop them in a protective microclimate, scientists said on Wednesday. The cucurbitaceous vine, a type found in East Asia, is an oddity because while leaves come in all shapes and sizes and perform a crucial role in photosynthesis, they are […]
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Earth’s surface was warmer last month than during any September on record, with temperatures since January tracking those of the hottest ever calendar year in 2016, the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme said Wednesday. This year has now seen three months of record warmth — January, May and September — with June and April virtually tied for first, the Copernicus Climate Change Service reported. […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — The world’s sea floor is littered with an estimated 14 million tons of microplastics, broken down from the masses of rubbish entering the oceans every year, according to Australia’s national science agency. The quantity of the tiny pollutants was 25 times greater than previous localised studies had shown, the agency said, calling it the first global estimate of sea-floor microplastics. Researchers at the agency, known as CSIRO, used a robotic […]
by Holly ROBERTSON Agence France-Presse SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Tasmanian devils have been released into the wild on Australia’s mainland 3,000 years after the feisty marsupials went extinct there, in what conservationists described Monday as a “historic” step. Aussie Ark, along with a coalition of other conservation groups, revealed Monday that they had released 26 of the carnivorous mammals into a 400-hectare (1,000-acre) sanctuary at Barrington Tops, about 3.5 hours north of Sydney. Tim Faulkner, […]
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — The number of forest fires in Brazil’s Amazon increased sharply in September, figures released Thursday show, fueling growing criticism of President Jair Bolsonaro’s environmental policies. The National Institute of Space Research (INPE) said satellite imagery showed an increase of 61 percent in the number of fires in September, compared to the same period last year. Satellites used by the institute detected 32,017 outbreaks last month in the Amazon, compared […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Environmental campaigners demonstrated on the London streets and in tree-tops in the English countryside on Thursday against the construction of a new high-speed train line. Police removed 15 activists who had climbed trees in woodland in Buckinghamshire, north of London, which are said to have inspired the fantasy world of Roald Dahl’s children’s books, while another group marched on parliament. The HS2 project, which could cost up to £100 billion […]
KIEV, Ukraine (AFP) — At least nine people have died and 14 others have been injured in forest fires in eastern Ukraine near the front line of Kiev’s conflict with Moscow-backed separatists, the emergency services said Thursday. Ukraine has sent 1,200 firefighters to battle the blaze which officials in one village near the frontline said was detonating unexploded shells previously fired over by pro-Russian separatists. Investigators were trying to determine the cause of the fire […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain’s Cambridge University on Thursday pledged to stop investing in fossil fuels by 2030, bowing to pressure from environmentalists including its own students. The world-renowned seat of learning in eastern England said the pledge is part of its overall goal to slash carbon emissions to zero by 2038 — well ahead of the UK government’s 2050 target. The institution will now switch its £3.5-billion ($4.5-billion, 3.8-billion-euro) endowment fund — one […]
by Martin Abbugao SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — On the rooftop of a Singapore shopping mall, a sprawling patch of eggplants, rosemary, bananas and papayas stand in colourful contrast to the grey skyscrapers of the city-state’s business district. The 10,000 square-foot (930 square-meter) site is among a growing number of rooftop farms in the space-starved country, part of a drive to produce more food locally and reduce heavy reliance on imports. The government has championed the […]
