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SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — At least twenty-five whales have died and scientists are trying to rescue 250 more that are stranded in a remote bay on the Australian island of Tasmania, officials said Monday. Tasmania’s environment department said the whales had become stuck on a sandbar in Macquarie Harbour, on the island’s rugged and sparsely populated west coast. Nic Deka, who is managing the incident response, said two large pods were stranded on sandbars a […]
by Ivan Couronne with Pia Ohlin in Stockholm WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Arctic summer sea ice melted in 2020 to the second smallest size since records began 42 years ago, US scientists announced Monday, offering further stark evidence of the impact of global warming. Arctic sea ice melts in summer and reforms in winter, but precise satellite imagery taken regularly since 1979 documented how the cycle has been shrinking significantly. The year’s minimum was […]
BRISBANE, Australia (AFP) — Australia is notorious for its venomous spiders, snakes and sea creatures, but researchers have now identified “scorpion-like” toxins secreted by a tree that can cause excruciating pain for weeks. Split-second contact with the dendrocnide tree, a rainforest nettle known by its indigenous name gympie-gympie, delivers a sting far more potent than similar plants found in the US or Europe. The tree, which has broad oval- or heart-shaped leaves, is primarily found […]
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) — Sri Lanka will file negligence and pollution charges against the Greek skipper of an oil tanker that leaked fuel off the island nation’s coast after a week-long fire, authorities said Wednesday. Some of the 1,700 tonnes of heavy fuel oil aboard the New Diamond poured into the Indian Ocean, prompting a large effort to contain a slick that was roughly two kilometres (1.2 miles) in length. Its 270,000-tonne cargo of […]
BRASILÍA, Brazil (AFP) — An unprecedented coalition of 230 environmental groups and Brazilian agrobusiness companies have sent an open letter to President Jair Bolsonaro urging him to fight deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. The Brazil Climate, Forests and Agriculture Coalition brings together a disparate group of members ranging from the World Wildlife Fund to the world’s biggest meat processing company, JBS, which has itself been accused of contributing to deforestation. The coalition sent Brazil’s far-right […]
by Eugenia LOGIURATTO Agence France-Presse PORTO JOFRE, Brazil (AFP) — Lieutenant Silva’s face is grim as he watches his firefighters try — and fail — to control one of the thousands of wildfires ravaging Brazil’s Pantanal, the world’s biggest tropical wetlands. “It needs to rain. We’ve got low moisture, intense heat. With that combination, rain is our only hope,” says Silva, even as new flames break out at the spot his team of six firefighters […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Smoke from the fires ravaging the American West Coast traveled across the continent to reach the skies over New York on Tuesday, according to meteorological reports. The smoke was visible in the hazy New York sky, thought it remained well above the ground at 15,000 to 20,000 feet (4,500 to 6,000 meters), according to the site NY Metro Weather. Thanks to strong pressure systems, the smoke was trapped along […]
by Eugenia LOGIURATTO The smell of burnt vegetation and the red glow of flames welcome visitors these days to the Pantanal, the world’s biggest tropical wetlands — a biodiverse paradise that is now partly reduced to ashes by record wildfires. In the northern Pantanal, in central-western Brazil — a region that formerly had a thriving ecotourism industry — hotel employee Felipe Maia is hosing down a wooden bridge, hoping to stop the nearby flames from […]
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) — Sri Lankan military divers fixed a fuel leak from the engine of a fire-damaged oil tanker off the island’s east coast, the navy said Saturday, in a salvage operation after the huge week-long blaze. While the navy says no crude oil has escaped the cargo of the New Diamond, leaked diesel fuel had created a two-kilometre-long slick in the Indian Ocean that was visible from the air. The fuel was seeping […]
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) — A massive chunk of ice — larger than the city of Paris — has broken off from the Arctic’s largest ice shelf because of warmer temperatures in Greenland, scientists said Monday. The 113-square-kilometre (43-square-mile) block broke off the Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden glacier in Northeast Greenland, which the scientists said had been expected given the rising average temperatures. “We’re observing increasing speed on this largest remaining ice shelf,” Jason Box, professor of glaciology at […]
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AFP) — Tanzania and Uganda signed an agreement Sunday to commence construction on a 1,445-kilometre (900 mile) oil pipeline through East Africa that conservation groups say threatens livelihoods and fragile ecosytems. The project focuses on oilfields in landlocked Uganda discovered in 2006 and proposes pumping the crude to the coast via a pipeline across Tanzania at an estimated cost of $3.5 billion. The multi-national plan is led by French petroleum giant […]
RIO DE JANERIO, Brazil (AFP) — Last month was the second-worst August on record for deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, according to official figures released Friday, sparking new criticism of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s environmental policies. A total of 1,359 square kilometers (525 square miles) in the Brazilian Amazon — 23 times the size of Manhattan — were lost last month, according to satellite data from Brazil’s National Space Research Institute (INPE). The figure triggered […]
