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by Natalia SANTI JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Abandoning Jakarta for a new capital in Borneo won’t save the fast-sinking Indonesian megacity from disaster and could even spark a fresh environmental crisis in a region home to rainforests and endangered orangutans, critics have warned. President Joko Widodo announced this week that the Southeast Asian nation’s political heart would be moved nearly 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) east to a yet-to-be-built model city as a way of easing […]
by Jordi Miro, with Allison Jackson in Rio de Janeiro Agence France Presse PORTO VELHO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro signed a decree Wednesday to ban burning throughout the country for two months, government sources cited in local media said, as the authorities scramble to defuse the Amazon fires which have triggered a global outcry. The blazes that have engulfed parts of the world’s largest rainforest — which is crucial for maintaining […]
BIARRITZ, France (AFP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday pledged £10 million ($12.3 million) to help restore the Amazon rainforest which has been ravaged by fires, sparking a wave of global concern. The money would be made available immediately to help restore the habitat, including areas that have been hit by the fires, the British government said in a statement released at the G7 summit in the French resort of Biarritz. The pledge […]
(Eagle News)–The Senate has adopted a resolution honoring former Environment Secretary Gina Lopez, who succumbed to brain cancer on Monday, Aug. 19. Senate Resolution No. 100 and Senate Resolution No. 105 were introduced by Senators Lito Lapid and Manny Pacquiao, respectively. “Ms. Lopez was a true warrior and advocate for the protection and preservation of our environment. We want to honor and commemorate Ms. Lopez for her great service, achievements and contributions for the Filipino […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Time is running out for Jakarta. One of the fastest-sinking cities on earth, environmental experts warn that one third of it could be submerged by 2050 if current rates continue. Decades of uncontrolled and excessive depletion of groundwater reserves, rising sea-levels, and increasingly volatile weather patterns mean swathes of it have already started to disappear. Existing environmental measures have had little impact, so authorities are taking drastic action: the nation […]
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — Singapore said Monday it will impose a blanket ban on the domestic sale of elephant ivory and products from 2021 as the government tightens its campaign against illegal wildlife trade. The announcement on World Elephant Day followed two years of consultations with non-government groups, ivory retailers and the public. Authorities in the city-state made their largest ever seizure of smuggled ivory last month, impounding a haul of nearly nine tonnes […]
by Harry PEARL JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Dozens of people clutching bags full of plastic bottles and disposable cups queue at a busy bus terminal in the Indonesian city of Surabaya — where passengers can swap trash for travel tickets. The nation is the world’s second-biggest marine polluter behind China and has pledged to reduce plastic waste in its waters some 70 percent by 2025 by boosting recycling, raising public awareness, and curbing usage. The […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Nearly a quarter of the world’s population lives in 17 countries facing extremely high water stress, close to “day zero” conditions when the taps run dry, according to a report released Tuesday. The World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas ranked water stress, drought risk and riverine flood risk using a peer-reviewed methodology. “Agriculture, industry, and municipalities are drinking up 80 percent of available surface and groundwater in an average […]
by Theo MERZ MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called in the army to fight forest fires that have been raging across vast expanses of Siberia for days, enveloping entire cities in black smoke. Environmentalists have warned that the scale of the blazes could accelerate global warming, aside from any immediate effects on the health of inhabitants. Around three million hectares (7.4 million acres) of land in the centre and east […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Several Southeast Asian countries, sick of being the wealthy world’s rubbish dump, have in recent weeks turned back container-loads of waste from foreign shores. It comes after China last year stopped accepting the world’s used plastic, having previously been the biggest market for recyclables. After Indonesia on Tuesday announced it had sent back illegally imported garbage from France and Hong Kong, here is a roundup. China On January 1, 2018, China […]
by Maria PANINA MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Gigantic forest fires have regularly raged through the vast expanses of Russia’s Siberia, but the magnitude of this year’s blazes has reached an exceptional level with fears of a long-term impact on the environment. As fires sweep across millions of hectares enveloping entire cities in black smoke and noxious fumes, environmentalists warn of a disaster threatening to accelerate the melting of the Arctic. More than 3.2 million hectares […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia has returned seven shipping containers of illegally imported waste to France and Hong Kong, an official said Tuesday, marking the latest move by a Southeast Asian nation to send back rubbish to their wealthy places of origin. The containers were loaded with a combination of garbage, plastic waste and hazardous materials in violation of import rules, according to customs officials on Batam Island near Singapore. “The containers left on Monday […]
