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by Patricia de Melo Moreira, with Bruno Cravo in Lisbon AMENDOA, Portugal (AFP) — Planes and helicopters joined nearly 2,000 firefighters in central Portugal Sunday to battle huge wildfires in a mountainous region where more than 100 people died in huge blazes in 2017. Some 1,700 firefighters and 400 vehicles were deployed in one of the biggest mobilizations ever seen in the area to fight the blazes in the heavily forested Castelo Branco region, 200 […]
by Michael Mathes MANDEVILLE, United States (AFP) — Barry weakened further on Sunday as the storm churned across the US state of Louisiana, bringing along heavy rains and the possibility of flooding and tornadoes. There have been no reported deaths so far in Louisiana or neighboring states from Barry, which had briefly become the first hurricane of the Atlantic season before the National Hurricane Center downgraded it to a tropical storm and then a tropical […]
NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump has declared a state of emergency as Tropical Storm Barry bears down on New Orleans, as the southern city braces for extreme winds over the weekend. The weather system is expected to reach hurricane strength Friday or early Saturday when it nears Louisiana’s coast, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), and has already caused major flooding in the low-lying city. Trump on Thursday […]
by Marlowe HOOD PARIS, France (AFP) — Climate change combined with galloping tropical deforestation is cutting off wildlife from life-saving cooler climes, heightening the risk of extinction, researchers said Monday. Less than two-fifths of forests across Latin America, Asia and Africa currently allow for animals and plants to avoid potentially intolerable increases in temperature, they reported in the journal Nature Climate Change. “The loss of tropical forests between 2000 and 2012 led to an area […]
by Catherine HOURS PARIS, France (AFP) — E-scooters touted as zero-carbon urban transport are flooding city streets worldwide, but just how green they remain an open question. The companies — from multinationals to local start-ups — distributing them insist the omnipresent two-wheel vehicles are a boon for the environment and a curb on global warming. “Bird was founded to help create a cleaner and the more hospitable world that prioritizes people over cars,” the American […]
by Ivan Couronne WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — After mysteriously expanding for decades, Antarctica’s sea ice cover melted by an area four times greater than France in just a few years and now stands at a record low, according to a study published Monday. Scientists already knew Antarctica was thawing at an increasing rate, like the Arctic, because of accelerating discharge from glaciers, the rivers of ice that push up slowly against the shore. But […]
by Alia Dharssi Agence France Pressee VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) — Tons of Canadian garbage left in the Philippines for years arrived back home Saturday, putting an end to a festering diplomatic row that highlighted how Asian nations have grown tired of being the world’s trash dump. A cargo vessel loaded with about 69 containers of rubbish docked in a port on the outskirts of Vancouver, according to an AFP reporter at the scene. The […]
BRITISH COLUMBIA, Canada (Eagle News) — The Philippines returned tons of garbage left in its ports years ago by Canada. The trash which caused tensions between the two countries entered the Deltaport container terminal in Tsawwassen, British Columbia, Canada on the cargo ship Anna Maersk. According to Canadian officials, the trash will be incinerated by a local waste-to-energy facility putting an end to the controversial garbage that even incited Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte […]
by Sébastien DUVAL WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — “How do you drink a milkshake without a straw?” It is a question the city of Washington will soon face after deciding, in the interest of the environment, to ban plastic drinking straws — an almost sacrilegious act in the birthplace of this simple object, a seemingly indispensable part of daily American life. In the last century, millions of straws were produced in the Stone Straw Building, […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Greenland’s ice sheet may have completely melted within the next millennium if greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current rate, according to a new study with implications for sea-level rise around the world. The Greenland ice sheet holds the equivalent of seven meters (yards) of sea level. “If we continue, as usual, Greenland will melt,” said lead author Andy Aschwanden, a research associate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ […]
by Jacques LEMIEUX MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — Canada will ban single-use plastics from 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday, declaring it a “global challenge” to phase out the plastic bags, straws and cutlery clogging the world’s oceans. “I am very pleased to announce that as early as 2021, Canada will ban harmful, single-use plastics from coast to coast,” Trudeau said, arguing Canada has a unique chance to lead the fight against plastic pollution as […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — US billionaire Michael Bloomberg said Thursday he will spend half a billion dollars in the “fight of our time” to move the US away from carbon energy and combat climate change. The former New York mayor and philanthropist said the $500 million investment will go toward launching the Beyond Carbon initiative, which aims to close nearly 250 coal plants throughout the country by 2030 and prevent new ones […]
