MAKASSAR, Indonesia (AFP) — The death toll from flash floods and landslides in Indonesia jumped to 26, a disaster agency official said Thursday, as rescuers race to find still-missing victims. Thousands have been evacuated from their homes as heavy rain and strong winds pounded the southern part of Sulawesi island, swelling rivers that burst their banks and inundating dozens of communities in nine southern districts. Parts of the provincial capital Makassar have also been affected. […]
Tag: Environment
Construction without coordination: how ants build megaprojects
by Patrick GALEY Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Leaf-cutter ants build super highways to transfer food and building materials hundreds of meters without communicating with each other, scientists claimed Wednesday, in findings that could prompt a rethink about how some insect communities organize themselves. Each leaf-cutter colony can carve out nearly three kilometers of trails from the forest floor every year, investing an average of 11,000 hours into constructing and maintaining them. It had […]
Greenland ice melts four times faster in a decade: study
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) — Greenland’s melting ice, which causes sea levels to rise, disappeared four times faster in 2013 than in 2003 and is noticeable across the Arctic island, not just on glaciers, researchers warned on Tuesday. “While 111 cubic kilometers of ice disappeared per year in 2003, 10 years later this figure had almost quadrupled to 428 cubic kilometers,” the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) Space Lab said in a statement. Its researchers contributed […]
Manila Zoo, pansamantalang isasara simula ngayong araw, Enero 23
(Eagle News) — Ipinag-utos ni Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada ang pansamantalang closure ng Manila Zoo simula ngayong araw, Enero 23 matapos na matukoy na isa ito sa mga pangunahing nakapagdudulot ng polusyon sa Manila Bay. Sa memorandum na may petsang Enero 21, sinabi ng Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) na major pollutant ang Manila Bay dahil naglalabas ito ng untreated wastewater. Inatasan din ang Department of Engineering and Public Works at ang […]
Scientists warn of climate ‘time bomb’ for world’s groundwater
by Patrick GALEY Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Future generations face an environmental “time bomb” as the world’s groundwater systems take decades to respond to the present day impact of climate change, scientists warned on Monday. Found underground in cracks in soil, sand and rock, groundwater is the largest usable source of freshwater on the planet and more than two billion people rely on it to drink or irrigate crops. It is slowly replenished […]
World to miss 2020 climate ‘turning point’: analysis
by Patrick GALEY Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — The world is on course to miss its “best chance” of preventing runaway climate change by ensuring global greenhouse gas emissions peak in 2020, researchers warned Tuesday. Even as Earth is buffeted by super-storms, droughts and flooding made worse by rising seas, and as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise globally, an analysis by the World Resources Institute showed that current efforts to limit temperature increases […]
Better than twilight? Check out the ‘Super blood wolf moon’
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — A 30-second time-lapse reveals the changing face of the “super blood wolf Moon.” An unusual set of celestial circumstances came together for sky-watchers in Europe, Africa and the Americas, where a total lunar eclipse offered a view of a large, red Moon.
Human diet causing ‘catastrophic’ damage to planet: study
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — The way humanity produces and eats food must radically change to avoid millions of deaths and “catastrophic” damage to the planet, according to a landmark study published Thursday. The key to both goals is a dramatic shift in the global diet — roughly half as much sugar and red meat, and twice as many vegetables, fruits and nuts, a consortium of three dozen researchers concluded […]
Bulgaria activists win case to save UNESCO-listed forest
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AFP) — Environmentalists in Bulgaria scored a victory Wednesday in a long-running court battle to prevent enlargement of a ski resort in the Pirin mountains, a UNESCO World Heritage site. In a ruling that cannot be appealed, Bulgaria’s supreme administrative court overturned controversial changes made by the government in December 2017 to the management plan for Pirin National Park. The changes opened up 48 percent of the park’s 40,000 hectares (almost 100,000 acres) […]
#Pasyalan: Whale shark watching sa Oslob, Cebu
(Eagle News) — Isa ang bayan ng Oslob sa lalawigan ng Cebu ang dinarayo ngayon ng mga bakasyonista kahit hindi pa summer. Ang dahilan ay ang maganda nitong tanawin at ang inaabangang whale shark watching. Dito, pwede mong makita nang malapitan ang mga butanding at lumangoy kasama ng mga ito. At sa dami ng mga gustong makakita ng butanding, alas-singko pa lamang ng umaga (5:00 AM) ay marami nang pumipila sa beach para magkaroon ng […]
Fixing the environment: when solutions become problems
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — In a world where climate change, air and water pollution, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, ozone depletion, and other environmental problems overlap, a fix in one arena can cause trouble in another. Here are a few examples of what might be called Earth’s “zero-sum” dilemma in the 21st century. Water vs. ocean pollution A study released Monday shows for the first time that more than 16,000 […]
Desalination produces more toxic waste than clean water
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — More than 16,000 desalination plants scattered across the globe produce far more toxic sludge than fresh water, according to a first global assessment of the sector’s industrial waste, published Monday. For every litre of fresh water extracted from the sea or brackish waterways, a litre-and-a-half of salty slurry, called brine, is dumped directly back into the ocean or the ground. The super-salty substance is made […]
