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by Martine PAUWELS Agence France-Presse BRIGHTON, United Kingdom (AFP) – Brighton, on England’s south coast, has been described as Britain’s hippest city, and is a haven for tourists, especially Londoners keen to escape the capital. But surfer Stu Davies says the waters off Brighton and along the Channel coast are less attractive, describing them as an “open sewer”. Human faeces, wipes and tampons are regularly discharged into seas and rivers, angering local residents who are […]
PARIS, France (AFP) – From Mount Everest to the Mariana Trench, microplastics are everywhere – even high in the Earth’s troposphere where wind speeds allow them to travel vast distances, a study showed Tuesday. Microplastics are tiny fragments — measuring less than 5 millimetres — that come from packaging, clothing, vehicles and other sources and have been detected on land, in water and in the air. Scientists from the French national research institute CNRS sampled […]
The US state of California announced Monday it is suing Walmart, alleging the retail giant unlawfully disposes of millions of toxic waste items. The state said it had conducted 58 inspections of trash compactors at Walmart stores between 2015 and 2021 and found items that require special handling when they are thrown out, such as batteries, insect killers, cleaning supplies, electronic waste and confidential customer information. “When one person throws out a battery or half-empty […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — The operators of a California pipeline that leaked crude oil onto beaches south of Los Angeles in early October were charged Wednesday with negligence by federal prosecutors. The charges were leveled against Amplify Energy, a Texas company operating the pipeline off Huntington Beach, and two of its subsidiaries — Beta Operating Co. and San Pedro Bay Pipeline Co., according to the prosecutor’s statement. The authorities accuse them of not […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) – The operators of a California pipeline that leaked crude oil on to beaches south of Los Angeles in early October were charged Wednesday with negligence by federal prosecutors. The charges were leveled against Amplify Energy, a Texas company operating the pipeline off Huntington Beach, and two of its subsidiaries — Beta Operating Co. and San Pedro Bay Pipeline Co., according to the prosecutor’s statement. The authorities accuse them of […]
LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) — The Pakistani city of Lahore was declared the most polluted city in the world by an air quality monitor on Wednesday, as residents choking in acrid smog pleaded with officials to take action. Lahore had an air quality ranking of 348, well over the hazardous level of 300, according to IQAir, the Swiss technology company that operates the AirVisual monitoring platform. “Children are experiencing breathing diseases… for God’s sake, find a […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) – Delhi shut down schools until further notice, urged people to work from home and banned non-essential trucks from entering the Indian capital due to dangerous levels of air pollution. One of the world’s most polluted cities and home to some 20 million people, Delhi is cloaked every winter in a thick blanket of smog. On Saturday, the Delhi government had ordered schools to close for a week and banned construction […]
by Laurence THOMANN Agence France-Presse AGRA, India (AFP) – Foreign tourists have been welcomed back to India after pandemic travel bans but intrepid travellers will have to brave the intense pollution season to visit the country’s most famous attraction. Around the palatial gardens of the Taj Mahal, air quality deteriorates each winter, enveloping the white marble mausoleum in a thick coat of hazardous smog. The problem is replicated across whole swathes of northern India, where […]
by Patrick BAERT KUNMING, China (AFP) — Environmental activist Zhang Zhengxiang is almost blind, and lives in poverty — but he has successfully faced down hundreds of companies on the banks of one of China’s most polluted lakes. The 74-year-old strident campaigner has spent his life trying to protect the sprawling Lake Dian in southwestern China, challenging businesses to clean up their act around the local beauty spot and reporting those who pollute it. “When […]
by Abhaya SRIVASTAVA NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — New Delhi authorities announced Saturday a one-week closure of schools and said they would consider a “pollution lockdown” to protect citizens from toxic smog. “Schools will be shut so that children don’t have to breathe polluted air,” Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal told reporters. Delhi is ranked one of the world’s most polluted cities, with a hazardous melange of factory and vehicle emissions, and smoke from agricultural […]
by Camille BAS-WOHLERT Agence France Presse COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) — Premature deaths caused by fine particle air pollution have fallen 10 percent annually across Europe, but the invisible killer still accounts for 307,000 premature deaths a year, the European Environment Agency said Monday. If the latest air quality guidelines from the World Health Organisation were followed by EU members, the latest number of fatalities recorded in 2019 could be cut in half, according to […]
AMRITSAR, India (AFP) – Crackling flames and plumes of smoke rise from the earth as farmers set their fields alight in northern India — an annual post-harvest practice that shrouds New Delhi in toxic smog. Tens of thousands of small farmers around the capital burn their crop residue at the start of every winter, clearing fields from the recently harvested paddy to make way for wheat. The practice was banned two years ago but enforcement is […]
