Environment

Lagos styrofoam, plastics ban brings applause and concern

By Leslie FAUVEL From trash-strewn pavements to street vendors packing meals in polystyrene containers, plastic waste is a constant menace in the urban landscape of Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital and the continent’s most populous city. That image could soon change if the local Lagos State government manages to implement its recent ambitious ban on the use of polystyrene and single-use plastics. Sunday’s announcement of the ban on styrofoam boxes and single-use plastics, “with immediate effect”, […]

Continue Reading →

Crowd gathers on New Zealand beach after stranded whale dies

Scores of people gathered on a New Zealand beach on Monday as a young whale that died in a rare stranding was pulled to shore. The seven-metre (23-foot) fin whale died in the early hours after beaching on an estuary sandbank near the Christchurch suburb of Moncks Bay, the conservation department said. The coast guard used an earthmover to lift the whale’s body out of the water. A crowd of people perched on boulders at […]

Continue Reading →

‘The sun didn’t sting so much before’: fires stun Colombia’s Andes

By Valentín DÌAZ The once bright green Andean forest where Maria Yadira Jimenez worked as a tour guide has been reduced to ashes. Since Monday, forest fires have been advancing on Nemocon, a rural area with beautiful landscapes about 60 kilometers (37 miles) outside the Colombian capital Bogota. Though usually cool, the mountains surrounding the town have become a hellscape, with the blazes driving out residents and wildlife. Distraught, Jimenez joined volunteers who — along […]

Continue Reading →

Colombia declares emergency over raging forest fires

BOGOTÁ, Jan 25, 2024 (AFP) – Colombia has declared a state of emergency in two regions as dozens of forest fires burned wide swathes of the country and left the capital choking on smoke during record temperatures linked with the El Nino weather phenomenon. Colombia has already extinguished hundreds of fires this month, but 25 continue to burn, according to data from the National Disaster Risk Management Unit (UNGRD) on Wednesday. In the departments of […]

Continue Reading →

Clean energy largest driver of Chinese GDP growth in 2023: report

By Jing Xuan TENG SHANGHAI, Jan 25, 2024 (AFP) – Clean-energy projects were the largest driver of China’s economic growth in 2023, with Beijing investing nearly as much in decarbonisation infrastructure as total global investment in fossil fuels, according to a report released Thursday. China is the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases driving climate change, but it is also the top producer of wind and solar energy. Faced with soaring energy consumption, the country […]

Continue Reading →

Prehistoric ‘chewing gum’ sheds light on Stone Age diet

DNA from a type of “chewing gum” used by teenagers in Sweden 10,000 years ago is shedding new light on the Stone Age diet and oral health, researchers said Tuesday. The wads of gum are made of pieces of birch bark pitch, a tar-like black resin, and are combined with saliva, with teethmarks clearly visible. They were found 30 years ago next to bones at the 9,700-year-old Huseby Klev archaeological site north of Sweden’s western […]

Continue Reading →

‘Lonely’ giraffe in Mexico begins long journey to new home

A “lonely” giraffe living in harsh conditions in northern Mexico is heading to a safari park to begin a new life after a campaign by animal rights activists. The male giraffe named Benito began the roughly 2,000-kilometer (1,200- mile) journey on Sunday from Ciudad Juarez near the Mexican-US border to Africam Safari in the central state of Puebla. According to the zoo management, he will live with other giraffes in conditions more similar to his […]

Continue Reading →

Canada hands control of rich Arctic lands to Inuit territory

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday signed over control of resource-rich Arctic lands to the government of the predominantly Inuit territory of Nunavut, in what was billed as the largest land transfer in Canada’s history. Nunavut, at more than two million square kilometers (800,000 square miles), is almost three times the size of the US state of Texas and is believed to hold some of the richest resource deposits in the country including gold, diamonds […]

Continue Reading →

El Nino could make 2024 hotter than record 2023

  By Robin MILLARD GENEVA, Jan 12, 2024 (AFP) – This year could be hotter under El Nino’s influence than the record-shattering 2023, the United Nations warned Friday, as it urged drastic emissions cuts to combat climate change. The UN’s World Meteorological Organization said new monthly temperature records were set every month between June and December, and the pattern is likely to continue due to the warming El Nino weather phenomenon. The US National Oceanic […]

Continue Reading →

UK unveils plans for ‘biggest nuclear power expansion in 70 years’

LONDON, Jan 11, 2024 (AFP) – The UK government on Thursday announced plans for what it said was the country’s “biggest expansion of nuclear power for 70 years” to bolster its energy independence and meet carbon emission targets. The Civil Nuclear Roadmap includes exploring the construction of a major new power station, £300 million ($382 million) of investment to produce an advanced uranium fuel and “smarter regulation”. Taken together, the measures would quadruple UK nuclear […]

Continue Reading →

World added 50% more renewable energy capacity last year over 2022: IEA

PARIS, Jan 11, 2024 (AFP) – The world added 50 percent more renewable energy capacity in 2023 over the year before, the International Energy Agency said Thursday, predicting booming growth in the next five years. The United Nations-led COP28 summit concluded in Dubai last month with nearly 200 nations agreeing to a first-ever call for the world to transition away from fossil fuels. “The amount of renewable energy capacity added to energy systems around the […]

Continue Reading →

2023 hottest year on record as Earth nears critical 1.5C limit: monitor

By Rochelle GLUZMAN PARIS, Jan 9, 2024 (AFP) – The year of 2023 was the hottest on record, with the increase in Earth’s surface temperature nearly crossing the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius, EU climate monitors said Tuesday. Climate change intensified heatwaves, droughts and wildfires across the planet, and pushed the global thermometer 1.48 C above the preindustrial benchmark, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reported. “It is also the first year with all […]

Continue Reading →
1 … 8 9 10 11 12 … 224