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by Pascale TROUILLAUD SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — At first glance, it looks like any other shantytown in Brazil: a precarious jumble of tin-roof shacks and shoddy streets. But look closer, and the community garden, rainwater harvesting system and environmental education program are visible too: this “favela” is remarkably green. On the outskirts of Sao Paulo, a concrete jungle of 12 million people, the impoverished community of Vila Nova Esperanca (Village of New Hope) is […]
by Marlowe HOOD PARIS, France (AFP) — Greenland and Antarctica are shedding six times more ice than during the 1990s, driving sea-level rise that could see annual flooding by 2100 in regions home today to some 400 million people, scientists have warned. The kilometers-thick ice sheets atop landmasses at the planet’s extremities sloughed off 6.4 trillion tonnes of mass from 1992 through 2017, adding nearly two centimeters (an inch) to the global watermark, according to […]
NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) — Kenya’s only female white giraffe and her calf have been killed by poachers, conservationists said Tuesday, in a major blow for the rare animals found nowhere else in the world. The bodies of the two giraffes were found “in a skeletal state after being killed by armed poachers” in Garissa in eastern Kenya, the Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy said in a statement. Their deaths leave just one remaining white giraffe alive […]
By Paula RAMON Agence France-Presse GUARUJA, Brazil (AFP) — Violent rain has killed scores of people and forced thousands from their homes this year in Brazil’s most populous states, a disaster experts blame on climate upheaval but also rampant urbanization. Flash floods, landslides and other havoc wrought by torrential rain have killed at least 29 people in recent days in the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Another 25 are missing. That comes after […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australian scientists are developing the country’s first satellite designed to predict where bushfires are likely to start, following months of devastating fires. The Australian National University said Wednesday a team is creating a “shoebox-sized” satellite that will measure forest ground cover and moisture levels using infrared detectors. It is hoped the data will help determine where bushfires are likely to start and where they may be difficult to contain. The technology […]
FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany (AFP) — Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler said Tuesday it aims to slash average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from new cars sold in Europe by 20 percent in 2020, as EU-wide limits bite. “This is a very big year for us and a year where we are taking electrification to the next level,” chief executive Ola Kallenius said in a telephone conference. “This year alone we are looking at cutting up to 20 […]
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AFP) — Ivory Coast officials on Tuesday burnt three tonnes of scales of the pangolin, the most trafficked mammal on Earth. The scales were seized in raids in 2017 and 2018, following which some 20 people were arrested. Beijing announced a total ban on the sale and consumption of the pangolin after the novel coronavirus outbreak. The scaly mammal — listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN) as threatened […]
by Marlowe HOOD PARIS, France (AFP) — Climate change and sea-level rise are currently on track to wipe out half the world’s sandy beaches by 2100, researchers warned Monday. Even if humanity sharply reduces the fossil fuel pollution that drives global warming, more than a third of the planet’s sandy shorelines could disappear by then, crippling coastal tourism in countries large and small, they reported in the journal Nature Climate Change. “Apart from tourism, sandy […]
MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on Monday for a major national debate involving everyone from industry to indigenous groups to move the country to carbon neutrality by 2050 and still grow the economy. Trudeau was re-elected last October, with a minority government, after a campaign focused on climate issues. He vowed that Canada would reach net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by mid-century. Sixty-six other countries have already signed onto the pledge “Around […]
By Marlowe HOOD Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — A ‘pandemic’ of air pollution shortens lives worldwide by nearly three years on average, and causes 8.8 million premature deaths annually, scientists said Tuesday. Eliminating the toxic cocktail of molecules and lung-clogging particles cast off by burning oil, gas and coal would restore a full year of life expectancy, they reported in the journal Cardiovascular Research. “Air pollution is a larger public health risk than tobacco smoking,” […]
FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany (AFP) — Volkswagen on Monday said it will stop developing natural gas-fuelled cars as the German auto giant bets on electric engines in the battle to woo climate-conscious drivers. The VW group sold just 110,000 cars powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) worldwide last year, not enough to justify further investment, VW’s head of development Frank Welsch told the Handelsblatt financial daily. Although production of existing models powered by the alternative energy […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australian summers are lengthening by a month or more while winters are getting shorter due to climate change, according to an analysis by a leading think tank released Monday. The Australia Institute said large swathes of the country were experiencing an additional 31 days of summer temperatures each year compared to the 1950s. While Sydney was just under the average with an extra 28 hot days a year, Melbourne added 38 warmer […]
