Environment

Seeds of hope: Young volunteers replant Tunisia forests

  by Caroline Nelly Perrot Agence France-Presse   SILIANA, Tunisia (AFP) – Around 40 young Tunisian volunteers gather on a bare hill in the central region of Siliana. Their weekend mission — revive a burned forest by planting Aleppo pine shoots. Hamdi, from the eastern city of Sfax, gets straight to work after travelling 250 kilometres (150 miles) to the marginalised region. A camping and hiking enthusiast, he found out about the initiative on Facebook. “It’s […]

Red Sea huge source of air pollution, greenhouse gases: study

by Patrick GALEY Agence France-Presse   Paris, France (AFP) – Hydrocarbon gases bubbling from the bottom of the Red Sea are polluting the atmosphere at a rate equivalent to the emissions of some large fossil fuel exporting countries, researchers said Tuesday. The gases seeping from the waters — which are ringed by the resorts and ports of several countries, including Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia — then mix with emissions from industrial shipping and […]

French towns, NGOs sue oil giant Total over climate ‘inaction’

Paris, France (AFP) – A group of French cities and advocacy groups said Tuesday they had filed a lawsuit against oil giant Total, claiming it was not doing enough to limit carbon emissions and prevent climate change. “We’re asking for them to be held accountable, but also for positive and concrete actions for our citizens and territories,” Patrick Jarry, mayor of the Paris suburb of Nanterre where the case was filed, told journalists. It is […]

Ladakh’s nomads and the future of pashmina wool

by Noemi CASSANELLI Agence France Presse   KORZOK, India (AFP) —  For centuries the Changpa have tended the shaggy goats that provide silky-soft, super-expensive pashmina wool. But now many are rethinking their way of life, in part because of climate change. Winters have become harsher and summers drier for the semi-nomadic people living 5,000 metres (16,400 feet) up in the Changtang region straddling northern India and Tibet. This and other factors have pushed many on […]

Madagascar flood victims struggle to pick up the pieces

MAROVOAY, Madagascar (AFP) – Gaëlle Borgia Muddy currents have submerged parts of the town of Marovoay in northwestern Madagascar, flooding homes, swirling rubbish around tree tops and killing dozens. A week of torrential rains have forced thousands to leave their homes, swept buildings away and cut off road links to the rest of the poor Indian Ocean island nation. All of Marovoay’s rice paddies have turned into swamps. “Everything has been swept away by the […]

UK fishermen angling for big catch post Brexit

NORTH SHIELDS, United Kingdom (AFP) – Roland JACKSON / William EDWARDS Just before dawn, the Good Fellowship trawler casts its nets deep into the North Sea’s cold swirling waters, fishing for prawns off England’s northeast coast. Britain finally departs the European Union on Friday but remains bound by the bloc’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) until the end of a transition period on December 31. The Good Fellowship’s captain, David Shiel, is cautiously hopeful that Brexit […]

Bugatti touts green ambitions while storming full speed ahead

MOLSHEIM, France (AFP) – Marc Antoine BAUDOUX Supercar manufacturer Bugatti, fresh off one of its best years, wants the world to know it has taken environmental concerns to heart even as it prepares a next generation of heart-pounding — and gas-guzzling — speed machines. The French automaker has implemented a series of measures to offset the carbon emitted by the 81 racers it produced last year, including a shift to biogas and other green energy […]

Locusts the latest curse of East Africa weather extremes

NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) – Fran BLANDY Billions of locusts swarming through East Africa are the result of extreme weather swings and could prove catastrophic for a region still reeling from drought and deadly floods, experts said Friday. Dense clouds of the ravenous insects have spread from Ethiopia and Somalia into Kenya, in the region’s worse infestation in decades. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated one swarm in Kenya at around 2,400 square kilometres […]

NEU cares: University and its alumni members extend relief, other assistance to Taal Volcano eruption victims

  (Eagle News) — New Era University (NEU) and its alumni members on Saturday, Jan. 25, distributed relief goods and other assistance to affected residents of Batangas province whose lives were disrupted by the recent Taal Volcano eruption. “The New Era University is one with the Filipino nation in helping out our fellow men affected by the volcanic eruption,” NEU said in a release after its alumni association made the trek to Batangas to hand […]

Volkswagen in Canada ordered to pay CAN$196.5 million over emissions scandal

TORONTO, Canada (AFP) – A court in Toronto on Wednesday ordered Volkswagen to pay a fine of Can$196.5 million (US$150 million) after the automaker pleaded guilty to violating environmental laws in the emissions cheating scandal. The court accepted an agreement that the German automaker reached with the Canadian government, which in December filed a 60-count indictment against the company. This fine is in addition to nearly Can$2.4 billion that Volkswagen had agreed to pay in […]

‘What use is wealth if it burns?’ Britain’s Prince Charles sounds climate alarm

DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) – Stuart WILLIAMS Britain’s Prince Charles on Wednesday told business leaders at the Davos economic forum that wealth was of no use if it doesn’t help tackle climate change, as he met Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg and warned over the perils of global warming and environmental damage. Charles, the eldest son of the Queen and heir to the throne, met Thunberg in Davos on the same day as President Donald Trump […]

A year after Brazil dam collapse: What’s changed?

BRUMADINHO, Brazil (AFP) – Florence GOISNARD Brazil marks the first anniversary of the Brumadinho dam collapse Saturday, one of the country’s worst industrial accidents, which left 270 people dead. Millions of tons of toxic mining waste engulfed houses, farms and waterways, devastating the mineral-rich region in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais. State prosecutors on Tuesday charged Brazilian mining giant Vale’s ex-president Fabio Schvartsman and 15 others with intentional homicide and environmental offenses over the […]