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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 […]
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) […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Videographic on artificial rain. Thailand is set to deploy rainmaking planes to seed clouds in an effort to tackle the pall of pollution that has shrouded the capital Bangkok in recent weeks.
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australian towns were among the hottest places on Earth this week as a severe heat wave hit the continent’s southeast, with forecasters warning of more record-breaking temperatures before the weekend. The past four days were among the country’s top 10 warmest on record, with temperatures nearing 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in some spots, the Bureau of Meteorology said Wednesday. “With South Australia breaking some all-time records yesterday, it would […]
by José Arturo CÁRDENAS Agence France Presse LA PAZ, Bolivia (AFP) — Almost a year after conservationists sent out a plea to help save a species of Bolivian aquatic frog by finding a mate for the last remaining member, Romeo, his very own Juliet has been tracked down deep inside a cloud forest. Not only did the wildlife conservation team return with a potential mate for Romeo, who had been 10 years a bachelor, but […]
by Patrick GALEY Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Traditional white-striped bodypainting practiced by indigenous communities mimics zebra stripes to reduce the number of potentially harmful horsefly bites a person receives by up to 10-fold, according to new research published Wednesday. Tribes in Africa, Australia and southeast Asia have practiced bodypainting in cultural ceremonies for generations. Traditionally mixed from clay, chalk, ash and cattle dung, the white or grey paint is widely thought to […]
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 […]
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 […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Thailand is set to deploy rainmaking planes to seed clouds in an effort to tackle the pall of pollution that has shrouded the capital in recent weeks. The weather modification technique involves dispersing chemicals into the air to aid cloud condensation, which should in theory result in rain. “The Department of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation… expects the rainmaking to be done tomorrow (Tuesday) but it depends on wind and humidity […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — As many as a million fish are believed to have died along the banks of a major river system in drought-battered eastern Australia, and the authorities warned Monday of more deaths to come. The banks of the Murray-Darling Rivers are thick with rotten fish, with officials putting the number of dead at hundreds of thousands and saying the toll is likely closer to one million. Further high temperatures forecast for […]
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — The rapid growth of renewable energy sources and the demise of fossil fuels are causing major changes in global politics, a special commission said in a report Friday. The shift “will alter the global distribution of power, relations between states, the risk of conflict, and the social, economic and environmental drivers of geopolitical instability,” said a the commission set up by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Solar, […]
WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — Polish authorities on Thursday denied any plans to wipe out nearly all Poland’s wild boar to stem an outbreak of disease threatening its pork industry as petitions against a mass cull drew hundreds of thousands of signatures. Environmentalists and scientists have warned that a mass cull set for the last three weekends of January could upset the ecosystem and even inadvertently spread African swine fever (ASF), which is deadly to wild […]
