Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
by Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS Agence France Presse KATOWICE, Poland (AFP) — The World Bank on Monday unveiled $200 billion in climate action investment for 2021-25, adding this amounts to a doubling of its current five-year funding. The World Bank said the move, coinciding with a UN climate summit meeting of some 200 nations in Poland, represented a “significantly ramped up ambition” to tackle climate change, “sending an important signal to the wider global community to do […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Global temperatures in 2018 are set to be the fourth highest on record, the UN said Thursday, stressing the urgent need for action to rein in runaway warming of the planet. In a report released ahead of the COP 24 climate summit in Poland, the World Meteorological Organization pointed out that the 20 warmest years on record have been in the past 22 years, and that “2018 is on course to […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia’s unique platypus population is shrinking under pressure from agriculture and pollution, putting the egg-laying mammals’ future in doubt, researchers said in a report published Thursday. A three-year survey of the duck-billed animal suggested its numbers had fallen by 30 percent, to around 200,000, since Europeans settled the continent two centuries ago. “We have great concerns about the future survival of this unique species,” said Richard Kingsford, director of the University […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — There is a 75 to 80 percent chance of a moderate El Niño event forming in the next three months, possibly impacting weather patterns in several regions, the UN said Tuesday. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) noted that the impending El Niño is not expected to be as powerful as the 2015-2016 event that was linked to droughts, floods and coral bleaching. But, it “can still significantly affect rainfall and temperature […]
Graphic on coral bleaching.
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Scientists have launched the largest-ever attempt to regenerate coral on the endangered Great Barrier Reef by harvesting millions of the creatures’ eggs and sperm during their annual spawning. The researchers said Wednesday they plan to grow coral larvae from the harvested eggs and return these to areas of the reef which have been badly damaged by climate-related coral bleaching. “This is the first time that the entire process of large scale […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — Six beached whales were successfully refloated off New Zealand Tuesday, rescuers said, after a spate of mass stranding in recent days that resulted in the deaths of dozens of marine mammals. Wildlife rangers and volunteers used pontoons to float the killer pygmy whales — part of a group of 12 found beached in the country’s far north on Sunday — and take them about 400 meters (437 yards) offshore. “We […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — Up to 145 pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in a remote part of New Zealand, with authorities saying Monday they made the “heart-breaking” decision to euthanized dozens that lay stricken on the shore. The stranding was discovered by a hiker late Saturday on Stewart Island, 30 kilometers (19 miles) off the southern coast of the South Island. Half of the whales were already dead and due to […]
Videographic illustrating the role played by the world’s dams. In Quebec province in Canada, four massive hydroelectric dams that will produce “clean energy” for the northeastern United States are nearing completion. https://youtu.be/77P6moLrVRo
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the main driver of climate change, have hit a new record high, the UN said Thursday, warning that the time to act was running out. “Without rapid cuts in CO2 and other greenhouse gases, climate change will have increasingly destructive and irreversible impacts on life on Earth,” the head of the World Meteorological Organization Petteri Taalas said in a statement. “The window of […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — A sperm whale has been found dead in Indonesia with 115 plastic cups and 25 plastic bags in its stomach, raising concern among environmentalists and throwing the spotlight on the country’s rubbish problem. The items were part of nearly six kilograms (13 pounds) of plastic waste discovered in the 9.5-meter (31-foot) carcass when it washed ashore in Wakatobi National Park, in Southeast Sulawesi province, on Monday. Other debris included flip flops […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US researchers, armed with high-speed video cameras, have revealed the secret to cat grooming. It’s all in the tongue. Just not the way they thought. A cat’s tongue contains 300 little scoop-shaped spines called filiform papillae which they moisten with saliva to clean their fur, said the report Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed journal. Until now, the scientific consensus on the matter was […]
