Environment

Eastern Canada breaks autumn heat records

By Mathiew LEISER MONTREAL, Oct 5, 2023 (AFP) – Eastern Canada shattered heat records this week with temperatures close to 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), worrying experts and everyday people struggling to cope with extreme weather made worse by climate change. “It’s unheard of for a day in October,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Jean-Philippe Begin. “It’s normal to have occasional warm spells, but extreme heat like this is very unusual.” The last three days heat […]

AI of the tiger: Tiny camera ‘protects’ predator — and people

By Joseph BOYLE Tiger populations are on the rise in the jungles of India and Nepal and the predators are roaming ever closer to villages, sparking a race among conservationists to find ways of avoiding conflict. They are increasingly finding solutions with artificial intelligence, a bunch of technologies designed to reason and make decisions like humans. Experts from Clemson University in South Carolina and several NGOs published research last month on their work using AI-enabled […]

At least 10 dead, 82 missing in India glacial lake burst

The death toll from a devastating glacial lake burst that triggered a torrential flash flood in India has risen to at least 10 people, with 82 others still missing, according to officials. “Flood waters have caused havoc in four districts of the state sweeping away people, roads, bridges,” Himanshu Tiwari, an Indian Army spokesman told AFP on Thursday, speaking a day after the wall of water poured down the mountainous valley in northeast Sikkim state. […]

Canada’s wildfires take devastating toll on wildlife

By Mathiew LEISER, with Genevieve NORMAND in Montreal LEBEL-SUR-QUÉVILLON, Canada, Oct 4, 2023 (AFP) – No droppings, tracks, nests or other traces of wildlife — Canada’s boreal forests were devastated by record wildfires this year. In the woodlands of Quebec province, hunter Paul Wabanonik searches for fresh moose tracks on his Indigenous tribe’s ancestral lands, which had sustained him and his family. “Normally, we would see traces everywhere,” says the Ashinabe tribesman. But “it’s like […]

Greenland’s Inuit falling through thin ice of climate change

By Elias HUUHTANEN ITTOQQORTOORMIIT, Denmark, Oct 4, 2023 (AFP) – The thunder of icebergs crashing into the turquoise sea of eastern Greenland is the sound of one of the planet’s most important ecosystems teetering on the edge of collapse. As the ice melts, the hunters in the village of Ittoqqortoormiit — home to one of the last Inuit hunting communities — worry where they will get water. Greenland’s ice sheets may hold one 12th of […]

Japan sees hottest September since records began

TOKYO, Oct 3, 2023 (AFP) – Japan has seen its hottest September since records began 125 years ago, the weather agency said, in a year expected to be the warmest in human history. The scorching September’s average temperature was 2.66 degrees Celsius higher than usual, the Japan Meteorological Agency said on Monday. This was “the highest figure since the start of statistics in 1898”, the agency said in a statement. This year is expected to […]

Not so black and white? Panda fibs fuel anti-US vibe in China

By Anuj Chopra with Tommy Wang in Hong Kong Chomping peacefully on a fruitsicle cake in her grassy Washington zoo enclosure Mei Xiang is blissfully unaware that she and a handful of other cute pandas are at the center of a ferocious misinformation campaign driving anti-US sentiment in China. Evidence-free claims that pandas have been abused at US zoos have ricocheted across Chinese social media in recent months, fanning anti-American perceptions amid already fraught ties […]

Lightning strike hits UK biogas facility

A lightning strike hit a UK food waste recycling plant on Monday, sending a huge fireball into the night sky and cutting power nearby. Severn Trent Green Power, which runs the Cassington AD (anaerobic digestion) facility near Yarnton, just north of the city of Oxford, said the strike “caused an explosion in our biogas tanks”. “Thankfully no one has been hurt and we are working with the emergency services to make sure the site is […]

UK equals record for hottest September: Met Office

LONDON, Oct 2, 2023 (AFP) – The UK matched the record last month for the warmest September since records began in 1884, according to provisional figures released by the national weather service on Monday. The mean temperature in September was 15.2 degrees Celsius (59 Fahrenheit), equalling the 2006 record, with the Met Office saying the figures were “substantially influenced” by the impact of climate change. “This September’s temperature records are heavily driven by how significantly […]

Canada left battered by ‘never before seen’ wildfire season

By Marion THIBAUT NORMÉTAL, Canada, Oct 2, 2023 (AFP) – When scientists started pouring over data to assess Canada’s fire season this year, they struggled to find the right superlatives. “Never before seen,” was thrown around, as was “exceptional in scale, duration” and “huge long-term consequences.” “We have shattered all the records on a Canadian scale,” says a shaken Yan Boulanger, a researcher for the country’s natural resources ministry. There had never been so many […]

UN concerned about arrests of environmental activists in Vietnam

(UN GENEVA, Switzerland) The UN Human Rights Office spokesperson, Jeremy Laurence, has voiced deep concerns regarding the arrest, detention, and sentencing of environmental human rights defenders in Vietnam. Laurence stressed that these concerns encompass both the charges they face and the fairness of their trials. During a recent press briefing, Laurence said, “Yesterday, Hoang Thi Minh Hong became the fifth of six environmental human rights defenders arrested from 2021 to 2023 to be sentenced. She […]

State of emergency declared as torrential rains paralyze New York

Heavy rains overnight in the northeastern United States left parts of New York under water on Friday, partially paralyzing subways and airports in America’s financial capital. LaGuardia airport closed down one of its terminals, with social media images showing passengers walking through water well above the tops of their shoes. Mayor Eric Adams urged people not to venture out because the streets were blocked and subway stations flooded. “If you are home, stay home. If […]