Environment

Iraq’s marshes are dying, and a civilisation with them

By Guillaume DECAMME CHIBAYISH, Iraq, July 13, 2023 (AFP) – Mohammed Hamid Nour is only 23, but he is already nostalgic for how Iraq’s Mesopotamian marshes once were before drought dried them up, decimating his herd of water buffaloes. Even at their centre in Chibayish, only a few expanses of the ancient waterways — home to a Marsh Arab culture that goes back millennia — survive, linked by channels that snake through the reeds. Pull […]

In Brazil, stargazers escape cities in search of ‘astro-tourism’

By Eugenia LOGIURATTO SANTA MARIA MADALENA, Brazil, July 12, 2023 (AFP) – Awestruck by the oranges and blues of the Jewel Box star cluster, part of the Southern Cross constellation, Pedro Froes manages to get out a few words: “It’s incredible.” Froes is viewing the stars from a telescope in Desengano State Park, a rural patch of Brazil largely spared from light pollution, located some 260 kilometers (160 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro. Desengano […]

California surfers terrorized by board-stealing sea otter

LOS ANGELES, July 12, 2023 (AFP) – Wanted: one ornery sea otter that has been attacking California surfers and commandeering their boards. Wildlife authorities in the city of Santa Cruz, about a 90-minute drive south of San Francisco, have actually posted a warning to the public about the creature, which they say is a five-year-old female. She has been attacking surfers for weeks but of late her marauding has risen to a new level. In […]

Death toll rises to 66 in India’s monsoon mayhem

NEW DELHI, July 12, 2023 (AFP) – Days of relentless monsoon rains have killed at least 66 people in India, government officials said Wednesday, with dozens of foreign tourists stranded in the Himalayas after floods severed road connections. Flooding and landslides are common and cause widespread devastation during India’s treacherous monsoon season, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency and severity. Torrential downpours have washed away vehicles, demolished buildings and torn down bridges […]

Oceans are changing colour and climate change may be to blame

PARIS, July 12, 2023 (AFP) – Over the past 20 years huge swathes of the world’s oceans have changed colour, displaying a subtle greening towards the tropics that researchers say points to the effect of climate change on life in the world’s seas. In the new research published on Wednesday, scientists said they had detected shifts in colours across more than half of the world’s oceans — an expanse bigger than Earth’s total land area. […]

Viral disease killing felines on ‘cat island’ Cyprus

By Anouk Riondet NICOSIA, July 11, 2023 (AFP) – A sickly ginger kitten named Bebe is pulled out of a cat carrier at a veterinary clinic in the Cypriot capital, Nicosia. The six-month-old is suffering from a strain of feline coronavirus that is wreaking havoc on the prolific cat population of Cyprus. Cats are everywhere on the eastern Mediterranean island, home to the earliest evidence of the animal’s domestication and known by some as the […]

Critical negotiations on deep sea mining kick off in Jamaica

By Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS Agence France-Presse UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Critical negotiations concerning the future of deep sea mining and mineral extraction kicked off Monday in Jamaica, as conservationists aim to rein in a nascent industry that so far lacks meaningful guardrails. The International Seabed Authority (ISA) — a little known intergovernmental body based in Kingston — and its member states have spent the last decade trying to hash out a mining code for […]

Spain sweats as temperatures soar in new summer heatwave

MADRID, July 10, 2023 (AFP) – Temperatures were soaring across Spain on Monday with the mercury set to touch 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit) in the south as the country braced for its second heatwave in a fortnight. The AEMET weather agency said the heat was caused by a mass of hot air arriving from North Africa, indicating it would last until at least Wednesday, with the southern Andalusia region expected to be worst hit. […]

Signs of the human era, from nuclear fallout to microplastics

By Daniel Lawler PARIS, July 10, 2023 (AFP) – As scientists make the case that humans have fundamentally transformed the planet enough to warrant our own geological epoch, another question arises: is there anything left untouched by humanity’s presence? Soaring greenhouse gases, ubiquitous microplastics, pervasive “forever chemicals”, the global upheaval of animals, even old mobile phones and chicken bones — all have been put forward as evidence that the world entered the Anthropocene, or era […]

Mass fish deaths haunt river on Polish-German border

BRIESKOW-FINKENHEERD, Germany, July 8, 2023 (AFP) – Fisherman Henry Schneider stopped work for several months after a toxic algae bloom hit the Oder river last August, decimating his catch. Schneider, 43, whose family has made its living from the river for over a century, finally took up his activities again in May. But fears of a repeat are growing, as global warming adds to the toxic mix of pollution putting the delicate ecosystem under pressure. […]

Fukushima water release plan clears last regulatory hurdle in Japan

TOKYO, July 7, 2023 (AFP) – Plans to discharge treated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant cleared their last regulatory hurdle in Japan on Friday, as China said it would ban some food imports over the move. South Korea meanwhile said Tokyo’s plan to dilute the treated water and release it into the sea over several decades met or exceeded international standards. Some 1.33 million cubic metres of groundwater, rainwater and water used for cooling […]

Impact of Fukushima water release on South Korea ‘negligible’: Seoul

Japan’s plan to release treated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant would have “negligible consequences” for South Korea, Seoul said Friday, as it tried to assuage rising public concern. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) this week gave the green light for a decades-long project to discharge accumulated water from the plant, which was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami that hit the eastern coast of Japan in 2011. But the plan has encountered widespread […]