Environment

‘Humanity has become a weapon of mass extinction,’ warns UN chief

by Benjamin LEGENDRE Agence France-Presse MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday slammed multinational corporations for turning the world’s ecosystems into “playthings of profit” and warned failure to correct course would lead to catastrophic results. “With our bottomless appetite for unchecked and unequal economic growth, humanity has become a weapon of mass extinction,” he said, in a speech ahead of biodiversity talks in Montreal. Since taking office in 2017, Guterres, a former […]

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Chile on alert as active volcano rumbles, spits fire

PUCON, Chile (AFP) – Chile’s snow-capped Villarrica volcano has been shaken by earthquakes and is belching fire, placing authorities on alert for a possible eruption in a picturesque area beloved by tourists. Since October, the 2,847-meter (9,300-foot)-high Villarrica has been the site of gas explosions and seismic events, with pillars of fire up to 220 meters high shooting out of its lava lake. Alvaro Amigo, the head of the National Volcanic Surveillance Network, told AFP that […]

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Prince William awards Earthshot prizes as US visit wraps up

Boston, United States (AFP) by Peter HUTCHISON Prince William honored climate change innovators during a star-studded ceremony in Boston Friday at the culmination of a US trip overshadowed by a race row and estranged brother Harry’s Netflix series. Britain’s heir to the throne rewarded five entrepreneurs with £1 million each ($1.2 million) as part of his Earthshot Prize initiative to support efforts to save the planet from warming temperatures. Annie Lennox and sisters Chloe x Halle […]

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NGOs take aim at Indonesia over orangutans, academic freedom

Jakarta, Indonesia (AFP) More than a dozen NGOs have issued a letter accusing Indonesia of stymieing scientific research, after Jakarta banned a group of foreign academics who opposed an official claim that orangutan numbers are increasing. Indonesia is home to the world’s oldest tropical rainforest where the critically endangered apes are losing tracts of their habitat to logging, palm oil plantations and mining. The legal letter of objection, filed to the environment ministry Thursday by […]

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Climate ‘tragedy’: Vanuatu to relocate ‘dozens’ of villages

PORT VILA, Vanuatu (AFP) – Vanuatu is drawing up plans to relocate “dozens” of villages within the next two years, as they come under threat from rising seas, the Pacific nation’s climate chief told AFP Thursday. Climate Change Minister Ralph Regenvanu said dealing with the impact of global warming was a major challenge facing Vanuatu’s 300,000 inhabitants who live on a chain of islands strung out between Australia and Fiji. Regenvanu said the response would inevitably […]

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Hawaii volcano shoots lava fountains 200 feet high: USGS

LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) – Fountains of lava up to 200 feet (60 meters) high have been fired into the air from Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, geologists say, generating rivers of molten rock from the world’s largest active volcano. Four fissures have now opened up on the mammoth mountain, which burst into life on Sunday for the first time in almost 40 years. Vast clouds of steam and smoke were billowing into the sky from the […]

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Scientists in Peru discover two new endangered plant species

LIMA, Peru (AFP) – A group of Peruvian and international botanists has discovered two new species of plant that are endangered by mining activity in the Peruvian Andes, the University of San Marcos reported Tuesday. The new species, named “Viola ornata” and “Viola longibracteolata,” belong to the Neo-andinium subgenus of Viola, which in Peru currently has 15 species. “San Marquino botanists are publishing a study in which they reveal two new species of plants found in […]

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Twin crises: experts say nature and climate can’t be siloed

PARIS, France (AFP) – Experts and activists were hoping UN climate talks would end last week with a prominent mention of biodiversity in the final text. They walked away disappointed. Some say delegates at the COP27 summit missed a key opportunity to acknowledge the connection between the twin climate and nature crises, which many believe have been treated separately for too long. Failing to address both could mean not only further decimating Earth’s life support systems, but […]

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Air pollution killed 238,000 Europeans prematurely in 2020: EEA

Copenhagen, Denmark (AFP) Fine particle air pollution led to 238,000 premature deaths in the European Union in 2020, the bloc’s environmental watchdog said Thursday, a slight rise from the previous year. Across the 27-nation bloc that year, “exposure to concentrations of fine particulate matter above the 2021 World Health Organization guideline level resulted in 238,000 premature deaths,” the European Environment Agency said in a new report. That was slightly more than those recorded in 2019 in […]

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Subarctic boreal forest, vital for the planet, is at risk

by Diane Desobeau and Marion Thibaut Agence France Presse Fort McMurray, Canada (AFP) — It burns, it drifts, it falls victim to insects. And it’s shrinking. The boreal forest, which is second only to the Amazon in terms of its vital role in ensuring the future of the planet, encircles the Arctic — and it is in just as much danger from climate change as the South American rainforest. The deep, verdant green ring — […]

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Thinning Greenland ice sheet may mean more sea level rise: study

by Jenny VAUGHAN Agence France Presse Paris, France (AFP) — Part of Greenland’s ice sheet is thinning further inland than previously believed, which will likely lead to greater sea level rise by the end of this century, a new study found Wednesday. The findings pertain to a northeast section of the giant ice block covering, but the trend is likely happening elsewhere on Greenland and Earth’s other ice sheet, in Antarctica. The implications are worrying, […]

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India at 75: Melting glaciers, heatwaves and climate crisis

by Bhuvan BAGGA Agence France Presse India (AFP) — From prime ministers and millionaires to labourers and ascetics, Hindu faithful dream of trekking at least once in their lives to Gaumukh, where the waters of India’s holiest river, the Ganges, emerge from a Himalayan glacier. But the ice at the end of the arduous journey is receding rapidly and portends an increasingly dry future for a country of 1.4 billion people facing existential challenges from […]

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