Environment

Operator of leaking California pipeline charged with negligence

LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — The operators of a California pipeline that leaked crude oil onto beaches south of Los Angeles in early October were charged Wednesday with negligence by federal prosecutors. The charges were leveled against Amplify Energy, a Texas company operating the pipeline off Huntington Beach, and two of its subsidiaries — Beta Operating Co. and San Pedro Bay Pipeline Co., according to the prosecutor’s statement. The authorities accuse them of not […]

Mayan Train, the president’s pet project exposing Mexico’s cracks

by Alexander MARTINEZ Agence France-Presse CAMPECHE, Mexico (AFP) – A proposed Mayan tourist train in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula has divided residents in one of the country’s poorest regions, known for its indigenous uprisings. “The train will no longer come through here,” rejoiced Guadalupe Caceres, 64, at news that the original route was being modified and would no longer pass through her home. “We’ve lost, goodbye modernity,” responded locksmith Ruben Angulo, 49, who was hoping to […]

Operator of leaking California pipeline charged with negligence

LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) – The operators of a California pipeline that leaked crude oil on to beaches south of Los Angeles in early October were charged Wednesday with negligence by federal prosecutors. The charges were leveled against Amplify Energy, a Texas company operating the pipeline off Huntington Beach, and two of its subsidiaries — Beta Operating Co. and San Pedro Bay Pipeline Co., according to the prosecutor’s statement. The authorities accuse them of […]

Estonia’s wood pellet industry stokes controversy

by Polina KALANTAR Agence France-Presse IMAVERE, Estonia (AFP) – Estonia’s thriving wood pellet industry is pitting environmentalists who warn it increases logging and harms biodiversity against supporters who say it makes good use of wood that would otherwise go to waste. The subject is particularly sensitive in the tiny Baltic state once ruled by Moscow, whose forests cover more than half the surface area and are very much part of the national identity. But, at […]

Illegal but essential, migrants recycle Istanbul’s waste

by Anne CHAON Agence France-Presse ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) – Shrouded by acrid smoke, a young Afghan crouches sorting waste he has pulled from the trash bins of Istanbul, anxious that Turkey will soon strip him of even this subsistence. “I start at eight in the morning and finish at eight at night,” said Issam Raffur, who has spent four of his 20 years in Turkey. “It is very hard and poorly paid, but I have […]

Vulnerable to climate change, New York constructs seawall

by Ana FERNANDEZ Agence France-Presse After major storms highlighted New York’s weaknesses in the face of climate change, the city is erecting a $1.45-billion system of walls and floodgates to protect it from rising sea levels. Superstorm Sandy in 2012 was the trigger for establishing the East Coast Resiliency Project (ESCR), running 2.5 miles (four kilometers) along the shoreline of Lower Manhattan. Hurricane Ida, which ravaged parts of the city this year, added further urgency. […]

Adored and endangered: the complex world of the Japanese eel

by Mathias CENA HAMAMATSU, Japan (AFP) — Tsuyoshi Hachisuka gently places skewered eel on a grill, preparing a much-loved Japanese delicacy that is now so endangered it commands eyewatering prices and the attention of international traffickers. Consumed worldwide, eel is particularly popular in Asia, and perhaps nowhere more so than Japan, where remains found in tombs show it has been eaten on the archipelago for thousands of years. Despite its enduring popularity, much about the […]

‘Alarm bells’ as UN validates record Arctic temperature

  GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The UN on Tuesday officially recognised the 38 degrees Celsius measured in Siberia last year as a new record high for the Arctic, sounding “alarm bells” over climate change. The sweltering heat — equivalent to 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit — was seen on June 20, 2020 in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk, marking the highest temperature ever recorded above the Arctic Circle, the World Meteorological Organization said. This is the first […]

Severe weather ‘new normal,’ US emergency chief warns after tornadoes

WASHINGTON D.C., United States (AFP) – More powerful, destructive, and deadlier storms will be the “new normal” as the effects of climate change take root, the top US emergency management official said Sunday after massive tornadoes ravaged six states. Meteorologists and other scientists have long warned of the growing intensity of weather events like storms, fires and flooding. But the crisis hit home in a terrifying way overnight Friday into Saturday when more than two […]

Gas field tremor terror haunts Dutch villages

by Jan HENNOP Agence France-Presse GARRELSWEER, Netherlands (AFP) – Teacher Daan Schoolland was asleep with his partner when the earthquake struck the northern Dutch hamlet of Garrelsweer in the middle of the night. “It was like a wave, we could feel it coming towards us,” the burly father-of-three recalled. “When I woke up, the whole room was still shaking and my kids were crying in terror.” The 3.2-magnitude earthquake in November was the largest for […]

Wildlife concerns blunt Germany’s green power efforts

by Florian CAZERES Agence France-Presse CHORIN, Germany (AFP) – Germany is expanding its power grid to aid the transition to renewable energies, but local residents in some areas are holding up the process over concerns about wildlife. “I am not saying that the energy transition is not necessary. But we don’t want these pylons,” Hartmut Lindner, 75, told AFP. Lindner has been campaigning for 15 years against a planned high-voltage power line in the Schorfheide-Chorin […]

Colombian Amazon: casualty of peace

by David SALAZAR Agence France-Presse San José del Guaviare, Colombia (AFP) – In just a few minutes, an enormous century-year-old tree is felled by an electric saw in the middle of a protected national park. The giant collapses, sending a shockwave through the Colombian Amazon. Its executioner is a 40-year-old man with a scarf bound around his face. The purpose of the crime: to plant coca, used to make cocaine — the only means of […]