by Jitendra JOSHI Agence France-Presse MANCHESTER, United Kingdom (AFP) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s pointman for the COP26 climate summit insisted Tuesday that his own Conservative party was on board with the ambition of saving the planet. COP26 president Alok Sharma said that despite grumbling on the party’s right wing at its annual conference, MPs all saw the potential for a green economic revolution. “Sometimes people don’t perceive the Conservatives as leading on this,” […]
Environment
Two stranded humpback whales rescued in Argentina
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AFP) — Rescue teams saved two stranded whales along the Atlantic coast of Argentina Tuesday, the World Marine Foundation said. The animals were stranded on the beach of the seaside resort town of La Lucila del Mar, 220 miles (360 kilometers) south of Buenos Aires, just as spring arrives to the southern hemisphere. “The first, which was stranded on Sunday, was a juvenile female humpback whale, 32 feet (9.8 meters) long and […]
Severe droughts dry up dreams of Turkish farmers
by Raziye Akkoc Agence France-Presse AKKUZULU, Turkey (AFP) – Turkish farmer Hava Keles stares inconsolably at withered vines of rotting tomatoes in a field that has been devastated by a series of droughts blamed on climate change. “My tomatoes, my beans, my peppers are ruined. My watermelons didn’t even grow. The cucumbers I planted have shrivelled up on the branches,” lamented Keles, 58, standing in an arid Anatolian plot in Akkuzulu, north of Ankara. Keles […]
Dry year leaves Syria wheat farmers facing crop failure
by Delil Souleiman with Maher al-Mounes in Damascus Agence France-Presse TAL SHAEER, Syria (AFP) – After Syrian farmer Abdelbaqi Souleiman lost his last wheat crop to a wildfire, he had hoped for a better harvest this summer. But this spring there was hardly any rain. “Last year the field I planted was burnt to the ground,” said the 48-year-old. “This year there wasn’t enough rain, and we didn’t harvest any wheat.” As man-made climate change […]
Climate change threatens the Everglades, Florida’s gem
by Gerard MARTINEZ Agence France-Presse MIAMI, Florida (AFP) – Umberto Gimenez loves alligators. He gives them nicknames such as “Smile” and “Momma Gator” and laughs when he thinks of their antics. Gimenez, an airboat captain, has found his paradise in Florida’s Everglades National Park, a natural gem in the southeastern US state at risk from climate change. “It’s an amazing place and there’s only one in the world,” he says. The largest wetland in the […]
Global warming kills 14 percent of world’s corals in a decade
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – Dynamite fishing and pollution — but mostly global warming — wiped out 14 percent of the world’s coral reefs from 2009 to 2018, leaving graveyards of bleached skeletons where vibrant ecosystems once thrived, according to the largest ever survey of coral health. Hardest hit were corals in South Asia and the Pacific, around the Arabian Peninsula, and off the coast of Australia, more than 300 scientists […]
Fires, floods, flying insects: 10 recent climate-fuelled disasters
by Natalie HANDEL PARIS, France (AFP) — From a summer of fire and record floods, to freak frosts and locusts invasions, experts say man-made climate change is wreaking havoc on the world’s weather. Here are some of the most devastating climate-fuelled disasters from the past two years: Mediterranean on fire Greece’s worst heatwave in decades fuelled deadly wildfires that burned nearly 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) this year in what the prime minister called the country’s […]
Senegal’s old capital on the frontline against rising sea
by Laurent Lozano Agence France-Presse SAINT-LOUIS, Senegal (AFP) – In the northern Senegalese city of Saint-Louis, excavators are ripping up the beach to lay giant blocks of basalt, in an eleventh-hour effort to keep the sea at bay. When work is finished, a black sea wall will stretch for kilometres along the coastline of the West African country’s former capital, famed for its colonial-era architecture. Dire warnings about the risk of rising sea levels due […]
Half a degree makes a big difference in a warming world
by Stéphane ORJOLLET Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – Half a degree Celsius may not seem like much, but climate experts say a world that has warmed 1.5 degrees Celsius above 19th-century levels compared to 2C could be the difference between life and death. A 2C Earth would see the number of people facing extreme heat waves more than double. A quarter of a billion more people would face water shortages. The Arctic Ocean will […]
Rome votes in mayoral polls dominated by rubbish and boars
by Sonia Logre and Gildas Le Roux Agence France-Presse ROME, Italy (AFP) – The people of Rome voted on Sunday to elect a new mayor who will have the daunting task of tackling poor public transport and disastrous rubbish management in the Italian capital, dubbed one of the dirtiest cities in the world. Across the country from the Eternal City to Milan, Naples and Bologna, voting kicked off late on Monday for municipal elections being […]
Sea pollution after S.Africa riots an ‘environmental catastrophe’
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) – South African government on Sunday said the sea pollution linked to a spill from a chemical plant attacked during riots in July had caused a serious environmental catastrophe. Rioters ran amok looting and setting structures ablaze in July after former president Jacob Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in jail for snubbing a corruption inquiry. An agrochemical warehouse near the eastern port city of Durban storing chemicals used for making herbicides, […]
Austria govt unveils ‘eco’ tax reform
VIENNA, Austria (AFP) – Austria’s government unveiled on Sunday what it calls an “eco-social” reform of the tax system, a key promise of the conservative-green coalition. Under the measures set out at a news conference by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and several of his cabinet colleagues, Austria will follow the example of neighbouring Germany and introduce a tax on carbon dioxide emissions. This is to come in from mid-2022 at a level of 30 euros ($35) […]