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Jakarta, Indonesia (AFP) — Two extremely rare Javan rhinoceros calves have been spotted in an Indonesian national park, boosting hopes for the future of one of the world’s most endangered mammals. The rhino calves — a female named Helen and male called Luther — were seen with their mothers in footage taken from nearly 100 camera traps installed in Ujung Kulon national park between March and August, authorities said in a statement on Sunday. On […]
BRISBANE, Australia (AFP) — Australia is notorious for its venomous spiders, snakes and sea creatures, but researchers have now identified “scorpion-like” toxins secreted by a tree that can cause excruciating pain for weeks. Split-second contact with the dendrocnide tree, a rainforest nettle known by its indigenous name gympie-gympie, delivers a sting far more potent than similar plants found in the US or Europe. The tree, which has broad oval- or heart-shaped leaves, is primarily found […]
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) — Sri Lanka will file negligence and pollution charges against the Greek skipper of an oil tanker that leaked fuel off the island nation’s coast after a week-long fire, authorities said Wednesday. Some of the 1,700 tonnes of heavy fuel oil aboard the New Diamond poured into the Indian Ocean, prompting a large effort to contain a slick that was roughly two kilometres (1.2 miles) in length. Its 270,000-tonne cargo of […]
BRASILÍA, Brazil (AFP) — An unprecedented coalition of 230 environmental groups and Brazilian agrobusiness companies have sent an open letter to President Jair Bolsonaro urging him to fight deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. The Brazil Climate, Forests and Agriculture Coalition brings together a disparate group of members ranging from the World Wildlife Fund to the world’s biggest meat processing company, JBS, which has itself been accused of contributing to deforestation. The coalition sent Brazil’s far-right […]
by Miodrag SOVILJ Agence France-Presse BELGRADE, Serbia (AFP) — Just down the road from Belgrade’s historic city centre, gates open for trucks to pass to the banks of the Danube, where they dump raw sewage into Europe’s venerated river. It’s not a secret operation, but rather a business nobody likes to mention in the Serbian capital — the only one in Europe to spew all of its unfiltered wastewater into the continent’s second-longest river. A […]
by Eugenia LOGIURATTO Agence France-Presse PORTO JOFRE, Brazil (AFP) — Lieutenant Silva’s face is grim as he watches his firefighters try — and fail — to control one of the thousands of wildfires ravaging Brazil’s Pantanal, the world’s biggest tropical wetlands. “It needs to rain. We’ve got low moisture, intense heat. With that combination, rain is our only hope,” says Silva, even as new flames break out at the spot his team of six firefighters […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — An experimental green housing project in a Chinese megacity promised prospective residents life in a “vertical forest”, with manicured gardens on every balcony. All 826 apartments were sold out by April this year, according to the project’s estate agent, but instead of a modern eco-paradise, the towers look like the set of a desolate, post-apocalyptic film. The problem? The mosquitoes love the plants too. Only a handful of families have moved […]
by Cyril JULIEN Agence France-Presse PORTLAND, Oregon (AFP) — The deadly fires spreading across three western US states are causing record-breaking pollution and a spate of health woes, from headaches and coughs to impaired vision, that have residents worried about the long-term consequences. Portland, the largest city in Oregon, has been blanketed for days by a dense smog that has sent pollution meters soaring. On Monday, the city ranked second-worst on IQAir’s live global air […]
SAO, PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — At a warehouse on the west side of Sao Paulo, fruits and vegetables grow within a tower stacked 10 storeys high with plants, all bathed in an ethereal pink light. This is Pink Farms, the first vertical farm in the teeming Brazilian city of 12 million people, where land is scarce and produce usually has to be shipped in from afar. The farm consists of two towers, each about the […]
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) — Sri Lankan military divers fixed a fuel leak from the engine of a fire-damaged oil tanker off the island’s east coast, the navy said Saturday, in a salvage operation after the huge week-long blaze. While the navy says no crude oil has escaped the cargo of the New Diamond, leaked diesel fuel had created a two-kilometre-long slick in the Indian Ocean that was visible from the air. The fuel was seeping […]
ANKARA, Turkey (AFP) — Turkey said on Monday that an energy exploration vessel that had pulled out of waters claimed by Greece was only undergoing routine maintenance and would return soon. The Oruc Reis seismic survey ship has been unsettling the strategic eastern Mediterranean region since Turkey sent it along with a small navy flotilla into disputed seas on August 10. Greece responded by staging navy drills with France and several EU allies near ones Turkey […]
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) — A massive chunk of ice — larger than the city of Paris — has broken off from the Arctic’s largest ice shelf because of warmer temperatures in Greenland, scientists said Monday. The 113-square-kilometre (43-square-mile) block broke off the Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden glacier in Northeast Greenland, which the scientists said had been expected given the rising average temperatures. “We’re observing increasing speed on this largest remaining ice shelf,” Jason Box, professor of glaciology at […]
