Environment

Monday, June 29th 2020 - 18:32 UTC
Sea ice in the Weddell Sea has decreased by one million sq kilometers in five years

Scientists have discovered that summer sea ice (*) in the Weddell Sea area of Antarctica has decreased by one million square kilometres – an area twice the size of Spain – in the last five years, with implications for the marine ecosystem. The findings are published this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Monday, June 29th 2020 - 06:56 UTC
Funding boost for BAS space weather monitoring

Space weather research at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) received a funding boost of around £2M from the SWIMMR (Space Weather Instrumentation, Measurement, Modelling and Risk) program.
Saturday, June 27th 2020 - 07:36 UTC
Dozens of dead dolphins washing up on France's Atlantic coast

$Postmortems often show fractures, broken tails and flippers and deep incisions cut into their skin by the nets. Some have been mutilated as fishermen release their bodies$

Dead dolphins are washing up on France's Atlantic coast in such high numbers that local populations of the mammals are at risk, marine biologists say.
Saturday, June 27th 2020 - 06:45 UTC
Brazil recorded longest lightning bolt, 700km and Argentina a lighting megaflash of 16,7 seconds

The UN's weather agency announced this week the longest lightning bolt on record -- a single flash in Brazil on October 31, 2018 that cut the sky across more than 700 kilometres.
Friday, June 26th 2020 - 08:19 UTC
District of Columbia files lawsuit against oil majors for “misleading” consumers con climate change

The attorney general for the District of Columbia on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell for “systematically and intentionally misleading” consumers about the role their products play in causing climate change, the latest action by a US attorney general against the oil and gas industry.
Thursday, June 25th 2020 - 06:49 UTC
Bayer settles US Roundup weed-killer lawsuits with US$ 10,9 billion after year long of talks

Bayer AG agreed to settle U.S. lawsuits claiming that its widely-used weed killer Roundup caused cancer for as much as US$10.9 billion after more than a year of talks, resolving litigation that has hit the company's share price.
Thursday, June 25th 2020 - 05:55 UTC
Micro plastics pollution reaches Antarctica: found in land based food systems

Scientists have found bits of polystyrene in the guts of tiny, soil-dwelling organisms in the Antarctic, raising concern that micro-plastics pollution has already “deeply” entered the world's most remote land-based food systems.
Thursday, June 25th 2020 - 05:40 UTC
Saharan sand cloud darkened much of Cuba and is affecting Florida

A massive cloud of Saharan dust darkened much of Cuba on Wednesday and began to affect air quality in Florida, sparking warnings to people with respiratory illnesses to stay home. The dust cloud swept across the Atlantic from Africa over the past week, covering the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico since Sunday and hitting south Florida in the United States on Wednesday, authorities there said.
Wednesday, June 24th 2020 - 09:47 UTC
Coronavirus has turned Italians into peddlers: record sales of bicycles

Italy has seen a surge in bicycle sales since the government ended its coronavirus lockdown as people steer clear of public transport and respond to government incentives to help the environment.
Wednesday, June 24th 2020 - 09:31 UTC
Investment funds managing US$ 4 trillion call on Brazil to halt deforestation

Investment funds managing close to US$4 trillion in assets called on Brazil on Tuesday to halt deforestation of the Amazon in an open letter warning that biodiversity loss and carbon emissions pose a “systemic risk” to their portfolios.