Environment

• Wednesday, November 27th 2019 - 09:50 UTC

  Brazilian police arrest volunteer firefighters; civic leaders claim it's a campaign to blame NGOs for Amazon fires

  

  Brazilian police on Tuesday arrested four volunteer firefighters accused of intentionally setting fires in the Amazon rainforest, but civic leaders said the arrests amounted to government harassment of environmental groups.

• Wednesday, November 27th 2019 - 09:45 UTC

  Indonesia rainforest fires more toxic and extended than blazes in the Amazon, EU claims

  

  Fires that destroyed Indonesian rainforests pumped out more carbon dioxide than the blazes in the Amazon this year, according to the European Union's atmosphere observation program.

• Monday, November 25th 2019 - 09:46 UTC

  Brazilian oil spill keeps advancing and has reached the north of Rio do Janeiro state

  

  Oil from a spill that has contaminated a stretch of Brazil's coast was detected in Rio de Janeiro state, the navy said over the weekend, as President Jair Bolsonaro warned the country was preparing for the worst.

• Friday, November 22nd 2019 - 09:53 UTC

  Brazil seeking more funds from rich countries to protect the Amazon rainforest

  

  Brazil’s plans for environmental protection remain unchanged even as deforestation skyrockets, but Environment Minister Ricardo Salles said the country was looking for more money to implement those plans. Salles largely repeated previously announced plans to bring more development, economic zoning and improved enforcement of environmental laws to the Amazon rainforest region, where deforestation has surged to its highest point in 11 years.

• Thursday, November 21st 2019 - 07:28 UTC

  Australia's main cities choked by smoke from bushfires, some out of control

  

  The fire danger was elevated across wider swathes of southern Australia on Thursday, with residents warned to avoid at-risk areas as smoke from bushfires choked Sydney and other major cities. Devastating fires along the country's east coast have claimed six lives and destroyed more than 500 homes since mid-October, with climate change and unseasonably hot, dry conditions fuelling the unprecedented blazes.

• Wednesday, November 20th 2019 - 09:28 UTC

  Begins the recovery of Venice's Saint Mark's Basilica exposed to destructive salt water from the flooding

  

  Venice's historic Saint Mark's Basilica will need millions of Euros of restoration work after it was flooded this week for just the sixth time in 1,200 years, leaving its delicate marble mosaics exposed to destructive salt water, its curator said.

• Wednesday, November 20th 2019 - 08:57 UTC

  Australia lifts fire danger to “catastrophic” and closes schools in the southeast

  

  More than 100 schools in Australia's southeast were closed on Wednesday and officials warned people in high-risk zones to be ready to evacuate as forecast high temperatures risked opening up a new front in raging bushfires.

• Tuesday, November 19th 2019 - 08:00 UTC

  Record deforestation in the Amazon rainforest confirms official Brazilian data

  

  Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest rose to its highest in over a decade this year, government data on Monday showed, confirming a sharp increase under the leadership of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro.

• Tuesday, November 19th 2019 - 05:29 UTC

  Hazardous levels of pollution in Sydney as bushfires advance on Australia's largest city

  

  Sydney was shrouded in dangerous haze on Tuesday as smoke from bushfire blazing along Australia's eastern board sent contamination levels soaring in the country's biggest city.

• Monday, November 18th 2019 - 09:08 UTC

  Third tidal “tsunami” keeps Venice under water; incessant rain also threatens Pisa and Florence

  

  Venice's St Mark's Square was closed on Sunday as the historic city suffered its third major flooding in less than a week, while rain lashing the rest of Italy prompted warnings in Florence and Pisa.