Environment

Friday, August 21st 2020 - 10:59 UTC
UN water rights expert questions Chile for placing economic development over human rights

Chile on Thursday faced questioning by a United Nations water rights expert who suggested the government could be placing economic development over human rights through controversial agriculture and energy projects.
Friday, August 21st 2020 - 09:49 UTC
Earth Overshoot Day will be reached next Saturday, according to Global Footprint Network scientists

Humanity will have burned through all the natural resources that the planet can replenish for 2020 by Saturday Aug 22, according to researchers who said the grim milestone is slightly later than last year after the pandemic slowed runaway overconsumption.
Friday, August 21st 2020 - 09:40 UTC
Oil spill from refinery triggers an environmental disaster along the Venezuelan coastline

A strip of Venezuela's western coastline boasting pristine beaches and fragile ecosystems such as mangroves and coral reefs could take more than half a century to fully recover from the environmental impacts of a recent oil spill, a researcher said.
Thursday, August 20th 2020 - 08:44 UTC
Brazil invites actor Leonardo DiCaprio to visit the reality of the Amazon

Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourao on Wednesday called on actor Leonardo DiCaprio to visit the Amazon to see the reality of the situation there, as the government faces criticisms for rising destruction in the world's largest rainforest.
Wednesday, August 19th 2020 - 09:21 UTC
Amazon indigenous protest demanding environment compensation from Brazilian government and improved Covid-19 care

Indigenous protesters in Brazil agreed on Tuesday to suspend their roadblock of a key highway amid a court battle but vowed to fight on for more help against COVID-19 and an end to deforestation.
Wednesday, August 19th 2020 - 09:19 UTC
Some 21 million tons of micro plastic floating in the Atlantic ocean

There are 12-21 million tons of tiny plastic fragments floating in the Atlantic Ocean, scientists have found. A study, led by the UK's National Oceanography Centre, scooped through layers of the upper 200m of the ocean during a research expedition through the middle of the Atlantic.
Tuesday, August 18th 2020 - 08:33 UTC
Hottest temperature in at least a century on Sunday in Death Valley, Mojave Desert

One of the hottest air temperatures recorded anywhere on the planet in at least a century, and possibly ever, was reached on Sunday afternoon at Death Valley in California’s Mojave Desert where it soared to 130 Fahrenheit (54.4 Celsius).
Monday, August 17th 2020 - 09:57 UTC
Climate change could trigger epidemics: malaria, dengue, zika, smallpox and pathogens from Siberian permafrost

The COVID-19 pandemic that has swept the globe and claimed more than 760,000 lives so far almost certainly came from a wild bat, highlighting the danger of humanity's constant encroachment on the planet's dwindling wild spaces.
Monday, August 17th 2020 - 09:54 UTC
Falklands' Conservation Zone management could be undermined by unregulated longlining

A recent study has found that unregulated longline fishing for Patagonian Toothfish immediately outside the 200-mile Falkland Islands Outer Conservation Zone (FOCZ) is likely to be having significant impacts on deepwater seabed vulnerable marine ecosystems compared to the low impacts observed in licensed longline fisheries within Falklands' waters.
Monday, August 17th 2020 - 08:52 UTC
Indigenous people in Chile fighting to have top lithium miner permits revoked

Indigenous groups in Chile´s lithium-rich Atacama salt flat, fresh off a resounding legal victory earlier this week, said they will push to see top lithium miner SQM´s environmental permits revoked and its operations shut down.