Environment

• Friday, January 17th 2020 - 16:11 UTC

  Amazon deforestation soared 85% in twelve months of 2019, Brazil's Space Research

  

  Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil soared 85% in 2019, compared with the previous year, official data showed Tuesday. The 9,166 square kilometers cleared was the highest number in at least five years, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research.

• Friday, January 17th 2020 - 12:28 UTC

  Magellanic penguins rookery discovered in Tierra del Fuego remote island

  

  Just in time for Penguin Awareness Day on January 20th, WCS researchers announced the discovery of a new colony of Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) on a remote island in Argentina.

• Friday, January 17th 2020 - 12:03 UTC

  Amazon indigenous leaders summit to form alliance against Bolsonaro's environmental policy

  

  Dozens of Amazon indigenous leaders have gathered in the heart of the threatened rainforest to form an alliance against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's environmental policy and his threats to throw their homelands open to mining concerns.

• Thursday, January 16th 2020 - 19:15 UTC

  Brazilian Antarctica base reopened from its ashes after eight years

  

  Brazil Wednesday reopened its scientific Comandante Ferraz base in Antarctica, which had been destroyed in a fire in 2012. In the incident two soldiers died and more than two thirds of the facilities were destroyed.

• Thursday, January 16th 2020 - 08:51 UTC

  Secret operation in Australia to save prehistoric species “dinosaur trees”

  

  A secret operation by specialist firefighters has saved the world's last stand of Wollemi Pines, a pre-historic species known as “dinosaur trees”, from Australia's unprecedented bushfires, officials said.

• Thursday, January 16th 2020 - 08:47 UTC

  Past decade the hottest on record, but higher temperatures can be expected

  

  The past decade has been the hottest on record, the UN said on Wednesday warning that the higher temperatures were expected to fuel numerous extreme weather events in 2020 and beyond.

• Thursday, January 16th 2020 - 08:28 UTC

  “Contaminated drinking water” in Rio: run on bottled-water in supermarkets

  

  Widespread complaints over foul-smelling drinking water in Rio de Janeiro have triggered a run on supermarket bottled water, though the public utility denied any health risk on Wednesday.

• Wednesday, January 15th 2020 - 09:34 UTC

  Australian Open tennis qualifying disrupted by poor air quality as smoke blankets Melbourne

  

  Australian Open qualifying was disrupted for a second successive day due to poor air quality on Wednesday as smoke from bushfires continued to blanket Melbourne in an acrid haze. Organizers of the year's first Grand Slam said practice had been suspended at Melbourne Park until 11am and qualifiers would not get under way until 1pm.

• Wednesday, January 15th 2020 - 09:11 UTC

  Australia fires’ smoke expected to circle the world, NASA satellites confirm

  

  The vast clouds of smoke from Australia's historic bush fires are expected to circle the Earth and return to the country, Nasa says. The US agency said satellites have been monitoring the movement of the smoke high in the atmosphere as it swirled east towards South America and beyond.

• Tuesday, January 14th 2020 - 09:51 UTC

  Last year, the warmest on record for the world's oceans long term trend

  

  Last year was the warmest year on record for the world's oceans, part of a long-term warming trend, according to a study released on Monday. “If you look at the ocean heat content, 2019 is by far the hottest, 2018 is second, 2017 is third, 2015 is fourth, and then 2016 is fifth,” said Kevin E. Trenberth, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, NCAR, and an author on the study.