Environment

• 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.

• Wednesday, June 24th 2020 - 07:42 UTC

  Magnitude 7,4 earthquake strikes the south of Mexico's Pacific coast

  

  A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.4 struck southern Mexico’s Pacific coast on Tuesday, killing at least five people and cutting off isolated villages, as well as causing damage to buildings hundreds of miles away in Mexico City.

• Monday, June 22nd 2020 - 10:00 UTC

  Major European investors warn Brazil with divestment if Amazon deforestation is not stopped

  

  Major European investment firms have said they will divest from beef producers, grains traders, and even government bonds in Brazil if they do not see progress in resolving the surging destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

• Monday, June 22nd 2020 - 07:50 UTC

  Ocean floor topography to be completed by 2030; so far a fifth has been covered

  

  Plans to map the entire ocean floor by 2030 are going ahead despite the challenges of the coronavirus crisis, officials leading the project said, with almost a fifth covered so far.

• Sunday, June 21st 2020 - 06:40 UTC

  Giant tortoises grown in captivity returned into the wild in Galapagos Islands

  

  A group of giant tortoises who have lived in captivity for decades and helped rescue their species from the brink of extinction were released into the wild in the Galapagos Islands this week.

• Thursday, June 11th 2020 - 13:23 UTC

  China increases protection of the pangolin to the same level as royal pandas

  

  Wildlife activists on Wednesday welcomed China's decision to remove pangolin parts from its official list of traditional medicines, as Beijing steps up protection of the heavily-trafficked endangered mammal.

• Thursday, June 11th 2020 - 08:20 UTC

  Record twelve month deforestation in Brazil's Amazon: area equivalent to Lebanon

  

  Deforestation of Brazil's Amazon rainforest was worse than previously reported in 2019, revised government data showed, during the first year of President Jair Bolsonaro, who is keen to develop the forest crucial to curbing global warming.