Environment

• Tuesday, October 22nd 2019 - 09:30 UTC

  Brazilian oil spill: Bolsonaro does not discard a “criminal act” designed to harm a major auction next month

  

  Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro questioned whether a far-reaching oil spill on the nation’s northeastern shore may have been a criminal act designed to harm a major oil auction scheduled for November.

• Tuesday, October 22nd 2019 - 09:29 UTC

  Climate change, greater threat than nuclear war, says ex Colombian president and Nobel peace laureate

  

  The threat of climate change has overtaken the prospect of nuclear war as the most pressing concern facing humanity, a former Colombian president and Nobel peace laureate warned on Monday.

• Monday, October 21st 2019 - 09:23 UTC

  Cruise operators agree to “Blue Charter” in French waters

  

  The main cruise ship operators in French waters have agreed on measures to limit pollution caused by their vessels, including hooking up to the power grid instead of keeping their engines running during stopovers.

• Monday, October 21st 2019 - 09:16 UTC

  Maritime industry trying to cut the use of heavy polluting fuels

  

  Ship-owners say they are trying to cut their heavy-polluting industry's impact on the environment by using cleaner energy - but some have stalled over limiting the speed of ships.

• Friday, October 18th 2019 - 09:44 UTC

  BAS technique to detect stranded whales from space

  

  A new technique for analyzing satellite images may help scientists detect and count stranded whales from space. Researchers tested a new detection method using Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite images from Maxar Technologies of the biggest mass stranding of baleen whales yet recorded.  It is hoped that in the future the technique will lead to real-time information as stranding events happen.

• Friday, October 18th 2019 - 09:29 UTC

  Humpback whales in the SW Atlantic total some 25.000, NOAA survey

  

  One of the whale populations taken to the edge of extinction by commercial hunting in the early 20th Century has essentially recovered its numbers. It's estimated the humpbacks that frequent the southwest Atlantic once totaled perhaps 27,000 animals.

• Wednesday, October 16th 2019 - 08:41 UTC

  First China built icebreaker begins its maiden voyage to Antarctica

  

  China's first domestically built polar icebreaker Xuelong 2, or Snow Dragon 2, will start its maiden voyage to the Antarctic from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen this week.

• Wednesday, October 16th 2019 - 08:10 UTC

  A “ghost ship” smuggling Venezuelan oil probable cause of the massive spill along Brazilian northeast beaches

  

  A huge oil spill off Brazil's northeastern coast may have involved a “ghost ship” carrying Venezuelan oil in breach of US sanctions, a Petrobras expert close to the probe into the disaster said on Tuesday.

• Wednesday, October 16th 2019 - 08:01 UTC

  Roche family member claims “short term profit maximization has destroyed the planet”

  

  A member of Swiss drug-maker Roche's controlling family said that short-term profit maximization has “destroyed the planet” and the world needs a new breed of capitalism putting long-term interests first.

• Tuesday, October 15th 2019 - 09:21 UTC

  
Typhoon and torrential rains kill 67 in Japan and cause havoc in 36 of 47 prefectures

  

  Fresh rain threatened to hamper efforts by tens of thousands of Japanese rescuers searching for survivors after a powerful typhoon that by early Tuesday had killed 67 people.