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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, November 27th 2024 - 00:42 UTC

Environment

  • Friday, January 12th 2018 - 07:18 UTC

    Falklands concern with vast fishing fleet gathering on high seas

    Barton confirmed the fleet had been out there from an early date and was likely to be catching small squid as well as having the capacity to catch a great deal of squid

    A vast fleet of fishing vessels assembling to catch Illex squid on the high seas, some 400 miles north of the Falkland Islands, is an issue of concern to the Falkland Islands Fisheries Department.

  • Thursday, January 11th 2018 - 10:12 UTC

    Weddel seal ends on the mid Atlantic Brazilian island of Trindade

    The polar mammal had travelled more than 5,000km north of its Antarctic habitat; more than 1,500 kilometers beyond the farthest north previous record in Uruguay.

    The Brazilian Navy spotted something unusual in the azure waters of the South Atlantic. In 2015, at a remote outpost and biological research station on the island of Trindade, 1,100 kilometers off central Brazil, sailors spotted a small gray seal swimming in the waves. Two days later, they found its body on the island’s Catelha beach. Scientists who went to take a closer look made an astonishing discovery—the corpse was a young Weddell seal.

  • Wednesday, January 10th 2018 - 10:33 UTC

    Scorched Australia: 2017 third hottest year on record

    Summer heat described as “exceptional” had resulted in several land-based records being set in New South Wales and Queensland.

    Australia experienced its third-warmest year on record in 2017, according to the nation's Bureau of Meteorology. The national mean temperature of 22.75C was almost 1C higher than a 1961-1990 baseline, its annual report revealed. Only 2005 and 2013 were warmer, based on records kept for about a century.

  • Wednesday, January 10th 2018 - 08:09 UTC

    Eastern Falkland Plateau to be surveyed by state of the art scientific research vessel

    The RRS Discovery was designed by A.S. Skipsteknisk and was delivered to the National Oceanography Centre on 8 July 2013. (Pic NOC)

    The RRS Discovery arrived on Tuesday in Chile's extreme south port of Punta Arenas in advance of her next research expedition, to undertake seismic survey and piston coring operations in the eastern Falkland Plateau region of the Sub-Antarctic Southwest Atlantic Ocean.

  • Tuesday, January 9th 2018 - 09:50 UTC

    Brazil moving to clean-energy: 51 wind farms planned with 1.450 MW

    Brazil is seeking to increase installed clean-energy capacity by 19 gigawatts by 2026 to diversify the local grid.

    Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA is in final negotiations to supply about 700 megawatts of wind turbines for power plants in Brazil. The deal are to supply equipment for projects that Voltalia SA, EDP Renovaveis SA, Enel Green Power SpA, and Neoenergia SA are developing in northeast Brazil. The orders are all for wind farms that won government-organized power auctions in December.

  • Monday, January 8th 2018 - 09:06 UTC

    Brazil announces end of building big hydroelectric dams in Amazon basin

    “We are not prejudiced against big [hydroelectric] projects, but we have to respect the views of society, which views them with restrictions,” said Paulo Pedrosa

    In a surprise move, the Brazilian government has announced that the era of building big hydroelectric dams in the Amazon basin, long criticized by environmentalists and indigenous groups, is ending.

  • Saturday, January 6th 2018 - 10:01 UTC

    Northeast US and Canada frigid with wind chills reaching negative C 50 degrees

    New York Times reporters who were sent to Mount Washington in that state said the wind “steals your breath and freezes your eyelashes.”

    The aftermath of a frigid “bomb cyclone” and polar vortex left much of the northeastern US and Canada frigid on Friday night. Wind chills in one part of the state of New Hampshire were forecast to hit negative 50 degrees Celsius, according to forecasters. New York Times reporters who were sent to Mount Washington in that state said the wind “steals your breath and freezes your eyelashes.”

  • Friday, January 5th 2018 - 10:25 UTC

    Drought in north Argentina seriously delaying plating of soy and corn

    There are still nearly 12.8 million acres to be planted and 40% of this surface corresponds to northern Argentina, with wide areas of drought. Photo: Sebastián Astorga / sebastorga.com

    The drought in Argentina continues in several regions and has generated a delay of planting for the 2017-18 season. A report authored by the institution AgroEducación indicated that La Niña, though subtle, already impacts the region with temperatures above normal and scarce rains.

  • Friday, January 5th 2018 - 10:15 UTC

    Mysterious death of at least 88 grey dolphins on the coast of Rio do Janeiro state

    According to the local Brazilian media Al Dia News, it's the worst mass death of the dolphin this decade, newshub.co reports.

    Environmentalists in Brazil say they are trying to figure out why more than 80 gray dolphins have died in less than a month on the coast of Rio de Janeiro state. A statement from the Gray Dolphin Institute says the dolphins died over past 17 days in the Bay of Sepetiba, a coastal district about 70 kilometers west of Rio de Janeiro. The institute is an NGO that monitors and strives to protect the dolphins.

  • Wednesday, January 3rd 2018 - 10:37 UTC

    Heathrow aggressive program to make the airport cleaner and quieter

    The introduction of the higher environmental charge forms part of Heathrow’s ambitious sustainability strategy

    Environmental charges at Heathrow are set to increase by 7% as the airport seeks to minimize its impact on local communities. From 1st January 2018, airlines are being incentivized to deploy their newest aircraft at Heathrow – making the airport cleaner and quieter for local communities.