Environment

• Monday, February 27th 2017 - 08:47 UTC

  Torrential rains and mudslides leave 4 million people in Santiago with no drinking water

  

  Just two weeks ago Chile was desperately combating with foreign support thousands of acres of bushfires out of control, but now over the weekend rainstorms and landslides killed four and contaminated a major river, forcing authorities to cut off drinking water to four million people in the capital Santiago, authorities said.

• Sunday, February 26th 2017 - 09:19 UTC

  Argentine-Chilean Antarctic inspectors check BAS Rothera base

  

  A team or Argentine and Chilean experts have visited Czech and British bases in Antarctica as part of the routine inspection of environment and security operations, in the framework of the Antarctic Treaty. The Argentine foreign ministry reported that the inspections took place for the second consecutive year between 19 January and 25 February.

• Monday, February 20th 2017 - 21:27 UTC

  South Georgia gentoo penguins feed preferably on krill, shows 22 year BAS study

  

  The longest and most comprehensive study to date of what penguins eat is published this month. The study, published in the journal Marine Biology, examines the diets of gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) at Bird Island, South Georgia over a 22 year period and is part of a project investigating the Southern Ocean ecosystem and its response to change

• Monday, February 20th 2017 - 20:00 UTC

  Summer sea ice in Antarctica is the lowest on record

  

  This year the extent of summer sea ice in the Antarctic is the lowest on record. The Antarctic sea ice minimum marks the day – typically towards end of February – when sea ice reaches its smallest extent at the end of the summer melt season, before expanding again as the winter sets in. This year, sea ice extent contracted to 2.28m sq km on 13 February, according to data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

• Monday, February 13th 2017 - 09:14 UTC

  Some 200 stranded whales in New Zealand managed to refloat, but 350 have died

  

  Some 200 stranded whales in New Zealand managed to refloat themselves overnight and swim away, while volunteers managed to save another 17 whales at high tide. More than 650 pilot whales had beached themselves along Farewell Spit at the tip of the South Island in two separate mass stranding over recent days.

• Friday, February 10th 2017 - 18:38 UTC

  Greenpeace calls on Mitsubishi not to move salmon farms to Magallanes region in Chilean Patagonia

  

  Greenpeace has urged Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi to stop expanding its salmon farming operations in Magallanes, as part of its new global campaign focused on protecting the seas of Chilean Patagonia. The launch of the campaign, “Save the seas at the end of the world,” brought together people and activists who gathered in lighthouses along Chile's nearly 4,000 kilometres coastline to claim protection for ecosystems of the southern seas.

• Saturday, February 4th 2017 - 06:24 UTC

  British supermarkets rationing vegetables; adverse weather conditions in Europe

  

  British supermarkets have begun rationing vegetables, as adverse weather conditions in Europe have led to a shortage of products in UK stores. On Friday Tesco said customers will be limited to buying a maximum of three iceberg lettuces per visit, adding bad weather in Spain had triggered “availability issues”, although it added suppliers were looking to resolve the issue.

• Friday, February 3rd 2017 - 11:10 UTC

  Chile creates new 11.000 km2 marine eco-region in Juan Fernandez Island

  

  The alfonsin, the orange roughy and the cod, as well as a variety of species of fragile environments, are part of the ecosystem that is now located in the new Coastal Marine Protected Area of Multiple Uses (AMCP-MU) called “Mar de Juan Fernandez”, placed in the archipelago of the same name.

• Monday, January 30th 2017 - 14:57 UTC

  Oil industry threatens the 1.000 km long coral reef system where the Amazon meets the ocean

  

  The first pictures of a huge coral reef system discovered in the Amazon last year have been released by environmental campaigners. The Amazon Reef is a 9,500 sq km system of corals, sponges and rhodoliths, Greenpeace says. The reef is almost 1,000 km long, and is located where the Amazon River meets the Atlantic Ocean.

• Monday, January 30th 2017 - 11:36 UTC

  Chile arrests 43 people suspected of stoking some of the forest fires

  

  Authorities in Chile have detained 43 people suspected of stoking some of the deadly forest fires that have killed 11 people and destroyed large swaths of land, according to President Michelle Bachelet.