Environment

• Monday, October 10th 2016 - 09:46 UTC

  Haiti: 1.000 dead and counting, and first cases of cholera; three days official mourning

  

  Matthew, meanwhile, lost its hurricane status, subsiding to a “post-tropical cyclone” after cutting a swath from Florida to South Carolina in United States. Matthew crashed ashore on Haiti’s southern coast on Tuesday as a monster Category 4 storm, packing 230 km winds.

• Saturday, October 8th 2016 - 11:13 UTC

  Antarctica celebrates 25th anniversary of the Environment Protection Protocol

  

  Tuesday 4 October was the 25th anniversary of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty which was created in order to protect the unique and pristine Antarctic landscape. The Protocol designates Antarctica as a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science; and bans the commercial extraction of minerals (mining and drilling).

• Saturday, October 8th 2016 - 10:47 UTC

  Fracking controversy erupts in UK following approval of shale gas industry request

  

  Horizontal fracking can go ahead, the British government has said, in a landmark ruling for the UK shale gas industry. Communities Secretary Sajid Javid has approved plans for fracking at Cuadrilla's Preston New Road site at Little Plumpton in Lancashire.

• Saturday, October 8th 2016 - 09:59 UTC

  WTO confirms ruling in favor of Argentina in biodiesel imports dispute with EU

  

  The World Trade Organization confirmed on appeal on Thursday its ruling partially in favor of Argentina in its dispute with the European Union over duties the bloc imposes on imported biodiesel.

• Wednesday, October 5th 2016 - 11:24 UTC

  Cruise ships forced to divert Caribbean schedule by Hurricane Matthew

  

  Hurricane Matthew is forcing a growing number of cruise ships to alter course as it barrels northward toward Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas. Cruise giant Carnival has rerouted half a dozen ships scheduled to visit ports in the region over the next few days, including the Carnival Sensation, Carnival Splendor and Carnival Ecstasy.

• Saturday, October 1st 2016 - 11:53 UTC

  A 32.8 feet Anaconda found in Brazil, largest snake in the world

  

  Construction workers in Brazil have stumbled upon one of the most frightening creatures in the planet a ten meters long anaconda. The snake measuring 32.8 feet and weighing over 400 kilos, was discovered after the workers set off a controlled demolition explosion to destroy a cave in Belo Monte Dam to make way for their project.

• Friday, September 30th 2016 - 08:09 UTC

  RRS James Clark Ross sails to Falklands collecting Mid-Atlantic Ridge data

  

  British Antarctic Survey ship, the RRS James Clark Ross, set sail on its long voyage from Immingham in the UK to Stanley in the Falkland Islands last 20 September. The ship, which carries out important scientific research in the Southern Ocean during the Antarctic summer months, is conducting survey work as it makes its passage south.

• Thursday, September 29th 2016 - 11:30 UTC

  Scientists trying to determine the increase of whales' beaching all along Chile's coastline

  

  Several huge whales have washed up dead over recent months on beaches in northern Chile, where scientists suspect they are moving in increasing numbers due to climate change. After the beaching of hundreds of dead whales in the south last year, the trend has now shifted to areas where the phenomenon was previously rare.

• Thursday, September 22nd 2016 - 17:00 UTC

  St Helena airport “too dangerous to use” opens prospect of £285m compensation claim

  

  Britain faces the prospect of compensation claims over a disastrous overseas aid project to build an airport on the remote island of St Helena, according to reports in the UK media. The £285million flop became a symbol of Britain’s aid waste this year after experts warned it might never open because of severe problems with wind conditions on the British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic Ocean.

• Friday, September 16th 2016 - 07:21 UTC

  UK Overseas Territories Marine Protection Areas to double in four years

  

  Speaking ahead of “Our Ocean” conference in Washington DC, Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan announced plans to double the area of ocean under marine protection around the UK Overseas Territories to around four million square kilometers, greater than the landmass of India.