A group of United Nations experts have started to analyze water samples in the Argentine northeastern province of San Juan where a spill from a malfunctioning cyanide pipeline in a gold mine belonging to Canada's multinational Barrick Gold has caused a water emergency. The Veladero mine in San Juan is one of the largest in Argentina and apparently the spill reached the rivers Jachal, Las Taguas and Blanco.
Coastal cities in north-central Chile suffered extensive damage from the powerful earthquake that struck the region on Wednesday night, according to aerial images released on Thursday by the police.
The amount of fish in the oceans has halved since 1970, in a plunge to the brink of collapse caused by over-fishing and other threats, the WWF conservation group said on Wednesday.Populations of some commercial fish stocks, such as a group including tuna, mackerel and bonito, had fallen by almost 75%, according to a study by WWF and the Zoological Society of London, ZSL.
Not so long ago, humanity stood on the brink of a self-inflicted catastrophe. Our use of ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) had torn a hole in the ozone layer that protects us from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation.
Residents of a town in the Argentine northwestern province of San Juan took to the streets in protest after an industrial malfunction caused a pipe carrying potentially lethal cyanide to the nearby Veladero gold mine to fracture and spill an amount of its contents in the area on Sunday. The news reached national level on Monday.
Sperm whales are very social marine animals and they travel in close groups and communicate by using a pattern of clicks, also known as codas. Similar to humans, the whales use varying dialects worldwide. A recent study of two sperm whale clans living in fairly close proximity off the Galápagos Islands sheds light on animal cultures.
The world's forests continue to shrink as populations increase and forest land is converted to agriculture and other uses, but over the past 25 years the rate of net global deforestation has slowed down by more than 50%, FAO said in a report published on Tuesday.
As neighbors Chile and Peru along the Pacific coast of South America, Colombia announced its electrical system is prepared for the El Niño weather phenomena, which may lead to drought and low reserves at hydro-electric facilities, mines and energy minister Tomas Gonzalez said on Wednesday.
The most recent meeting of the Falkland Islands' Executive Council (ExCo) was dominated by matters relating to oil exploration and development including recommendations for plans of Noble Energy and Premier Oil to go ahead with drilling of Rhea-1 and Jayne East wells.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday is proposing a faster timetable for buying a new heavy icebreaker for the U.S. Arctic, where quickly melting sea ice has spurred more maritime traffic, and the United States has fallen far behind Russian resources.