Environment

• Tuesday, March 14th 2017 - 21:34 UTC

  Death of swimming pigs of Big Major Cay shocks Bahamas

  

  For many years the swimming pigs of Big Major Cay, also known as Pig Beach, in the Bahamas Exuma island chain, have been a major tourist attraction. Running wild on the uninhabited island, swimming out to meet boatloads of tourists and happily gobbling down the food and snacks they brought, the friendly porkers enjoyed a porcine paradise on their island in the sun.

• Wednesday, March 8th 2017 - 13:50 UTC

  Australia's “Angry Summer” breaks more than 200 weather records

  

  More than 200 weather records were broken during Australia's most recent summer, a climate group has warned. The Climate Council report, titled “Angry Summer”, said the season was defined by intense heat-waves and bushfires in eastern Australia but heavy rain and flooding in the west.

• Monday, March 6th 2017 - 10:53 UTC

  UK's Signy Station on South Orkney Islands, hottest place in Antarctica

  

  A World Meteorological Organization (WMO) committee of experts announced on March first, new records for the highest temperatures recorded in the Antarctic Region. The results are part of continuing efforts to expand a database of extreme weather and climate conditions throughout the world.

• Thursday, March 2nd 2017 - 07:31 UTC

  HM Commissioner hosts South Georgia stakeholders on 12-day visit

  

  HM Commissioner for South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands, Colin Roberts CVO, departed this week for a 12-day visit to the UK Overseas Territory accompanied by representatives of some of South Georgia’s key stakeholder organizations. The information was reported in the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Newsletter.

• Tuesday, February 28th 2017 - 17:53 UTC

  UN says that action to curb climate change is unstoppable, despite Trump

  

  The UN’s new climate chief admits she’s worried about President Donald Trump – but is confident that action to curb climate change is unstoppable. President Trump said he’d withdraw from the UN climate deal and stop funding the UN’s clean energy program. But former Mexican diplomat Patricia Espinosa said that the delay in any firm announcement suggests the issue is still unresolved.

• 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.