Environment

• Saturday, November 30th 2013 - 06:46 UTC

  Argentina, Brazil and Chile elected to the Int. Maritime Organization council

  

  Argentina, Chile and Brazil have been elected to be members of the International Maritime Organization Council for the 2014/15 biennium by the IMO assembly, which is meeting in London.

• Monday, November 25th 2013 - 19:33 UTC

  Fossils in south Chile reveal close interaction with once connected Antarctica

  

  Three years of study in Patagonia have produced what researchers describe as most important paleontological findings in Chile in the last 10 years. The discovery of leaf and dinosaur fossils in South America has revealed the continent was connected to Antarctica 20 million years more recently than previously believed.

• Monday, November 25th 2013 - 15:24 UTC

  Magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes in south Atlantic, 314 km SE from Falklands

  

  The U.S. Geological Survey says a powerful magnitude-7.0 earthquake has struck in the South Atlantic, southwest of the Falkland Islands. It says the quake struck at 2:27 a.m. Monday (0627 GMT), about 314 kilometres southeast of the Falklands’ capital, Stanley, and 545 miles east of Ushuaia, Argentina. The depth was a shallow 10 kilometres.

• Monday, November 25th 2013 - 07:24 UTC

  Last minute compromise and flexible wording saves UN climate talks in Poland

  

  UN climate talks in Poland have ended with delegates reaching a compromise on how to fight global warming. After 30 hours of deadlock, they approved a pathway to a new global climate treaty in Paris in 2015. The agreement was achieved after a series of last minute compromises often involving single words in draft texts.

• Friday, November 22nd 2013 - 20:27 UTC

  Russia refuses to free Greenpeace vessel ignoring UN maritime tribunal order

  

  The United Nations maritime tribunal has ordered Russia to free a Greenpeace vessel and 30 people detained after an oil drilling protest in the Arctic. The court in the German city of Hamburg said a bond of 3.6 million Euros should be posted.

• Friday, November 22nd 2013 - 02:08 UTC

  Major environmental groups walk out of UN climate conference in Warsaw

  

  Several major environmental groups, including Greenpeace and WWF, have walked out of UN climate talks in Warsaw, Poland in protest at what they see as a lack of progress towards an international deal to curb rising global greenhouse gas emissions.

• Wednesday, November 20th 2013 - 05:06 UTC

  Brazil agriculture in state of emergency following infestations of Helicoverpa caterpillar

  

  Infestations of the Helicoverpa caterpillar in Brazil's grain belt prompted the agriculture ministry this week to declare a state of emergency in the leading soy state of Mato Grosso, highlighting the potential risk to large parts of the crop.

• Saturday, November 16th 2013 - 06:54 UTC

  Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon increased by a third over the past year

  

  Deforestation in the Amazon increased by nearly a third over the past year, according to Brazilian government figures released this week, confirming a feared reversal in what had been steady progress over the past decade against destruction of the world's largest rainforest.

• Thursday, November 14th 2013 - 19:20 UTC

  Two UK scientists keeping track of Manhattan size iceberg moving in the Southern ocean

  

  An Iceberg, the size of Manhattan in area, was derived from the Pine Island Glacier, and is currently moving through the Southern Ocean. To keep track of its movements and melting Professor Grant Bigg of UK's University of Sheffield has been awarded a £50,000 grant from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) for the 6 month project.

• Thursday, November 14th 2013 - 19:09 UTC

  Japan unveils floating wind farm off the coast of the defunct Fukushima

  

  Japan unveiled a new wind farm off the coast of Fukushima last week. Only thirteen miles offshore from the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power station, the same nuclear station that notoriously attracted the world's attention during the 2011 Japanese tsunami, the new wind farm is expected to produce upwards of one gigawatt from 143 wind turbines. For comparison, the now-inoperable Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant could provide 4.4 gigawatts.