The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has announced an increase in draft and daily transits, with the authorized draft raised by another 30 cm on Wednesday to 14.3 m, and will increase to 14.63 m on July 11.
Denmark's coalition government agreed this week to tax livestock owners the equivalent of US$96 per head per year from 2030 due to greenhouse gases produced by animal flatulence, Tax Minister Jeppe Bruus announced. The move on cows, pigs, and sheep is expected to result in a 70% reduction from 1990 levels by the end of the decade on the path to carbon neutrality, Bruus explained. “We will take a big step towards climate neutrality in 2045,” he emphasized. The tax is expected to be approved by Parliament later this year.
Argentina's Coast Guard (Prefectura Naval Argentina - PNA) alerted all sailing ships this week of three icebergs near Ushuaia and advised them to avoid all unnecessary approaching these ice floes, of which only 10% is visible on the surface. The first detection was reported last Saturday by the Argentine-flagged fishing vessel Echizen Maru and the latest spotting came through on Monday at the Beagle Channel exit into the open sea.
A new and worrying way that large ice sheets can melt has been characterized by scientists for the first time. The research focuses on how relatively warm seawater can lap at the underside of ground-based ice, which can accelerate the movement of the ice into the ocean.
UNESCO has cautioned that the Australian Great Barrier Reef remains under serious threat, calling on the country to take immediate action to protect the world's largest coral system. Urgent and sustained action is of utmost priority, the United Nations' cultural organization said in a draft decision released this week.
Brazilian authorities have declared a state of emergency for six months in Mato Grosso do Sul in a move to facilitate help against the fire in the Pantanal, a natural region encompassing the world's largest tropical wetland area, and the world's largest flooded grasslands, where flames reached 627,000 hectares this year, according to the Laboratory of Environmental Satellite Applications (Lasa) of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Experts believe the main cause for this phenomenon was the extreme drought coupled with human action, especially agricultural expansion.
According to the latest report from Saudi Arabian authorities, 1,301 people died during this year's traditional pilgrimage to Mecca due to a scorching heat of about 52º C. ”Unfortunately, the number of fatalities reached 1,301, 83% of whom were not authorized to perform the 'hajj' (pilgrimage) and walked huge distances under the sun, without adequate protection and comfort,” the Saudi Health Ministry noted.
June 21st marks the longest night in Antarctica and a very special Midwinter’s Day with 47 people or ‘winterers’ living and working at British Antarctic Survey’s (BAS) three winter stations: Rothera on the Antarctic peninsula, and King Edward Point and Bird Island on South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
By Veronica Iriarte - On Wednesday we celebraed our fifth World Albatross Day! The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) announced “Marine Protected Areas – Safeguarding our Oceans” as the theme for this year’s World Albatross Day.
Marine Conservation Charity ORCA’s “State of the Cetaceans 2024”, (*) report is a fascinating glimpse into how the world’s whales and dolphins are coping with human impacts on the ocean. It analyses the extraordinary 330,000 kilometers of marine surveys conducted by ORCA in 2023, recording 55,604 whales and dolphins in oceans worldwide from the Arctic to the Antarctic, the North and South Atlantic, and the Pacific to the Mediterranean.