Environment

• Tuesday, April 20th 2010 - 19:39 UTC

  Chile surveying glaciers to gauge extent of climate change impact

  

  Academics from around the world are taking an interest in Chile’s glaciers. A team of Canadian, French and Chilean experts have been working in Punta Negra, located in the Laguna Negra section of Cajon de Maipo (south of Santiago) since 2003, following both covered glaciers and those known as rock glaciers.

• Tuesday, April 20th 2010 - 16:21 UTC

  Bolivia organizes grassroots alternative to UN climate change

  

  Delegates are gathering in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba for a grassroots alternative to last year's UN climate change summit in Copenhagen. The meeting will also celebrate the rights of Mother Earth on 22 April.

• Saturday, April 17th 2010 - 01:37 UTC

  Ash cloud over Europe cancels 17.000 flights, costs carriers 200 million daily

  

  Millions of passengers have been stranded in Europe as air traffic controllers cancelled 16.000 flights Friday after a huge ash cloud spread from an Icelandic volcano covering much of the northern continent.

• Friday, April 16th 2010 - 04:02 UTC

  Iceland volcano ashes cause massive flights disruption across Europe

  

  Flights across much of Europe are being cancelled on a second day of massive disruption caused by drifting ash ejected from a volcano in Iceland. Hundreds of thousands of passengers are affected and severe disruption could extend into the weekend, including on flights to North America and Asia.

• Friday, April 16th 2010 - 03:38 UTC

  Researchers discover a huge North Atlantic Garbage Patch

  

  A vast patch of floating plastics garbage extending for thousands of square kilometres in a remote area of the North Atlantic has been documented by two different groups of scientists sailing from Bermuda to the Azores islands.

• Thursday, April 15th 2010 - 17:28 UTC

  Lower sunspot activity anticipates chillier winters for northern Europe

  

  Periods of low sunspot activity are associated with changes in the winds that tear though the upper atmosphere bringing unusually cold winters to northern Europe, according to the new study Environmental Research Letters

• Thursday, April 15th 2010 - 05:30 UTC

  Russian sponsored sturgeon farm in Argentina to produce black caviar

  

  Argentina plans to open a Russian-sponsored sturgeon farm to produce black caviar within the next two weeks, according to a press statement released this week by the Argentine province La Rioja.

• Wednesday, April 14th 2010 - 20:44 UTC

  Mudslides isolate Rio’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue

  

  Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro's towering Christ the Redeemer statue and one of the city’s most iconic tourist attraction has been closed to the public after landslides that hit the city killing some 250 people and leaving thousands homeless.

• Wednesday, April 14th 2010 - 03:52 UTC

  Uruguay/Argentina prepare for International Court ruling on bilateral dispute

  

  A Uruguayan multi-party delegation will be present in The Hague next week when the International Court of Justice makes public its ruling on the Argentine/Uruguayan dispute over the construction of a pulp mill along shared waters.

• Tuesday, April 13th 2010 - 05:40 UTC

  Chilean quake almost aborts secret mission to ship enriched uranium to the US

  

  Andrew Bieniawski, assistant deputy administrator of the United States National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) had one thing in mind while lying in his hotel bed in Chile during the Feb. 27 earthquake: a secret mission.