Environment

• Saturday, January 28th 2023 - 10:10 UTC

  Degradation also harmful to Amazon rainforest, study shows

  

  One-third of the Amazon rainforest has been degraded by a combination of human activity and drought, according to a scientific report carried this week by the journal Science. The study released on Thursday yielded results much higher than previously thought and underlined that, in addition to deforestation, degradation can be just as harmful.

• Wednesday, January 25th 2023 - 18:51 UTC

  Forest fire next to Uruguayan city of Piriápolis

  

  A forest fire broke out in the wee hours of Wednesday in the Uruguayan beach resort of Piriápolis, in the department of Maldonado. Firefighters were swiftly deployed to the Cerro del Toro area to keep the flames from reaching Cerro Pan de Azúcar.

• Wednesday, January 25th 2023 - 09:28 UTC

  Huge iceberg size of Greater London, breaks off from Brunt Ice Shelf, location of BAS Halley Research Station

  

  A huge iceberg, some 1550 km², almost the size of Greater London, has broken off the 150m thick Brunt Ice Shelf. It calved after cracks that have been developing naturally over the last few years extended across the entire ice shelf, causing the new iceberg to break free. This occurred on Sunday 22 January between 19.00 and 20.00 UTC during a spring tide.

• Tuesday, January 24th 2023 - 21:39 UTC

  Former Brazilian Navy carrier poses environmental threat

  

  Brazilian Navy's former flagship, the French-built aircraft carrier Sao Paulo, is somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with no port to welcome her after being decommissioned. The old hull, full of asbestos, paint, and other toxic waste, has been anchored 315 kilometers off the Brazilian coast, to prevent drifting, but the possibility that it might sink has not been ruled out. It would be a major environmental disaster, it was reported.

• Tuesday, January 24th 2023 - 08:16 UTC

  New iceberg calved into Antarctica's Weddel Sea

  

  A 1,550 km2 iceberg broke off from Antarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf, British scientists reported Monday. “The 1,550-square-kilometer block of ice broke off the ice shelf between 7 pm and 8 pm Sunday after a strong tide widened an existing crack in the ice shelf,” the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) explained.

• Saturday, January 21st 2023 - 10:22 UTC

  UK cost of living: King Charles wants profits from his wind farm be distributed among the public

  

  King Charles III has requested that the annual profits from his wind farm deal be directed towards helping the cost of living crisis in the UK rather than support the royal family, the Crown Estate confirmed this week.

• Saturday, January 21st 2023 - 09:06 UTC

  British Antarctic Territory release of a stamp featuring an Emperor penguin chick

  

  The British Antarctic Territory has announced the release of a beautiful new Airmail Postcard Rate stamp featuring an Emperor penguin chick. This new addition to the 2018 Penguins and Chicks Definitive issue has been released to replenish stocks of the existing 2016 postcard rate coil stamps, which will shortly be exhausted.

• Friday, January 20th 2023 - 14:59 UTC

  Viking Neptune will test hydrogen power during its 138-day world cruise

  

  Viking Neptune, the company’s newest ocean liner, was named during a ceremony in Los Angeles. Nicole Stott, a retired NASA astronaut, aquanaut, and artist, gave the ship a blessing of good fortune and safe sailing as part of the occasion.

• Friday, January 20th 2023 - 10:00 UTC

  Penguin Awareness Day; Falklands home of five species, King, Magellanic, Gentoo, Rockhopper, Macaroni

  

  Penguin Awareness Day is celebrated on January 20 of every year. Penguins are a group of aquatic and flightless birds. They live in the Southern Hemisphere, and a particular species of the Penguin named Galapagos Penguin is found only in the north equator region called Temperate Zone.

• Thursday, January 19th 2023 - 10:22 UTC

  Agricultural emergency, triggered by drought, extended for another 90 days in Uruguay

  

  More than 60% of the Uruguayan territory is suffering from extreme or severe drought in the last three months, October 2022/January 2023, according to the Uruguayan Meteorological Institute, Inumet,