Sergio Gonzalez, one of four Chileans working with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), warned this week that the economic future of Chile's mining industry cannot be sustained unless the nation deals seriously with its growing water shortage.
Climate change consequences in the entomologic field have reached Magallanes Region in the far south of Chile and local authorities are cautioning about the appearance of a small spider identified as the false black widow, which can be lethal for people suffering different allergies.
One week after Chile's top environmentalists gathered in Santiago for the launch of a new book called Patagonia Sin Represas (Patagonia Without Dams), activists from Patagonia held a ground-level version of the event in Coyhaique, Region XI
Since Wednesday this week Punta Arenas in the extreme south of Chile has been exposed to higher levels of ultra violet radiation because the perimeter of the ozone layer hole has moved over the region.
Although the ozone layer over the Antarctic this year is relatively small, this is due to mild temperatures in the region's stratosphere this winter and is not a sign of recovery, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Thursday.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon marked World Food Day on Tuesday with a call for a renewed commitment to stamp out chronic hunger and make the right to food a reality for all in a world where nearly 855 million people still do not have enough to eat.
The recent arrival of the bluetongue virus in the United Kingdom indicates again that animal diseases are advancing globally and countries will have to invest more in surveillance and control measures, warned FAO.
British farmers affected by current restrictions on the movement of animals imposed following the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, FMD, are to be given a multi-million-pound package of support.
The British government is not complacent about bluetongue and will take action against the disease at a very high level, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said.
A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 hit some 500 km (300 miles) southwest of New Zealand on Sunday, but there were no reports of damage and authorities discounted the risk of a major tsunami