Thousands of firefighters were fortifying containment lines on Monday as temperatures were forecast to soar, increasing the danger of a fresh wave of bushfires across Australia's east coast. More than 100 fires remain ablaze in the region, and authorities warned conditions would worsen on Tuesday, when temperatures were predicted to top 40 degrees Celsius.
Fires that destroyed Indonesian rainforests pumped out more carbon dioxide than the blazes in the Amazon this year, according to the European Union's atmosphere observation program.
Brazil’s plans for environmental protection remain unchanged even as deforestation skyrockets, but Environment Minister Ricardo Salles said the country was looking for more money to implement those plans. Salles largely repeated previously announced plans to bring more development, economic zoning and improved enforcement of environmental laws to the Amazon rainforest region, where deforestation has surged to its highest point in 11 years.
Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest rose to its highest in over a decade this year, government data on Monday showed, confirming a sharp increase under the leadership of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro.
Concern over environmental funding for the Falkland Islands following Brexit was once again raised in parliament last week, after Baroness Hooper submitted a question asking the Government “how much, if any, of the funding announced by the Prime Minister for the Darwin Initiative on 23 September will replace EU funding for wildlife in the Falkland Islands and other Overseas Territories?”
With mystery oil slicks still moving down Brazil's coast, the Brazilian Navy sent more ships on Thursday to try to prevent the pollution of unique coral reefs of the Abrolhos Archipelago marine park, a haven of South Atlantic Ocean biodiversity.
Oil spills washing up on beaches along more than 2,000 kilometers of Brazil’s northeast coastline could be the worst environmental “attack” in the country’s history, the CEO of Petrobras said on Tuesday.
Brazil’s environment minister says more than 100 tons of oil has been spilt along the northeastern coast since the beginning of September. Ricardo Salles said Monday on Twitter that 42 cities have been affected by the spills. He did not say how he reached those figures.
Heavy rain that has drenched eastern Bolivia's Chiquitania tropical savanna has put out fires that have ravaged millions of hectares in recent months, authorities said on Sunday.
Pope Francis opened a synod Sunday to champion the Amazon's poverty-stricken and isolated indigenous communities by condemning the destructive interests he blamed for the fires that devastated the region.