The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between China and Argentina scheduled for this week has been delayed until November, the Argentine foreign ministry announced officially on Tuesday. The delay will enable to add an “article referred to the protection of the environment, natural resources, and bio-security”, added the release.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres urged governments to use their economic responses to the coronavirus pandemic to tackle the even deeper emergency of climate change, in a message for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.
Antarctica is now a harsh land of ice and snow but has not always been that way. Earth's southernmost continent long ago was home to temperate, swampy rainforests teeming with life, scientists said on Wednesday based on pristinely preserved forest soil they retrieved by drilling under the seafloor off Antarctica's coast.
Oil from a spill that has contaminated a stretch of Brazil's coast was detected in Rio de Janeiro state, the navy said over the weekend, as President Jair Bolsonaro warned the country was preparing for the worst.
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.
Brazil has collected more 600 tons of oil from its northeastern beaches since Sept. 12, the government said, more than double an estimate of oil and sand collected by state-run oil company Petrobras.
Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA on Thursday denied accusations by Brazil that it was responsible for a massive oil spill that has polluted beaches on its northeastern Atlantic coast.
Large blots of oil that have turned up on more than 130 Brazilian beaches are “very probably” of Venezuelan origin, Brazil's environment minister said on Wednesday. The oil began appearing in early September and has been seen along a 2,000-kilometre stretch of the northeastern Atlantic coast - with around 130 tons of oil residue collected by Monday.
The source of large blots of oil staining more than 130 beaches in northeastern Brazil remained a mystery on Tuesday despite President Jair Bolsonaro's assertions they came from outside the country and were possibly the work of criminals. Tamar, a group dedicated to the protection of sea turtles, said the oil spills were the worst environmental tragedy it has encountered since its formation in 1980.
Wildfires raging in Bolivia's forests and grasslands since May have destroyed 1.7 million hectares, officials said on Wednesday, amid a US$11 million effort by the government to contain them.