Mission, United States | AFP | In Mission, Texas, the construction of part of a long-promised wall on the border with Mexico to stem the tide of undocumented migrants is already in progress. Among the many who will be affected? Butterflies. Mission, located in the lower Rio Grande Valley, is …
Read More »Human diet causing ‘catastrophic’ damage to planet: study
Paris, France | AFP | The way humanity produces and eats food must radically change to avoid millions of deaths and “catastrophic” damage to the planet, according to a landmark study published Thursday. The key to both goals is a dramatic shift in the global diet — roughly half as …
Read More »Fixing the environment: when solutions become problems
Paris, France | AFP | In a world where climate change, air and water pollution, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, ozone depletion, and other environmental problems overlap, a fix in one arena can cause trouble in another. Here are a few examples of what might be called Earth’s “zero-sum” dilemma in …
Read More »Antarctica ice loss increases six fold since 1979
Tampa, United States | AFP | Global warming is melting ice in Antarctica faster than ever before — about six times more per year now than 40 years ago — leading to increasingly high sea levels worldwide, scientists warned on Monday. Already, Antarctic melting has raised global sea levels …
Read More »Ugandan win grants for Environmental Research
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Ketty Adoch, a Ugandan innovator in the Agriculture sector has been named among eleven innovators nominated for the Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Earth Innovation Awards. Adoch, a geographical information systems specialist in agriculture works towards monitoring change detection for Land Cover Mapping around the …
Read More »Nations count cost of 2018 climate disasters
Paris, France | AFP | Climate change-induced disasters cost nations at least $100 billion in 2018, a watchdog said Thursday, warning the spate of deadly wildfires, floods and superstorms was “a shadow” of things to come if greenhouse gas emissions aren’t slashed. This year is set to be the fourth …
Read More »EU agrees to cut emissions from new cars by 37 percent by 2030
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | European Union members and the European Parliament on Monday agreed to slash carbon dioxide emissions from new cars by 37.5 percent by 2030, the European Commission announced. The announcement comes two days after the end of the COP24 summit in Poland where one of the …
Read More »Madrid temporarily bans ‘oldest, most polluting’ vehicles
Madrid, Spain | AFP | Madrid on Wednesday temporarily banned the oldest, most polluting vehicles from driving its streets, two weeks after new driving restrictions were introduced to fight air pollution in the centre of the Spanish capital. The latest bid to reduce emissions comes as the city battles acutely …
Read More »Tanzania picks Egyptian firms for controversial dam scheme
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Tanzania on Wednesday awarded a $3-billion (2.64-billion-euro) contract to two Egyptian firms to build a hydro-electric dam in a renowned nature reserve. The 2,100-megawatt scheme will straddle the Rufiji River in the Selous Game Reserve, a 50,000-square-kilometre (19,000-square-mile) protected area which was designated a UNESCO …
Read More »Oulanyah rallies students to protect environment
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Oulanyah, has asked Ugandans to devote themselves to environment protection, saying it takes only commitment. Oulanyah said the country is already fraught with policies, laws and institutions to protect the environment, but that commitment from citizens is lacking. “The …
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