Aden (AFP) March 17, 2022 Yemen’s Al-Heswa nature reserve was once hailed as a beacon of conservation efforts by the United Nations, but civil war has turned it into a rubbish-strewn wasteland reeking of sewage. The ticket office has been abandoned at the entrance to the 19-hectare (47-acre) site in Yemen’s southern city of Aden, where trees have been cut down and construction waste dumped. … Continue reading Yemen war turns nature reserve back into waste dump

Copenhagen, Denmark (SPX) Mar 17, 2022 Ice cores drilled in Antarctica and Greenland have revealed gigantic volcanic eruptions during the last ice age. Sixty-nine of these were larger than any eruption in modern history. According to the University of Copenhagen physicists behind the research, these eruptions can teach us about our planet’s sensitivity to climate change. For many people, the mention of a volcanic eruption … Continue reading Ancient ice reveals scores of gigantic volcanic eruptions

Paris (AFP) March 16, 2022 A hundred technicians are working under armed guard to maintain the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant in northern Ukraine, held hostage for three weeks by Russian forces who seized the compound in the first hours of the invasion. Tired and poorly fed, they were working the night shift when Russia captured the site of the 1986 core meltdown that sparked the … Continue reading Chernobyl workers held ‘hostage’ amid fears for reactor safety

Dakar (AFP) March 15, 2022 Catholic group Sant’Egidio has urged Senegal’s military to end an operation against southern separatists and called for dialogue, after the West African state’s long-simmering conflict reignited last year. On Sunday, the army announced that it had launched an operation in the southern region of Casamance, aiming to dismantle bases of Salif Sadio’s rebel MFDC faction. The Movement of Demhttp://dlvr.it/SLnfLq Continue reading Catholic group urges Senegal to end anti-rebel operation

Madrid (AFP) March 15, 2022 A mass of hot air from the Sahara desert dumped dust on large parts of Spain including Madrid on Tuesday, colouring the sky orange and coating cars and streets. People used hoses to wash down the dust in the centre of the capital where a brown film covered windows in apartment buildings. Haze created by the hot air is driven … Continue reading Sahara desert dust coats swathes of Spain

Beijing (AFP) March 15, 2022 Tens of millions of people were under lockdown across China on Tuesday, as surging virus cases prompted the return of mass tests and hazmat-suited health officials to streets on a scale not seen since the start of the pandemic. China reported 5,280 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, more than double the previous day’s tally, as the highly transmissible Omicron variant … Continue reading Millions under lockdown in China as virus surges

Redlands CA (SPX) Mar 11, 2022 Governments and businesses across the world are pledging to adopt more sustainable and equitable practices. Many are also working to limit activities that contribute to climate change. To support these efforts, Esri, the global leader in location intelligence, in partnership with Impact Observatory and Microsoft, is releasing a globally consistent 2017-2021 global land-use and land-cover map ofhttp://dlvr.it/SLn88q Continue reading Esri releases updated land-cover map with new sets of global data

Beijing (XNA) Mar 13, 2022 China is planning the construction of a new global system for gathering high-precision meteorological data based on the interpretation of signals beamed down from satellites, according to the second institute of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation Ltd. (CASIC). The “global occultation meteorological detection constellation” will measure the frequency, phase and amplitude ohttp://dlvr.it/SLn87W Continue reading China planning global system for precision meteorological monitoring

Washington DC (UPI) Mar 14, 2021 Invasive insects could kill 1.4 million trees by 2050 in cities across the United States, which could cost more than $900 million to replace, according to a new study. The study, published in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology, used data from around 30,000 urban areas across the country to create the forecast and recommend that cities … Continue reading Insects could kill 1.4 million trees in U.S. cities by 2050, study says

Yangon (AFP) March 14, 2022 Clutching pails, tubs and buckets, residents of Myanmar’s bustling commercial capital Yangon queued for water on Monday, as rolling power outages aggravate the economic misery sparked by last year’s military coup. Last week the junta announced the country’s already patchy power supply would be further reduced for seven days, blaming rising gas prices and attacks by anti-coup fighters on infrhttp://dlvr.it/SLjYhB Continue reading Yangon residents queue for water as power blackouts bite