Geneva (AFP) May 19, 2023 At least 800,000 people in Myanmar need emergency food aid and other assistance after Cyclone Mocha slammed into the conflict-torn country earlier this week, the United Nations said Friday. Mocha brought lashing rain and winds of up to 195 kilometres (120 miles) per hour to Myanmar and neighbouring Bangladesh on Sunday, with Myanmar’s junta saying 145 people had been killed … Continue reading Some 800,000 people affected by Cyclone in Myanmar, Toll over 145

Tando Allahyar, Pakistan (AFP) May 20, 2023 At 82 years old, architect Yasmeen Lari is forging the way in fortifying Pakistan’s rural communities living on the frontline of climate change. Lari, Pakistan’s first woman architect, has ditched a lifetime of multi-million dollar projects in the megacity of Karachi to develop pioneering flood-proof bamboo houses. The few pilot settlements already constructed are credited with saving fahttp://dlvr.it/SpMSKF Continue reading The octogenarian architect working to flood-proof Pakistan

Boca Raton FL (SPX) May 15, 2023 Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP) announced a significant achievement in space-to-ground communication, successfully enabling a 200 gigabits per second optical link through the Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator 3 (PTD-3) satellite. The NASA satellite hosts the TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) payload, funded by NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) and developed by MIT Lincohttp://dlvr.it/SpKLfH Continue reading Terran Orbital PTD-3 enables 200Gbits space-to-ground optical link

Ardingly, United Kingdom (AFP) May 19, 2023 Inside bomb-proof frozen vaults underneath the English countryside hides a treasure trove of 40,000 species of wild plant seeds from around the world, many of which are in danger of disappearing. The world’s largest seed bank, located in the sleepy countryside south of London, is in a race against time because two out of five plant species are … Continue reading The Noah’s Ark for plants beneath the English countryside

Noumea (AFP) May 19, 2023 New Caledonia lifted its tsunami warning to residents after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck on Friday in the Pacific Ocean southeast of the territory. The quake was detected at 0257 GMT around 340 kilometres (210 miles) east of Vao city in New Caledonia, a French Pacific territory, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). In New Caledonia, the police had evacuated … Continue reading New Caledonia lifts tsunami warning after 7.7-magnitude quake

Paris (AFP) May 15, 2023 The traces of genetic material that humans constantly shed wherever they go could soon be used to track individual people, or even whole ethnic groups, scientists said on Monday, warning of a looming “ethical quagmire”. A recently developed technique can glean a huge amount of information from tiny samples of genetic material called environmental DNA, or eDNA, that humans and … Continue reading New threat to privacy? Scientists sound alarm about DNA tool

Plymouth UK (SPX) May 19, 2023 Scientists have discovered the cause of giant underwater landslides in Antarctica which they believe could have generated tsunami waves that stretched across the Southern Ocean. An international team of researchers has uncovered layers of weak, fossilised and biologically-rich sediments hundreds of metres beneath the seafloor. These formed beneath extensive areas of underwater landslhttp://dlvr.it/SpKLZf Continue reading Past climate change to blame for Antarctica’s giant underwater landslides

New Delhi (AFP) May 17, 2023 Climate change made record-breaking deadly heatwaves in Bangladesh, India, Laos and Thailand last month at least 30 times more likely, according to a study published Wednesday. Parts of India saw temperatures above 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit) in mid-April, with at least 11 deaths near Mumbai attributed to heat stroke on a single day. In Bangladesh, Dhaka suffered its … Continue reading Asia heatwaves made 30 times more likely by climate change: study

Cesena, Italy (AFP) May 18, 2023 Authorities in Ravenna issued an immediate evacuation order Thursday for three villages threatened by floods after heavy rains left nine people dead across northeastern Italy. Buses were being sent to help residents leave Villanova di Ravenna, Filetto and Roncalceci after the river Lamone burst its banks. Nearly two dozen rivers and streams have flooded across the southeast of the … Continue reading More villages evacuated as Italy counts cost of deadly floods

Sydney (AFP) May 18, 2023 China urged Australia on Thursday to send more aircraft, ships and personnel to find a fishing vessel that capsized in the Indian Ocean with 39 people aboard. Chinese vessel the Lu Peng Yuan Yu 028 overturned in the early hours of Tuesday carrying 17 Chinese, 17 Indonesians and five Filipinos. “We wish that they could send more aircraft, more ships … Continue reading China calls on Australia to boost ship search efforts