Environment

White rhinos return to Mozambique park after 40 years

A Mozambican park welcomed its first white rhinos in 40 years on Friday after 19 of the threatened animals completed a 1,600-kilometre (thousand-mile) truck ride from South Africa, conservationists said.. The rhinoceroses were hauled to Zinave from neighbouring South Africa over several days in June, in what the PPF said was the longest-ever transfer of rhinos by road.

India bans many single-use plastics to tackle waste

India imposed a ban on many single-use plastics on Friday in a bid to tackle waste choking rivers and poisoning wildlife, but experts say it faces severe headwinds from unprepared manufacturers and consumers unwilling to pay more.. - Industry lobbying - Around half of India's regions have already sought to impose their own regulations but as the state of rivers and landfill sites testifies, success has been mixed.

California lawmakers pass sweeping bill to reduce non-recyclable plastic

Garbage be gone: California's legislature has passed an ambitious bill mandating reduction of non-recyclable plastic by at least 30 percent in six years, while also placing responsibility on producers.. It also requires a 25 percent reduction in non-recyclable expanded polystyrene, colloquially known as styrofoam, in three years, with a total ban to go in place if this goal is not met.

Horseshoe crabs: 'Living fossils' vital for vaccine safety

On a bright moonlit night, a team of scientists and volunteers head out to a protected beach along the Delaware Bay to survey horseshoe crabs that spawn in their millions along the US East Coast from late spring to early summer.. Nivette Perez-Perez, manager of community science at the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays, points out a vast band of eggs that stretch nearly the whole beach at the James Farm Ecological Preserve.

Climate activists glue hands to Van Gogh frame in London gallery

A pair of environmental protesters in Britain on Thursday glued themselves to the frame of a Vincent van Gogh painting on display at a London art gallery.. "We don't want to be doing this," Louis McKechnie, one of the pair claiming to have attached himself to the Van Gogh work, told onlookers at the London gallery, according to footage shared by "Just Stop Oil".  

France, Costa Rica eye next UN Ocean Conference

France and Costa Rica have jointly bid to host the next UN Ocean Conference, in 2025, French President Emmanuel Macron told some 7,000 diplomats, experts and advocates at this year's meet in Lisbon.. Ending Friday, the week-long conference was attended by representatives from 140 countries and a score of world leaders, including the presidents of co-hosts Portugal and Kenya.

US Supreme Court limits government powers to curb greenhouse gases

The US Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the government's key environmental agency cannot issue broad limits on greenhouse gases, sharply curtailing the power of President Joe Biden's administration to battle climate change.. "Whatever else this court may know about, it does not have a clue about how to address climate change."

Kazakhstan mulls endangered antelope cull after population boom

Kazakhstan is considering culls of its endangered saiga antelope, the ecology ministry told AFP Thursday, after citing scientific advice about the threat posed to agriculture since the population rebounded. . A ban on hunting introduced in the late 1990s is set to run out in 2023 and Kazakhstan's ecology minister Serikkali Brekeshev suggested Wednesday that the ministry had "made a decision" about regularly culling up to 10 percent of the Ural saiga population in western Kazakhstan -- the largest of three saiga population groups in the Central Asian nation. 

Leaders must deliver 'strong' ocean treaties: Greenpeace

Governments must adopt strong, enforceable treaties to protect oceans affected by global warming, overfishing and rampant pollution, Greenpeace activists said while staging a protest Thursday at the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon.. "We need a strong global ocean treaty that really changes how we look at the ocean and puts protection over profit," she said on the margins of the five-day meeting, which ends Friday.

Climate change cases surge as courts become environment battleground

A quarter of all climate change-related legal cases since the 1980s were filed in the last two years, according to new research Thursday showing surging litigation targeting governments, fossil fuel firms and a growing array of other companies.  . "It's actually very rare at the moment for a government to challenge the underlying climate science," she told AFP.   The report found a growing number of cases targeting the production and consumptions of oil, coal and gas, adding that legal action has played an "important role" in the move toward phasing out fossil fuels.