Safeguarding the world's oceans will be fundamental to tackling global warming, US climate envoy John Kerry told AFP on Tuesday, warning that war in Ukraine and its economic fallout meant efforts to curb dangerous carbon pollution were facing "powerful headwinds".. There are very powerful headwinds right now.
The fossils of our earliest ancestors found in South Africa are a million years older than previously thought, meaning they walked the Earth around the same time as their East African relatives like the famous "Lucy", according to new research.. But the new research shows that the South African Australopithecus had almost a million years to evolve into our Homo ancestor.
Almost a quarter of the world's population are exposed to significant flood risks, according to new research published Tuesday, which warned those in poorer countries were more vulnerable.. "This would pose significant risks to lives and livelihoods, especially of vulnerable population groups," the study said.
Leaders of the Group of Seven rich nations on Tuesday watered down a key pledge on ending fossil fuel financing abroad, as the need to tackle global warming clashed with fears over energy shortages.. The text reiterates that G7 nations will still halt new public investments in overseas fossil fuel projects by the end of 2022.
More than seven million Bangladeshis are still in "desperate" need of shelter and aid after deadly floods earlier this month, the Red Cross said Tuesday.. "The scale of devastation this time is so much more" than earlier floods, said Sanjeev Kafley of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
An Indonesian zoo has welcomed dozens of new baby Komodo dragons hatched in captivity in recent months as part of a breeding programme, its director said Tuesday, offering hope for efforts to conserve the endangered species.. The zoo started the programme in the 1990s as part of the effort to conserve the species in a city located more than 700 kilometres (434 miles) away from the dragon's natural habitat.
Cloaked in darkness and mystery, the creatures of the deep oceans exist in a world of unlikely profusion, surviving on scant food and under pressure that would crush human lungs.. Humans may not have explored much of the deep seas, but they have left their mark, via global heating, overfishing and pollution.
At the Mellach coal power plant in southern Austria, spider webs have taken over the conveyor belts, and plants and flowers have sprung up around the vast lot that once stored coal.. Some 450,000 tonnes of coal were stored at the plant before its closure as Austria's conservative-Greens coalition aimed to have all electricity come from renewable resources by 2030.
A major UN conference on how to restore the faltering health of global oceans kicked off in Lisbon this week with a flurry of promises to expand marine protected areas, ban deep-sea mining, and combat illegal fishing.. "Working with scientists, we decided to get 30 percent of our maritime area as protected, and we did it," outgoing Colombian President Ivan Duque told AFP. More than half of newly protected marine areas will be "no-take" zones off-limits to fishing, mining, drilling or other extractive activities, he said.
The United States said Monday it would step up cooperation with Vietnam and Taiwan among others to combat illegal fishing, a problem that environmentalists and Western nations increasingly attribute to China.. The White House said the United States also plans new engagement with Ecuador, Panama, Senegal, Taiwan and Vietnam on fighting illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, dubbed "IUU" in environmental jargon.
