Air pollution soared in Beijing on Wednesday as the Chinese capital was hit by a huge sandstorm, and dust also shrouded other parts of the country in a sickly orange haze.. The official air quality index in Beijing hit the maximum level of 500, indicating "severe pollution", though some unofficial readings were nearly twice that figure.
The black particles from an asteroid some 300 million kilometres away look unremarkable, like pieces of charcoal, but they hold a component of life itself.. The discovery offers "strong evidence that one of the RNA components has been provided to the Earth even before the emergence of life", Oba told AFP. "We expect it plays a role for prebiotic evolution and possibly the emergence of the first life," he said.
A lake that dried up 80 years ago looked set on Tuesday to reappear, as monster rainfall accumulated over California's wet winter season overwhelms the state's rivers.. In California's Central Valley, authorities issued evacuation orders for residents of communities in Tulare County, where a lake that dried up around World War II was set to reappear.
Humanity's "lifeblood" -- water -- is increasingly at risk around the world due to "vampiric overconsumption and overdevelopment," the UN warned in a report, published hours ahead of a major summit on the issue was set to begin Wednesday.. The world is "blindly travelling a dangerous path" as "unsustainable water use, pollution and unchecked global warming are draining humanity's lifeblood," United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a foreword to the report, released hours ahead of the first major UN meeting on water resources in nearly half a century.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday designated two giant wilderness areas in Nevada and Texas as national monuments and said a new marine sanctuary could be created in the Pacific.. He also announced he was directing the secretary of commerce to consider initiating a new National Marine Sanctuary designation around the Pacific Remote Islands -- a group of tiny US islands in the middle of the ocean between Samoa and Hawaii.
A strong earthquake lasting for at least 30 seconds was felt across much of Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India Tuesday night, with the United States Geological Survey putting the magnitude at 6.5.. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, but the quake was felt strongly across much of Afghanistan, Pakistan and even further east in parts of India.
Susan Solomon, a leading scientist in the fight to tackle the Antarctic ozone hole, says people are now getting worried enough to spur climate action.. I was 29 years old when the British Antarctic Survey discovered the ozone hole in 1985.
Seven storeys above a shopfloor hawking cheap perfume and nylon underwear, Thailand's "shopping mall gorilla" sits alone in a cage -- her home for 30 years despite a re-ignited row over her captivity.. As international pressure to release Bua Noi grew last year, the family-owned zoo rejected a reported 30 million baht ($880,000) offer from Thailand's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, saying the gorilla was too old to be rehomed.
There are few places on Earth as isolated as Trindade island, a volcanic outcrop a three- to four-day boat trip off the coast of Brazil.. But Trindade island is the remotest place on the planet they have been found so far, she said.
Astronomers on Monday warned that the light pollution created by the soaring number of satellites orbiting Earth poses an "unprecedented global threat to nature.". Each new satellite increases the risk that it will smash into another object orbiting Earth, creating yet more debris.
