Tag Archives: Environment

Brasília, Brazil | AFP | Brazil — the country with the world’s greatest fresh water reserves — hosts an international conference next week on growing fears over the fragility of drinking water supplies in a heating planet. Under the slogan “sharing water,” the 8th World Water Forum will bring together …

Miami, United States | AFP | The world’s leading brands of bottled water are contaminated with tiny plastic particles that are likely seeping in during the packaging process, according to a major study across nine countries published Wednesday. “Widespread contamination” with plastic was found in the study, led by microplastic …

Ulu Muda, Malaysia | AFP | On a moonless night deep in the Malaysian rainforest, two men perched precariously on high branches use a smoking torch to draw thousands of bees from a treetop hive, braving the angry swarm to collect their prized honey. The honey hunters, as they are …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Eighteen employees of a gorilla sanctuary in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been abducted by a militia group, sources said on Wednesday. An official with an NGO said the abduction took place on Monday in the area of Nzovu, which lies in the …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | It sounds like something from Wakanda, the futuristic African kingdom of the hit movie “Black Panther”. But “Transaqua” is a very real proposal for a very real problem — how to replenish the shrinking waters of Lake Chad. It imagines a 2,600-km (1,600-mile) canal from …

Miami, United States | AFP | Ancient species of elephants and mammoths interbred, swapping genes that helped them adapt to new habitats and climates, a practice that is lost among modern-day elephants, researchers said Monday. Today, the two kinds of living elephants in Africa — savanna and forest elephants — are …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | Experts gathered in Nigeria’s capital on Monday to discuss ways to stop Africa’s Lake Chad from drying up, after years of environmental decline that has hit livelihoods and security. The two-day conference, organised by the government in Abuja and the Lake Chad Basin Commission, aims …

Doha, Qatar | AFP | Desert country Qatar will plant at least 16,000 trees in a bid to “beautify” its eight planned 2022 World Cup stadiums, tournament organisers said on Thursday. The trees, a mixture of local specimens and other varieties imported from China, Spain and Thailand, will be grown …

Maasai Mara, Kenya | AFP | Five-month-old bloodhound Shakaria gambols through the long savannah grasses of Kenya’s Maasai Mara reserve, her playful mood swiftly turning to keen determination as she is ordered to track a human scent. Straining at the leash, she pulls her handler along an invisible scent path …

  Paris, France | AFP | The world has abundant freshwater but it is unevenly distributed and under increasing pressure, UN agencies say, as highlighted by the severe shortages in Cape Town. – Water, water ‘everywhere’ – More than 97 percent of the planet’s water is salty, most of it in …