An oil spill caused by a leak from an undersea pipeline 20 km (12.4 miles) off Thailand’s eastern coast will take at least five more days to clear, its navy said on Thursday. The pipeline owned by Star Petroleum Refining Public Company started leaking late on Tuesday before being brought under control aContinue Reading
Singapore on Thursday recommended supermarkets start charging for disposable carrier bags, a move aimed at slashing carbon emissions in a tiny nation that produces enough annual waste to fill hundreds of Olympic-sized swimming pools. A 2018 study by the Singapore Environment Council found shoppers take home 820 million disposable bagsContinue Reading
Carcasses of goats and sheep strewn across the scrubland of northern Kenya are testament to the devastation wrought by the once-in-a-generation floods that have hit the region. In just one area of Marsabit County, herders lost around 20,000 goats and sheep last week after the torrential rain, Roba Koto, theContinue Reading
Climate change played a part in insured losses from natural catastrophes that totalled $130 billion globally in 2021, the fourth-highest on record, broker Aon said in a report on Tuesday. Economic losses – the combination of insured and uninsured losses – reached $343 billion, Aon said in the report whichContinue Reading
The fuel that powered the industrial revolution may be in decline at last. This year looks set to see the largest fall in electricity production from coal on record, according to a new report. The reduction is estimated to be more than the power generated from coal in Germany, SpainContinue Reading
Scientists have discovered a pristine, 3-km (1.8-mile) long reef of giant rose-shaped corals off the coast of Tahiti, in waters thought to be deep enough to protect it from the bleaching effects of the warming ocean. The reef, which lies at depths of more than 30 metres (100 feet), probablyContinue Reading
Peruvian President Pedro Castillo declared an environmental emergency on Thursday as clean-up teams struggled to contain a huge oil spill at the country’s biggest refinery, after rogue waves rocked a ship unloading crude there. The spill, blamed on unusual swells caused by a volcanic eruption thousands of miles away inContinue Reading
Indonesia aims to restore 150,000 hectares of degraded mangroves this year, after rehabilitating about a quarter of this total last year when funds had to be diverted from the state budget to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, officials said. The Southeast Asian nation, which has huge tracts of mangroves, launched aContinue Reading
In late November 2021, Germany’s new coalition government announced its aim to phase out coal power across the country by 2030, eight years ahead of schedule. Earlier that month, the government of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where activists have been protesting against coal mining, announced it would accelerate phasingContinue Reading
Microplastics are found everywhere on Earth, yet we know surprisingly little about what risks they pose to living things. Scientists are now racing to investigate some of the big unanswered questions. Daniella Hodgson is digging a hole in the sand on a windswept beach as seabirds wheel overhead. “Found one,”Continue Reading