Protecting the ‘green lung’ of the sprawling, wheezing metropolis is becoming increasingly harder in the face of surging population and hungry real estate developers.
Tag: environment
Ten people have been arrested for suspected animal trafficking after 1,500 tortoises and 80 caimans were discovered on a boat in northern Colombia. The animals are both on the South American country’s endangered wildlife list. Police stopped the boat on a river in the Mahates region, which is full of lakes and swamps, and is […]
As Chinese Premier Li Keqiang rolled out the country’s new ‘war on pollution,’ Le Monde paid a visit to the city that has registered the dirtiest air in China.
A German-Spanish startup has created technology it says is so effective turning light into energy that it can also utilize moonbeams and office building windows.
LONDON — The storms and flooding in the UK over the past few weeks hasn’t just damaged homes and cars, but also wildlife and ecosystems too. Bumblebees, beetles and caterpillars are at risk of dying at greatly elevated rates through drowning and disturbed hibernations, while earthworms, snails and beetles along the River Thames will be […]
In Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest source of cocoa beans, illegal cultivation has spread into Mont Péko National Park, threatening both wildlife and the well-being of children.
SAINT-LOUIS — In front of the houses in Pilote Barre, tires inexorably creep up on a shoreline that is gradually disappearing. The tide easily swallows these futile rubber fortifications along the Senegal coast. Only the large stones seem to be able to withstand the assaults of the ocean, but for how long? For several years, […]
The inhabitants of Butembo rely increasingly on solar energy, allowing households to save money and be self-sufficient.
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China’s Car Market Is Humming Again
BEIJING — China’s automobile market is now expected to see double-digit growth by the end of this year, after two consecutive years’ of relatively low growth. According to data published last week by the China Automobile Association, for the first 10 months of 2013, China’s car sales totaled 17.8 million vehicles, with a growth rate […]
LONG SINGU — Lost in the Malaysian forest, the village of Long Singu — on the Island of Borneo — is engaging in righteous resistence. Between 200 and 300 Penan people are refusing to leave their land to make way for the Murum dam. “We want to keep our village and our forest,” is the […]
As winter descends on Mongolia’s cold and polluted capital of Ulaanbaatar, toxic coal heating is turning on everywhere. An estimated one resident in 10 dies from the effects of pollution.
The sixth Climate Change Vulnerability Index report produced by risk analysis firm Maplecroft has found that climate change “may pose a serious obstacle to sustainable economic growth in the world’s most commercially important cities.” The index ranked the vulnerability of the world’s countries to the impacts of climate change by evaluating their risk of exposure […]
A green city collaboration between Singapore and China has all the features of an environmentally sustainable future. But one thing it’s missing: people.
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11 Smart Cities Around The World
There is a long and healthy tradition of “sister cities,” where municipal leaders from different countries build ongoing relationships and exchange ideas. The same spirit drives this Smarter Cities series, the second installment of our Worldcrunch Impact solutions journalism initiative. For experts in the field, a “smart city” may refer to those using the latest […]
SITAKUND — Welcome to one of the most polluted and dangerous coastlines in the world. On this murky stretch just a few kilometers from Bangladesh’s main industrial port, Chittagong, are dozens and dozens of beached ships. Sea carriers, oil tankers and huge containers that at the end of their lives — many that can no […]
Chinese companies justify shoddy products because of fierce competition. One businessman explains why this approach is nothing but a dead end.
Global warming is a big problem in Latin America, but the private sector is busy developing alternative energy sources. Has the rush to innovate arrived in time?
Two environmentalists are killed on average every week as land struggles intensify violence against green activists worldwide.
When the well-meaning environmental concerns of city folk clash with the lives of the poor and indigenous who inhabit South America’s rain forests and mining territory.
Illegal irrigation and other practices by black-market marijuana growers are drying up California’s rivers, poisoning groundwater and killing wildlife.
The World Bank has recently published a report entitled “Turn Down the Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts, and the Case for Resilience.” Rising sea levels, heat extremes, aridity, impacts on ecosystems… Unsurprisingly, the news is not so good on the climate front, and the experts are raising the alarm. In the first Turn Down the […]
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Searching For Gold In China’s Poison Land
Decades of unbridled industrialization has left much of China’s soil badly contaminated. Some are set to make millions cleaning it up.
GENEVA – He quotes Mahatma Gandhi and wears the traditional Indian dress, but Arun Krishnamurthy is not living in the past. On the contrary, it is his desire to build a better future that led him to give up a promising career at Google and create an organization to help fight environmental degradation in his […]
MOSCOW – The Volga River, the longest in Europe and one of Russia’s natural jewels, has not so much flowed for decades. When it’s not covered with ice, it fills with fish-killing microorganisms, and emits a putrid stench. Environmental organizations describe the situation in the Volga region in alarming terms, noting that the region is […]
An estimated two million people took to the streets in cities all around the world on May 25 for a worldwide day of protest against agro-biotech giant Monsanto and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) in general. The “March Against Monsanto” movement denounced GMOs as harmful to human health and the environment. Their claims, listed on their […]
BUTIHINDA – Here in the northeastern mining region of Burundi, some green is starting to grow again. Having caused rampant deforestation and drought, mining companies are from now on required to plant trees in the areas they exploit. Along the dusty road leading to Kamaramagambo, we can see several rocky slopes that for the first […]
BEIJING – Last month, President Xi Jinping told the mayor of Suzhou, who had outlined a plan to make improvements on the water quality of the city’s lakes, that for China’s netizens, the best measure of acceptable water quality would be to see whether the mayor dared to jump in and swim. In February, a […]
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Penguins Bask In Global Warming
TVNZ (New Zealand); SCIENCE WORLD REPORT; PLOS ONE JOURNAL Worldcrunch BEAUFORT ISLAND – A new study published this week by U.S. and New Zealand researchers shows that there are actually some winners when it comes to global warming: the Adélie penguins. The study, published in the PLOS One journal, shows that the colony of Adélie […]
China’s basketball legend Yao Ming wants to save the sharks. Wang Haifeng wants to save 500 jobs. Who are you rooting for? Have you ever tried shark fin soup?
LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch VATICAN CITY– Pope Francis is his name, and Church watchers all seem to agree that this is a signal that a central them of the new papacy will be caring for the needy – needy humans, that is. But history also tells us that the inspiration for the Pope’s name, St. […]
LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch ROME– Like every other weekday, 100,000 free papers were handed out in the main metro stations around the Italian capital on Tuesday. But, reports La Stampa, the regular menu of political back-stabbing, soccer trade rumors and crime blotter were missing. In its place were hard-to-believe reports about an Italy and the […]
BERLIN – Winegrower Barbara Banke of the Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates in California doesn’t just love the sun because it ripens grapes. The sunnier it is, the lower the winery’s electricity and gas bills are. And those savings are possible because of the large mirrors mounted on the football-field-sized tin roof of the winery’s production facility […]
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Will Plastic Bags Ever Disappear?
A technological marvel, the plastic bag has become a symbol of humankind’s ecological footprint. Laws and habits are decreasing their use, but the alternative is sometimes worse.
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Germany’s New Green War On Cow Farts
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch It’s a different kind of toxic emission, but scientists have indeed measured the environmental impact of the methane gases let out by flatulent livestock. And now the President of Germany’s Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Jochen Flasbarth, wants farmers to shoulder more responsibility for climate protection. “In the medium term we could […]
MUNICH – To many, “i” was just a letter of the alphabet – until it was used by a then unknown computer company to skyrocket to the global position Apple holds today. And now BMW is hoping to go far on “i” too, investing billions in the i3 electric car due to come onto the […]
TUBUAI – For the past 30 years, local residents from the Austral Islands have been dumping their garbage just a few kilometers from the Tubuai airport, in the swamps. “When the hole starts to overflow, we pack it with machines, we fill the hole and dig a new one,” explains Therese, who owns a bed […]
BEIJING – At least 8,572 premature deaths occurred in four major Chinese cities in 2012 due to the high levels of fine particle pollution. This was the conclusion of a joint study called PM2.5: Measuring The Human Health And Economic Impacts On China’s Largest Cities carried out by Greenpeace and Peking University. Apart from the […]
SUDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG (Germany) Worldcrunch Süddeutsche Zeitung has seen the draft of an amendment to German legislation that would for the first time legalize exporting German nuclear waste. While the change would impose tight conditions on such transfers and official agreements with the countries providing disposal sites, environmentalists are equating the amendment to a “burst dam.” […]
CLARIN, NOLAPLANCHES.COM.AR (Argentina) Worldcrunch BUENOS AIRES – December 20 is the Day of the Wrinkled Shirt in Argentina. This unlikely celebration was called by nolaplanches.com.ar (translates as: don’t iron it). It sounds like a housewife’s dream, but the Day of the Wrinkled Shirt is actually an environmental initiative put on through the collaboration of three […]