Worldcrunch
The number of wild animals living on our planet has drastically decreased over the past 40 years, according to research by scientists at the World Wildlife Foundation and the Zoological Society of London. “Unsustainable human consumption” is to blame — killing creatures for food, whilst polluting and destroying their habitats. The report suggests populations have […]
Dutch aerospace student Boyan Slat, 20, has an idea that could conceivably remove millions of tons of toxic trash from the world’s waters. It even has a revenue model. But will it work?
Most plastic bags have suffocation warnings on them, but that’s no good for whales who can’t read them. Vets from Argentina’s Patagonian National Center (CENPAT) had to remove a giant plastic bag that could have suffocated a whale who was apparently “playing” — or, rather, struggling — with it, in waters off Puerto Madryn, Clarín […]
Taranto’s ILVA steel plant, Europe’s largest, emits toxic pollution that doctors believe has long been causing cancer in young victims and sky-high infant mortality. Yet it still operates.
The view of the Forbidden City from Jingshan Park’s Coal Hill is stunning. That is, when the Beijing pollution allows you to actually see something.
Egypt is cracking down on the ubiquitous motorized rickshaws that navigate the capital’s narrow streets.
Two full decades after its previous version was voted in, the country’s newly amended environmental protection was cited for its toughness. But the challenge is in the execution.
Some “two million fish” were found dead and floating in a water reserve outside Tehran, possibly poisoned by untreated sewage that had been seeping in for months, the semi-official ISNA agency reported Wednesday. Mohsen Showkati, head of the environmental office of the district of Reyy where the Fashafuyeh dam was located, blamed waste waters from […]
LANZHOU — Over the last few days, panic has been spreading about the drinking water in Lanzhou, the capital city of the northwest Gansu Province. The water contains dangerously high levels of benzene, a cancer-causing substance. Television reports show the public madly rushing to the supermarkets for bottled water. What if this also happens to […]
Did you know that city life is good for bees?
KIGALI — In the courtyard of the Ecoplastic factory in the Rwandan capital, a group of men and women are hanging plastic bags on a line with clothes pins, like they would do to dry a load of wash. “People pick them here and there and bring them to us. We buy them and process […]
BEIJING — The continuous heavy haze over Beijing is an ever-present reminder of the country’s losing battle with pollution. But it may also have been the engine to jump start the Chinese government’s recent push to promote the sale of and use of electric vehicles. Beijing officials, who had instituted incentives for purchasing electric cars, […]
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.
Sometimes photo slides don’t age too well, colors can fade a bit — but in this shot, taken less than 20 years ago, that is all pollution, as smog fills the Yangtze River Delta.
NGOZI — In the north of Burundi, only the wealthiest farmers have the means to buy state-subsidized fertilizer. Poorer farmers make do with the garbage they can collect in the city — to the great delight of urban dwellers. Nsengimana Evariste is a poor pygmy farmer who collects garbage in the city of Ngozi. If […]
The inhabitants of Butembo rely increasingly on solar energy, allowing households to save money and be self-sufficient.
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.
A green city collaboration between Singapore and China has all the features of an environmentally sustainable future. But one thing it’s missing: people.
BEIJING — “Better city, better life …” This was the theme of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, a nod to the ancient Greek scholar Aristotle who understood what people expect from urban life: to make their living a better living. But what is the reality in people’s lives right now? During China’s golden week — […]
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 […]
REUTERS, ABC, WALL STREET JOURNAL Worldcrunch TOKYO — Radiation readings near tanks holding toxic waters at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant have jumped to a new high, according to Japan’s nuclear regulator, as the government prepares to step in to help contain leaks. According to Reuters, this new rise in the radiation levels and […]
Once a simple gold-mining camp, La Rinconada is considered the world’s highest city. But its 30,000 inhabitants live amid ice melt and endless piles debris. Can Peru finally clean 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 […]
Though it may look pristine, a new study finds that the lake’s water contains significant amounts of “microplastic contamination,” that is causing real harm.
CAIRO – Rafah and other cities on the Sinai peninsula’s north coast have been suffering from pollution of the Mediterranean Sea and its underground water reservoir, which has caused serious environmental and health issues for the local population, experts argue. Some blame Israel for the pollution, while others attribute it to domestic sources. The National […]
ECONOMIC OBSERVER (China) Worldcrunch BEIJING – With air pollution continuing to plague Beijing, there are increasing signs that it is pushing foreigners, often well-to-do expats, to leave the city. “It’s supposed to take up to a decade to solve the smog problem, but who knows what problems the pollution might have caused our bodies by […]
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 […]
Look at the numbers, both environmental and economic, and the solution is clear: slower growth.
LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch PARIS – These are not the sorts of “islands” where you’d plan your next tropical vacation. Located in vast areas of the world’s Oceans, by some accounts comprising an area twice as big as Texas, they are home to neither human nor animal life. Instead these islands are instead simply monstrious […]
ROTTERDAM – Governments are well aware of the danger, but consumers have no idea. One out of five freight containers arriving in European ports has been fumigated with extremely dangerous, carcinogenic or neurotoxic gases. It is a vast phenomenon: one million containers filled with imported goods arrive in Europe by ship every week. These toxic […]
KOMMERSANT (Russia) Worldcrunch IRKUTSK – The Russian government has unexpectedly decided to close down the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill, which had been the center of one of the biggest environmental battles in recent Russian history, Kommersant reports. The paper mill, which is located on the shores of Lake Baikal in Siberia, had been struggling […]
ECOBLOG, LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch ROME– More than 40 dead dolphins have been found washed ashore along the western coast of Italy since January 5. La Stampa reports that the locations where the dolphins have been found span more than half the western coastline, from Tuscany to Calabria, as well as the island of Sicily, […]
KFAR KAMA – Bent down in his field in this lower Galilee town, Amjad Shami points out the countless underground tunnels dug by voles. Three years ago, he says, these rodents destroyed his entire harvest. Shami says he continues to try to fight them with pesticides, which do little more than poison his land, infect […]
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 […]
A new study finds plastic debris on the floor of the once pristine Arctic Ocean, the latest sign of environmental damage of global waste.
FEZ – Everyone should go to the Moroccan city of Fez at least once, if only to get lost in the medina, around the mosque of al-Karaouine, the oldest university in the world. You could choose to spend the hot hours of the day in the Bou Inania Madrasa, the religious school built in the […]
CHINA TIMES, ORIENTAL MORNING POST, SINA (China) Worldcrunch LANZHOU – The Yellow River has no lid, why don’t you jump in…!? For Chinese who live along the river, this old expression is used when an argument heats up. But in the last few days, with reports by the Oriental Morning Post that hundreds of corpses […]