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  Paris (AFP) Aug 5, 2019 The overlapping crises of climate change, mass species extinction, and an unsustainable global food system are on a collision course towards what might best be called an ecological land grab. Coping with each of these problems will require a different way of using of Earth's lands, and as experts crunch the numbers it is becoming unnervingly clear that there may not be enough terra firma to go around. A world of narrowing options threatens to pit biofuels, forests and food production against eac ... read more |
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'Like a miracle': Poo powering Kenya's modern farmersKiambu, Kenya (AFP) Aug 6, 2019 In 35 years working the land, Kenyan farmer Josphat Muchiri Njonge has never seen his coffee shrubs burst with so much fruit on his verdant hillside plot outside bustling Nairobi. ... more 
EU agriculture not viable for the futureLeipzig, Germany (SPX) Aug 05, 2019 The current reform proposals of the EU Commission on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are unlikely to improve environmental protection, say researchers led by the German Centre for Integrative B ... more 
Agriculture's secret weapon: empowering womenGeneva (AFP) Aug 6, 2019 Women farmers face the brunt of the threat posed by climate change, yet they may hold the key to helping limit its fallout, according to a landmark UN report to be released this week. ... more 
Brazil's agricultural minister defends record pesticide approvalsBrasilia (AFP) Aug 6, 2019 Brazil's agriculture minister on Tuesday defended a record number of pesticide and weedkiller approvals this year, saying the government was not "putting poison on anyone's plate." ... more |
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IMF approves $206 mn aid to Sri Lanka after Cyclone Ditwah
Flights cancelled, roads flooded as rare storm soaks UAE Sri Lanka plans $1.6 bn in cyclone recovery spending in 2026 Brazil megacity Sao Paulo struck by fresh water crisis Indonesians reeling from flood devastation plea for global help Levee break near Seattle prompts evacuation order Flash flood kills dozens in Morocco town At least 20 dead in eastern Bolivia floods Press Release from Business Wire: Textron Inc. Flash floods kill 37 in Moroccan coastal town |
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| Previous Issues | Aug 06 | Aug 05 | Aug 02 | Aug 01 | Jul 31 |
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Overturning the truth on conservation tillageWashington DC (SPX) Jul 31, 2019 Just as we blend, cut, and fold ingredients together to follow a recipe, farmers use equipment to stir together soil and crop residue (stalks and roots of previous crops) before planting. This mecha ... more 
Buzz kill: mass bee deaths sting Russian beekeepersBobrovka, Russia (AFP) Aug 1, 2019 Anatoly Rubtsov looked despondently at the beehives lining his property. "The farm used to be loud, it sang," he said. Today just a faint buzz is audible but an overpowering rotting stench hung in the air after his bees were likely poisoned by a pesticide. ... more 
China says has begun purchase of more US farm goodsBeijing (AFP) Aug 1, 2019 China said Thursday that it had begun purchasing more US farm goods, addressing a key sticking point in efforts to resolve a drawn-out trade war between the two economic giants. ... more 
To conserve water, Indian farmers fire up air pollutionIthaca NY (SPX) Jul 31, 2019 A measure to conserve groundwater in northwestern India has led to unexpected consequences: added air pollution in an area already beset by haze and smog. A new study reveals how water-use pol ... more 
Microbial manufacturing: Genetic engineering breakthrough for urban farmingSingapore (SPX) Jul 26, 2019 Researchers at SMART, MIT's research enterprise in Singapore, and National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a technology that greatly accelerates the genetic engineering of microbes that ... more |
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 Water meant for Puerto Rican hurricane victims dumped on farmland  
Poland needs to save water for non-rainy dayWarsaw (AFP) July 28, 2019 With his two fishing rods planted firmly on the bank of the Vistula river, 85-year-old Tadeusz Norberciak peers at rocks exposed on the dry riverbed, a telling sign of Poland's looming water crisis. ... more  |
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Trump uncorks French wine threat in digital tax retaliationWashington (AFP) July 27, 2019 US President Donald Trump vowed "substantial" retaliation against France on Friday for a tax targeting US tech giants, threatening to slap tariffs on French wine and blasting President Emmanuel Macron's "foolishness." ... more
Underground water pipes: another way for cities to keep coolBoulogne-Billancourt, France (AFP) July 25, 2019 As Paris swelters in record-breaking heat, visitors to some of the French capital's iconic landmarks are being kept cool without even knowing it by a labyrinthine network of underground water pipes. ... more  
Records tumble in Europe as heatwave bitesParis (AFP) July 24, 2019 Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands recorded their highest ever temperatures as a European heatwave soared towards its peak on Wednesday, impacting rail transport and prompting a number of drownings with people taking to the water. ... more 
Despite monsoon havoc, India monsoons below baseline amid water crisisNew Delhi (AFP) July 22, 2019 India's weather agency said Monday it was set to cut estimates for average monsoon rainfall after decades of below-normal downpours, with climate change causing greater variations. ... more
More Basra water crises unless Iraq govt fixes 'failures': HRWBaghdad (AFP) July 22, 2019 Human Rights Watch on Monday warned of a repeat of last year's deadly water crisis in Iraq's oil-rich southern province of Basra unless authorities correct decades of management failures. ... more |
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 Washington DC (SPX) Aug 05, 2019 
NASA has selected a space-based instrument under its Earth Venture Instrument (EVI) portfolio that will make observations of coastal waters to help protect ecosystem sustainability, improve resource management, and enhance economic activity.
The selected Geosynchronous Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer (GLIMR) instrument, led by principal investigator Joseph Salisbury at the Unive ... more |
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 Schriever AFB CO (SPX) Aug 05, 2019 
Lockheed Martin presented the 2nd Space Operations Squadron with a GPS Block III model satellite to celebrate the successful on-orbit testing of the new GPS III satellite at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, July 29.
Staff Sgt. Joseph Wood, 2nd SOPS mission chief, said the model is a physical representation of the modernization underway.
"The GPS III provides improved capabilities ... more |
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 Sao Paulo (AFP) Aug 7, 2019  Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon increased 278 percent year-over-year in July, according to official data released Tuesday by a government institute embroiled in a row with President Jair Bolsonaro over the scale of the problem.
The National Institute for Space Research, known by its initials INPE, said that deforestation had cleared 870 square miles (around 2,250 square kilometers) of ... more |
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 Riverside CA (SPX) Aug 05, 2019 
Fuels made from agricultural or forestry wastes known as lignocellulosic biomass have long been a champion in the quest to reduce use of fossil fuels. But plant cell walls have some innate defenses that make the process to break them down more difficult and costly than it could be.
In a leap forward that could be a game changer for understanding how plant biomass can be more efficiently br ... more |
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 St. Louis MO (SPX) Jul 31, 2019 
Solar panel installations are on the rise in the U.S., with more than 2 million new installations in early 2019, the most ever recorded in a first quarter, according to a recent report by Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie Power and Renewables.
To meet the ever-increasing demands, low-cost and more efficient alternatives to silicon-based solar cells - currently the most ... more |
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 Lake Turkana, Kenya (AFP) July 19, 2019 
Kenya on Friday formally launched Africa's biggest wind power plant, a mammoth project in a gusty stretch of wilderness that already provides nearly a fifth of the country's energy needs.
The $680-million (600 million euro) scheme, a sprawling 365-turbine wind farm on the eastern shores of Lake Turkana, is delivering 310 megawatts of renewable power to the national grid of East Africa's most ... more |
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 Sydney (AFP) July 22, 2019 
A French television crew filming a protest against a newly approved Indian-owned coal mine was arrested by Australian police Monday and charged with trespassing.
Construction of the Adani project near the Great Barrier Reef has been under fierce debate for almost a decade, with environmentalists warning that fossil fuels damage the climate.
France 2 reporter Hugo Clement and three member ... more |
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 Hong Kong (AFP) Aug 5, 2019 
Hong Kong riot police clashed with pro-democracy protesters for a third straight day Monday, as the city's leader warned the global financial hub was nearing a "very dangerous situation" and a rare strike caused transport chaos.
Clouds of tear gas billowed across multiple locations on Monday afternoon as the city buckled under a general strike, which protesters pushed to emphasise they still ... more |
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 Washington (UPI) Jul 31, 2019 
If you see the latest robot from the University of California, Berkeley scurrying across your kitchen floor, don't bother trying to step on it. The novel roach-like robot, described this week in the journal Science Robotics, can't be squashed.
The new robot, developed by engineers at Cal, can run nearly as fast as a cockroach and as is even harder to kill. If one were to stomp on the li ... more |
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 Beirut (AFP) Aug 6, 2019 
Sitting at a plastic table outside her flatbread sandwich shop in the Lebanese capital, Nadime Yazbeck says she wishes the government would deal with the stench from the local trash dump.
"They really need to find a solution to these smells," said the 66-year-old Beirut resident, in a spotless white t-shirt and hair net.
Four years after a garbage crisis sparked political protests in Leb ... more |
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 Boguchany, Russia (AFP) Aug 6, 2019 
Svetlana Tuflyakova is in a hurry as she pushes her small son in his pram, keen to get back inside her house and away from the permeating smoke of Siberian wildfires: "It feels like it fills your whole body," she says.
Tuflyakova lives in the village of Boguchany in Krasnoyarsk region, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from raging fires which have engulfed vast territories and filled residenti ... more |
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 Paris (ESA) Jul 31, 2019 
Over the last month, massive quantities of the Sargassum seaweed have been washing up on the shores of Mexico, Florida in the US and some Caribbean islands, creating a serious environmental problem and causing havoc for the tourist industry. ESA has been tracking this slimy infestation from space.
Sargassum is a large brown algae, first spotted by Columbus during his voyage to the Americas ... more |
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 Paris (AFP) Aug 2, 2019 
The record-shattering heatwave that baked much of northern Europe last month was likely between 1.5 to 3.0 degrees Celsius hotter due to manmade climate change, an international team of scientists said Friday.
The three-day peak saw temperature records tumble in Belgium, the Netherlands and Britain while the city of Paris experienced its hottest day ever with the mercury topping out at 42.6C ... more |
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 Paris (AFP) Aug 6, 2019 
Chinese internet giant Tencent is in early talks to take a stake in the Universal Music Group, a behemoth in the global music industry, UMG's French owner said on Tuesday.
If a deal is confirmed, Shenzhen-based Tencent is to take 10 percent in Universal Music, with an option to pick up another 10 percent.
This would translate into an investment by Tencent of up to six billion euros ($6.7 ... more |
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 Sheffield UK (SPX) Aug 07, 2019 
An international team of scientists led by the University of Sheffield have discovered previously undetected observational evidence of frequent energetic wave pulses the size of the UK, transporting energy from the solar surface to the higher solar atmosphere.
Magnetic plasma waves and pulses have been widely suggested as one of the key mechanisms which could answer the long-standing quest ... more |
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 Larrau, France (AFP) Aug 5, 2019 
As day breaks over the Pyrenees mountains, hundreds of sheep scuttle up a valley, the clanging of their neck bells echoing around the hills that fringe the French-Spanish border.
For generations, shepherds in the region have steered sheep up the mountains in summer to graze on higher pastures, against breathtaking backdrops of sheer precipices and plunging valleys.
But the arrival last y ... more |
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