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https://www.foxnews.com/us/northeast-being-hit-with-remnants-of-tropical-storm-fred

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The remnants of former Tropical Storm Fred will move through New York and interior New England on Thursday.

Flood advisories have been issued across this region, while rain amounts of 1 to 3 inches are expected.

Hurricane Grace made landfall near Tulum, Mexico early Thursday.

NEW YORK SHARK SIGHTINGS PROMPT NEW FLAG WARNINGS AT BEACHES
That storm will reenter the Gulf of Mexico before making another landfall in central Mexico towards the end of the weekend.

Also in the Atlantic Hurricane Basin, Tropical Storm Henri continues to strengthen.

The storm is currently several hundred miles south of Bermuda, but is expected to turn and run up the east coast through the weekend.

While not currently forecast, landfall along the east coast by Sunday or Monday is still not out of the question.

In the western third of the country, a potent cold front is settling in.

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High temperatures should be 10 to 20 degrees below normal for the Central Great Basin into the northern Rockies and northern High Plains.

Ahead of this front, temperatures will be in the 90s for portions of the Dakotas and Minnesota.

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Northeast being hit with remnants of Tropical Storm Fred

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The remnants of former Tropical Storm Fred will move through New York and interior New England on Thursday. Flood advisories have been issued across this region, while rain amounts of 1 to 3 inches are expected. Hurricane Grace made landfall near Tulum, Mexico early Thursday.

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It is a collection of marine trash and ocean pollution that has has become so great and so large that it resembles an island.

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is litter that ends up in the ocean, seas, and other large bodies of water.

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two headed snake found in florida
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rare-two-headed-snake-found-florida-n1244325

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Florida wildlife officials are caring for a rare two-headed snake after a family found the strange reptile in Palm Harbor.

The southern black racer is bicephalic, meaning it has two heads, likely as a result of two monozygotic twins failing to separate during embryo development, according to the state's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. The subdivision of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission posted about the exceptional animal on its Facebook page Wednesday.

"Two-headed snakes are unlikely to survive in the wild as the two brains make different decisions that inhibit the ability to feed or escape from predators," the research institute wrote.

Both heads of the snake are capable of flicking tongues and each head reacts to movement, but not always in the same way, sometimes responding to stimuli differently.

Black racers are non-venomous snakes that are common to the state of Florida. Young members of the species don't quite fit their moniker, with bodies that are more gray with reddish-brown spots, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Adult black racers are actually black in color, with white markings on its chin and throat. A bite from these snakes, often found in residential areas in Florida, is relatively harmless though undoubtedly unpleasant.

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Florida wildlife officials are caring for a rare two-headed snake after a family found the strange reptile in Palm Harbor. The southern black racer is bicephalic, meaning it has two heads, likely as a result of two monozygotic twins failing to separate during embryo development, according to the state's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.

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Roman rests found in Venezia

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Il sonar ad alta risoluzione aiuta a scoprire una strada romana e forse una struttura portuale sotto le acque della città veneta.
Read in English
I progressi nelle tecnologie sonar ad alta risoluzione consentono oggi agli scienziati di esplorare siti archeologici sottomarini con un livello di dettaglio senza precedenti. È quanto hanno fatto Fantina Madricardo dell'Istituto di Scienze Marine (ISMAR-CNR) di Venezia e i suoi collaboratori, combinando la ricerca su archivi archeologici con nuove osservazioni realizzate con un sonar multifascio, per confermare la presenza nella laguna di Venezia di resti di una strada romana e altre strutture associate.

Il team ha concentrato la sua attenzione su una cresta compatta e sabbiosa sotto l'acqua nel Canale di Treporti, vicino alla antica città romana di Altino. La cresta rappresenta un'antica spiaggia e linea costiera, ora sommersa sotto la laguna di Venezia. Lungo la sua cima i ricercatori hanno identificato 12 strutture lineari disposte in direzione nord-est per oltre 1,1 chilometri.

"Studi precedenti negli anni '80 avevano scoperto delle pietre di pavimentazione romane su una delle strutture, e l'uso del sonar è stato molto utile per mappare l'intera estensione del sito archeologico", dice Madricardo. I ricercatori hanno potuto contare sull'aiuto della squadra subacquea della polizia di stato di Venezia per esaminare le strutture che avevano identificato.

"L'acqua è torbida e le correnti sono forti", nota Madricardo. "I subacquei dovevano immergersi durante specifiche fasi di marea per scattare fotografie utili".

La strada fu costruita direttamente su sabbie compattate, il che fa pensare che il livello del mare a quel tempo fosse più basso della carreggiata. La strada probabilmente collegava Altino alla parte meridionale della laguna, ed era collegata alla più ampia rete stradale del Veneto. Inoltre, Madricardo e il suo team credono che la struttura più grande che hanno scoperto, lunga quasi 135 metri, possa essere parte di un molo romano.

"Il nostro studio conferma la presenza di insediamenti romani permanenti nella laguna di Venezia, e dimostra ancora una volta la versatilità romana nell'intraprendere progetti di ingegneria in ambienti complessi e mutevoli", dice Madricardo.

Tuttavia, la modifica umana delle bocche di porto, il rafforzamento delle correnti e l'innalzamento del livello dell'acqua hanno causato una vasta erosione, e le strutture ora sono a rischio. Il team del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) e dell'Università Iuav sta lavorando a stretto contatto con la Sovrintendenza ai Beni Culturali di Venezia per ricostruire quanti più dettagli possibili sulla storia della laguna.

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Resti di insediamenti romani nella laguna di Venezia

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Il sonar ad alta risoluzione aiuta a scoprire una strada romana e forse una struttura portuale sotto le acque della città veneta. Il sonar ad alta risoluzione aiuta a scoprire una strada romana e forse una struttura portuale sotto le acque della città veneta.

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https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/11/india/india-landslide-himachal-pradesh-intl-hnk/index.html

The current news event of India is that 15 people were killed in a landslide which occurred in Northern India, or as many call it, Himachal Pradesh.

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india landslide: at least 15 dead after rocks hit highway in himachal pradesh - cnn

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At least 15 dead after landslide hits highway in northern India

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Two more bodies have been recovered from the rubble of a landslide in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, police said Friday, taking the death toll to 15 -- with at least 18 people still missing.

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A new study shows that while climate change is making some animals shrink in size, urbanisation may be making animals grow bigger and stronger.

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A new study shows urbanization is causing many mammal species to grow bigger, possibly because of readily available food in places packed with people.

The finding runs counter to many scientists' hypothesis that cities would trigger mammals to get smaller over time. Buildings and roads trap and re-emit a greater degree of heat than green landscapes, causing cities to have higher temperatures than their surroundings, a phenomenon known as the urban heat island effect. Animals in warmer climates tend to be smaller than the same species in colder environments, a classic biological principle called Bergmann's Rule.

But Florida Museum of Natural History researchers discovered an unexpected pattern when they analyzed nearly 140,500 measurements of body length and mass from more than 100 North American mammal species collected over 80 years: City-dwelling mammals are both longer and heftier than their rural counterparts.

"In theory, animals in cities should be getting smaller because of these heat island effects, but we didn't find evidence for this happening in mammals," said study lead author Maggie Hantak, a Florida Museum postdoctoral researcher. "This paper is a good argument for why we can't assume Bergmann's Rule or climate alone is important in determining the size of animals."

Hantak and her collaborators created a model that examined how climate and the density of people living in a given area -- a proxy for urbanization -- influence the size of mammals. As temperatures dropped, both body length and mass increased in most mammal species studied, evidence of Bergmann's Rule at work, but the trend was stronger in areas with more people.

Surprisingly, mammals in cities generally grew larger regardless of temperature, suggesting urbanization rivals or exceeds climate in driving mammal body size, said Robert Guralnick, Florida Museum curator of biodiversity informatics.

"That wasn't what we expected to find at all," he said. "But urbanization represents this new disturbance of the natural landscape that didn't exist thousands of years ago. It's important to recognize that it's having a huge impact."

About a decade ago, scientists began to raise the alarm that warmer temperatures brought by climate change are causing many animal species to grow smaller over time. While many of the consequences of shifting body size are unknown, researchers cautioned that smaller animals may have smaller or fewer offspring, creating a feedback loop, and shrinking prey could also put pressure on meat-eaters to find more resources.

Guralnick and Hantak said they hope their findings will lead more researchers to add urbanization to their analyses of changing body size.

"When we think about what's going to happen to mammalian body size over the next 100 years, a lot of people frame that as global warming causing animals to get smaller," Guralnick said. "What if that isn't the biggest effect? What if it's that urbanization is going to lead to fatter mammals?"

Not all animals respond to human-induced environmental changes in the same way, Hantak added. The researchers also investigated how the effects of climate and urbanization may be tempered or amplified by the behavior and habits of certain species.

They found animals that use hibernation or torpor, a temporary way of slowing metabolic rate and dropping body temperature, shrank more dramatically in response to increases in temperature than animals without these traits. The finding could have important implications for conservation efforts, Hantak said.

"We thought species that use torpor or hibernation would be able to hide from the effects of unfavorable temperatures, but it seems they're actually more sensitive," she said.

While cities radically transform the landscape, they provide animals with new opportunities as well as threats, Guralnick said. The abundance of food, water and shelter and relative lack of predators in cities may help certain species succeed in comparison with their neighbors in rural areas. The results of the 2020 U.S. Census show that almost all human population growth over the past decade has occurred in the nation's metro areas. As urbanization ramps up, animals could be divided into "winners and losers," and mammal distributions may shift, he said.

"Animals that like living in urban environments could have a selective advantage while other species may lose out because of the continued fragmentation of landscapes," Guralnick said. "This is relevant to how we think about managing suburban and urban areas and our wildlands in 100 years."

While bigger is often better biologically, the long-term consequences to urban mammals of eating a diet of human food waste have yet to be determined, Hantak said.

"When you change size, it could change your whole lifestyle," she said.

Hantak and her collaborators were able to conduct the study thanks to thousands of measurements collected by natural historians in the field and museums. The research team used information from three databases: VertNet, the National Science Foundation's National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) and the North American Census of Small Mammals (NASCM). Cumulatively, this data offers a broadscale view of how increasing urbanization is impacting mammals with very different life histories, from wolves, bobcats and deer to bats, shrews and rodents, Guralnick said.

"Museum collections have the power to tell us stories about the natural world," he said. "Because we have these collections, we can ask questions about what mammals looked like before humans dominated the landscape. Digitizing specimen data unlocks these resources so that everyone can make discoveries about our planet."

The researchers published their findings in Communications Biology.

Bryan McLean of the University of North Carolina Greensboro and Daijiang Li of Louisiana State University also co-authored the study. McLean and Li are former Florida Museum postdoctoral researchers.

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nature; wild animals; endangered animals; new species; global warming; climate; environmental awareness; environmental issues

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A new study shows urbanization is causing many mammal species to grow bigger, possibly because of readily available food in places packed with people. The finding runs counter to many scientists' hypothesis that cities would trigger mammals to get smaller over time.

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/11/earthquake-philippines-triggers-tsunami-warning

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An earthquake of magnitude 7.1 has struck about 40 miles (63km) east of Pondaguitan in the Philippines, prompting a tsunami warning that was later cancelled.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said on Wednesday that damage and aftershocks were expected, according to CNN.

The quake was at a depth of 65.6km, the United States Geological Survey said.

The US National Weather Service said there was no risk of a tsunami for the US west coast from the earthquake. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said Hawaii also faced no tsunami threat.

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Magnitude 7.1 earthquake strikes Philippines

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An earthquake of magnitude 7.1 has struck about 40 miles (63km) east of Pondaguitan in the Philippines, prompting a tsunami warning that was later cancelled. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said on Wednesday that damage and aftershocks were expected, according to CNN.

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60% of Ghana’s bodies of water are polluted, mostly because of illegal gold mining.
Ghana is the biggest gold producer in Africa and about 35% of it is extracted by small-scale miners, on the other hand, most mining sites are operating illegally.
The government has been trying harder to punish their activities, but many communities say that they're not doing enough to change the state of their country.
- Belen Alvarez Calderon

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Overfishing is happening on the beaches of Ica. People are using illegal technics to catch flounder and white sea bass. This overfishing is decreasing the population of important fish on the south coast of Peru.

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Major Atlantic ocean current system might be approaching critical threshold

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Major Atlantic ocean current system might be approaching critical threshold

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A major Atlantic ocean current -- the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC -- may have been losing stability in the course of the last century, according to new research. A potential collapse of this ocean current system could have severe consequences.

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The giant panda is an endangered animal is southwest china. There are only 1,864 giant pandas in all the world. The reason they are endangered is because of their lack of habitat since they have been endangered since 1990 because of the excess of deforestation- Danika Newton
Link from article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/09/giant-pandas-no-longer-endangered-in-the-wild-china-announces#:~:text=Giant%20pandas%20are%20no%20longer,after%20years%20of%20conservation%20efforts.&text=The%20authorities%20have%20worked%20to,bamboo%20forests%20to%20feed%20them.

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Giant pandas are no longer endangered in the wild, but they are still vulnerable with a population outside captivity of 1,800, Chinese officials have said after years of conservation efforts.

The head of the environment ministry's department of nature and ecology conservation, Cui Shuhong, said the reclassification was the result of "improved living conditions and China's efforts in keeping their habitats integrated".

He said the announcement reflected China's national efforts to preserve biodiversity in recent years. The authorities have worked to expand giant pandas' habitats and replanted bamboo forests to feed them.

The number of Siberian tigers, amur leopards, Asian elephants and crested ibis have also "visibly increased" as a result of continuing conservation efforts in recent years, Cui told a press conference this week.

The decision by China's own conservation authority comes five years after the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) removed giant pandas from its endangered species list and classified them as vulnerable.

Many Chinese experts disputed the decision at the time, arguing that it was misleading and would cause complacency in China, where the animals are considered a national treasure. They have been used as a part of Beijing's international diplomacy since the 1950s.

This week's announcement was met with delight on social media. Related hashtags on Weibo have been read nearly 10m times.

"Wonderful, wonderful news," said one post. "It shows all the efforts have been paid off. Well done." Another urged China's conservationists to continue their work. "It's a good start indeed, but there are still threats to these species. Do not relax."

Observers say the issue of conservation also ties into Beijing's diplomacy in recent months. The foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, said on Thursday that "the concept that lush mountains and clear water are worth their weight in gold and silver has taken root among the public in China.

"We stand ready to work with all sides to strengthen international cooperation in ecological preservation and environmental management to jointly," he said.

Pandas, however, still face long-term threats. IUCN has said climate change could destroy more than 35% of their bamboo habitat in the next 80 years.

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Giant pandas no longer endangered in the wild, China announces

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Giant pandas are no longer endangered in the wild, but they are still vulnerable with a population outside captivity of 1,800, Chinese officials have said after years of conservation efforts. The head of the environment ministry's department of nature and ecology conservation, Cui Shuhong, said the reclassification was the result of "improved living conditions and China's efforts in keeping their habitats integrated".

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Climate Change has shown again its level of importance as the Colorado River suffers from its first ever water shortage. Other water masses such as Lake Powell have significantly reduced its water levels. Researches have announced that Lake Powell is 32% full as of yesterday

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record-low water levels trigger first-ever colorado river water reduction - cnn

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First-ever water cuts expected for Colorado River in historic drought

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Additional cuts - each tier with worsening impact on agriculture and municipal water - are expected if Lake Mead continues to fall.

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Great Barrier Reef: Australia avoids UNESCO downgrade

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Environmental activists slam UNESCO decision not to classify the Barrier Reef as an endangered World Heritage Site.

The ecosystem has suffered three mass coral bleaching events since 2016 [File: Lucas Jackson/Reuters]

Australia on Friday avoided having the Great Barrier Reef listed as an endangered world heritage site by UNESCO, despite extensive climate change-spurred damage to the ecosystem's corals.

The move by the UN body has faced criticism by environmental activists.

After a concerted lobbying effort by Canberra, members of the World Heritage Committee - including leading fossil fuel producers Russia and Saudi Arabia - voted in Fuzhou, China to give Australian conservation efforts more time.

The group brushed aside UNESCO experts' recommendation that the reef's World Heritage status be downgraded because of dramatic coral decline, instead of telling Australia to report on the reef's status by 2022.

The 2,300-km-long (1,400-mile-long) ecosystem has suffered three mass coral bleaching events since 2016, caused by rising ocean temperatures due to global warming.

Areas once teeming with vibrant corals have become lifeless washed-out wastelands, and two-thirds of the reef is believed to have been damaged in some way.

Despite the damage, the reef remains a vital tourist draw for Australia, which had feared an "in danger" label could deter post-pandemic visitors.

Australia's Environment Minister Sussan Ley had flown to Paris earlier this month to personally lobby member states on the committee, while key ambassadors were invited on a reef snorkelling trip.

On Friday, Ley welcomed the decision, thanking "esteemed delegates for recognising Australia's commitment to protecting the Great Barrier Reef".

Selina Ward, a Coral reef scientist from the University of Queens, said the government needs to take "dramatic action" in order to stop the damage.

"There is absolutely no doubt that the Great Barrier is under severe threat," Ward told Al Jazeera.

"The data is there. The Great Barrier is still beautiful, and we can still save it, but we are getting more frequent mass bleaching events, which frequently result in large mortality on the reef... We are industrialising the coastline of the Great Barrier reef, which adds to water quality problems...

"We've lost considerable sections of the Great Barrier Reef, and if we don't take dramatic action on climate change, we will get more and more bleaching events, and the reef will not have time to recover," she added.

'Day of infamy'

Environmental groups decried the decision as a political stitch-up.

"This is a victory for one of the most cynical lobbying efforts in recent history," said Greenpeace Australia Pacific CEO David Ritter.

"This is not an achievement - it is a day of infamy for the Australian government."

As the @UNESCO process unfolds it is becoming painfully clear that politics has squashed truth.

- David Ritter (@David_Ritter) July 23, 2021

A decision on the reef's status had already been postponed from 2015 when Australia successfully waged a similar diplomatic campaign and committed billions of dollars to reef protection.

"This is history repeating itself," said Climate Council spokesman Will Steffen. "Australia must stop censoring science, and start taking the steps we know are required to help protect the reef," he added.

Though Australian government scientists say corals have shown signs of recovery in the past 12 months, they admit the reef's long-term outlook remains "very poor".

As well as coral bleaching, the reef is also susceptible to damage from cyclones and outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish, which eat the coral.

UNESCO had accused Australia of failing to meet key water quality and land management targets, while also taking aim at the country's conservative government for its lacklustre climate efforts. Canberra is facing growing international criticism for refusing to commit to net zero emissions by 2050.

The government has said it hopes to meet the target "as soon as possible" without harming the country's fossil fuel-reliant economy.

The World Heritage Committee asked UNESCO to send a monitoring mission to inspect the reef, after Canberra criticised the agency for relying on existing reports to make its recommendation.

The decision comes after Venice also dodged the endangered list on Thursday, following Italy's move to ban large cruise ships from sailing into the city centre.

However, Liverpool's waterfront was deleted from the list entirely, amid concerns about overdevelopment, including plans for a new football stadium.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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Australia's Great Barrier Reef escapes UNESCO 'in danger' listing

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Environmental activists slam UNESCO decision not to classify the Barrier Reef as an endangered World Heritage Site. Australia on Friday avoided having the Great Barrier Reef listed as an endangered world heritage site by UNESCO, despite extensive climate change-spurred damage to the ecosystem's corals. The move by the UN body has faced criticism by environmental activists.

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Five decades ago Brazil incentivized millions of its people to colonize the Amazon. Today their logging yards, cattle enclosures and soy farms sit on the fringes of a vanishing forest. Powered by murky sources of capital and rising demand for beef, a violent and corrupt frontier is now pushing into indigenous land, national parks and one of the most preserved parts of the jungle.

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The Amazon Rain Forest Is Nearly Gone. We Went to the Front Lines to See If It Could Be Saved

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Colonization and environmental vandalism created a crisis in the Amazon that could have alarming consequences for climate change.

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A River of Death
https://www.sierraclub.org/planet/2018/09/river-death

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By Seila Montes

Back in the 1950s, day after day, Enrique and his friends would go straight to the river. They would climb the pipe that jutted out of the old hydroelectric plant of El Salto -completed in 1893, one of the first in Mexico- and from there, they would jump into the river to catch eels. "Sometimes, the net was so full, we didn't have the strength to pull it out," he remembers. If they were lucky, they would catch some other species inhabiting the river, such as carp, crab or mojarra.

In the background, they would hear the powerful roar of the El Salto waterfalls, formerly known as "The Mexican Niagara," where local newlyweds and overseas couples would travel to see the magnificent cascades. The old belief was that the falls would bring good luck in their love and marriage. As Enrique remembers 50 years later, "We were poor, but we were very well fed," as mango, avocado, quince and guava would grow along the banks of the river.

In the 1960s, however, industrial corridors began forming in the area and manufacturers began using the river as their personal dump. Nowadays, the only species that survives in the river is tilapia, nicknamed the "cockroach of the river" for its invasive and resistant nature. Enrique calls it the "Fair Revenge of the Nemesis"-as man contaminates the river, the same river gives poisoned food in return.

Enrique Enciso observing the falls of the polluted Santiago River (Photo: Seila Montes)

The pollution levels have soared to such a height that the Santiago River, which starts in Lake Chapala and runs for about 562 kilometers (350 miles) to cover six states until emptying into the Pacific Ocean, is now the most polluted in Mexico, and one of the most contaminated in Latin America. Among the mega-corporations dumping toxic waste in the area are Hershey's, Huntman, IBM, and Nestlé.

Mexico's Environmental Secretariat proclaims that 70 percent of the companies comply with voluntary audits, but companies are under no obligation to allow state inspectors into their facilities. Although some companies like Hershey's do have their own water treatment facilities, this loophole makes it impossible to calculate what percentage of water is actually being treated and how much waste gets discharged into the river. A 2011 IMTA (Mexican Institute of Water Technology) study found that 87 to 94 percent of companies do not comply with discharge regulations.

The Santiago River flows loaded with toxic pollution (Photo: Seila Montes)

Another company unloading its leachate into the river is the Los Laureles waste dump (operated by Caabsa Eagles), which receives waste from the city of Guadalajara and surrounding municipalities. Ever since Caabsa Eagles has been in charge, Los Laureles has been the most fined waste dump in Mexico, according to the State Attorney's Office for Environmental Protection. Seated on municipal land, the garbage dump receives about 6,000 tons of trash per day, covering around 82 hectares (200 acres). Now at about 50 meters high, it continues to grow in height and runs the risk of collapse.

In 2008, when the concessions to the Caabsa Eagles company was about to expire, the residents of El Salto rallied for the closure of the garbage dump, which was still discharging leachate into the Santiago River. They staged protests to decry the pestilence. On the same night after the protests, a fire broke out at the garbage dump, producing a toxic black cloud over the town. Locals could not leave their homes for three days and schools had to suspend classes. Despite all this, the government went on to approve another 25 years of concessions to the same company.

According to a Greenpeace study, among the toxic substances found in the river are arsenic, onifenol, octifenol, chloroform, benzenes, and cyanide. These compouds, when in high concentrations, can have dangerous impact on aquatic life and humans. Many of these chemicals are carcinogenic and can cause hormonal disruptions, fetal malformations, and damage to the male and female reproductive systems. An IMTA study found 1090 toxic chemicals in the river.

In 2008, 8-year-old Miguel Ángel López Rocha died 19 days after falling into the river. While being treated in a coma, the level of arsenic found in his body was 51 micrograms, while the maximum toxicity level is about 12 micrograms. In response to the media outcry after the death of Miguel Ángel, the government of President Felipe Calderón decided to build a water treatment plant called "El Ahogado."

Polluted water at the El Ahogado Dam (Photo Seila Montes)

The Jalisco state government tried to soothe the locals and the media by sending out the message that they had found a remedy through the El Ahogado water treatment project. With a cost of almost one billion pesos, the plant was designed to process up to 2,250 liters of water per second, but, to the disappointment of activists, was only able to treat sewage-not heavy metals. Even more frustrating to local families was the fact that the plant was only designed to treat less than 25% of the sewage being discharged in the metropolitan area. Since it only treats a small percentage of sewage, not heavy metals, the El Ahogado water treatment plant was built without a full study of the industrial heavy metals being dumped into the river.

When the plant detects a heavy metal, an alarm is activated to stop the process, and that same water is thrown into the river by another conduit as it arrives. A major criticism of the plant project is that the true beneficiaries were the construction companies and politicians who lined their pockets with the close to one billion pesos in tax money.

According to a Greenpeace report, the "treated" water that is discharged into the river by the El Ahogado plant contains 101 isolated organic chemical agents, some considered high risk for human health and the ecosystem; 22 of them are not even regulated in Mexico.

Polluted water at the El Ahogado Dam (Photo: Seila Montes)

Meanwhile, the city of Guadalajara has one of the highest rates of kidney disease in all of Mexico. It has been proven that exposure to metals such as arsenic can cause kidney damage. Also extremely high is the number of young people in the area who are suffering from skin diseases, respiratory problems, and even cancer. Although there is currently no authoritative study showing how many of these medical cases are actually related to the river contaminants, there are several reliable studies showing the level of heavy metals in the water with which the locals wash themselves. Many adolescents and adults in the area also comment that, as children, they would often play with the strange foam blown into the school yard by the wind. They were oblivious to all the toxic chemicals they contained.

There are cases like that of José Daniel, a 26-year-old man who, at the age of 21, began to feel severe headaches that kept him awake for an entire week. When he finally arrived at the hospital, he was found to have kidney failure and needed an emergency hemodialysis. He also needed a kidney transplant urgently. Having no resources or insurance, José found an NGO to support and help him pay for part of the transplant. It has been three years since the operation and he will have to continue taking medication for the rest of his life. Eerily enough, José has a cousin the same age who also needed a kidney transplant. Several of his classmates have even passed away from diseases he attributes to the polluted river. Others become sick much younger.

Chuyito, a 9-year-old boy who received a kidney transplant two years ago, had already lost hope for living after spending his childhood from hospital to hospital until finding an organ donor. The cost of the medication he will have to take for the rest of his life is around $200 US dollars per month. His mother cannot afford it, but luckily he receives help from a local NGO.

Chuyito (Photo: Seila Montes)

Not all cases are directly related to water. About eight years ago, Pedro applied for a job at Urrea, a company near his home that manufactures tools. After the job interview, he stepped outside the property where he encountered a mound of white powder. Unlucky enough to stumble and fall on top of the mystery substance, he soon found out it was a product being used to treat metals. When the chemicals came into contact with his body, Pedro's skin began to "melt." Since then, Pedro has not been able to work, as the scars on his hands prevent him from having sufficient mobility. After taking the company to court, he was only able to win 50,000 pesos (about $2500 US dollars), which all went to cover attorney fees.

Pedro's hands destroyed by toxic compounds (Photo: Seila Montes)

Although there are currently no solid studies computing how many people have fallen sick due to the river contamination, there has been no governmental effort to conduct a public health study on the issue. In the El Salto area, 2 new cemeteries have been built in the last 10 years. Walking through one of them, one can see that from the 1970s until now, the ages of death drop lower and lower.

El Salto Cementery (Photo: Seila Montes)

In response to the serious problems suffered by the inhabitants of El Salto and its surroundings, Enrique Enciso and Graciela González, together with close relatives and neighbors, have created the NGO " Un Salto de Vida." This family of activists devotes a large part of their lives to fighting for justice-not only for themselves and their loved ones, but also for some of the most fundamental human rights: The right to safe and clean water, the right to protect a river and its inhabitants who have enjoyed it for thousands of years, and the right to not be killed off by unbridled capitalism.
Seila Montes is a Spanish photojournalist who has worked on several international environmental justice projects.

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The Santiago River, which starts in Lake Chapala and runs for about 562 kilometers (350 miles) to cover six states until emptying into the Pacific Ocean, is now the most polluted in Mexico, and one of the most contaminated in Latin America because several industries use it as their private dump.

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Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

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Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA - Research shows flocking birds, schooling fish, other collective movements can stabilize ecosystems

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Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA - Research shows flocking birds, schooling fish, other collective movements can stabilize ecosystems

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210812135926.htm

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In addition to being visually stunning, schools of herring, herds of wildebeest and countless other groups of organisms that act in concert can help complex ecosystems maintain their diversity and stability, new research by Oregon State University shows.

Published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution, the study demonstrates that when individuals band together to consume resources as a collective group, the surrounding ecosystem is prone to be more resilient and able to support a wider range of species.

The findings could be an important step toward understanding how living systems stay on an even keel; collective behavior is ubiquitous on the planet, playing a prominent role in everything from bacterial biofilms to human cities.

"These collectives show highly organized, large-scale patterns in behavior that emerge spontaneously from localized interactions among nearby individuals," said Ben Dalziel of the OSU College of Science. "Our question was, what is the significance of collective behavior in ecosystems?"

Dalziel and colleagues found that there was an emergent social-ecological feedback between the size and structure of the collective groups and the level of resources in an ecosystem, and that this feedback buffered the system against crashing. The feedback dampened fluctuations in resource abundance and allowed more consumer species to persist using the same resource, instead of the stronger competitor pushing the weaker one to extinction.

Dalziel, a population biologist, led a collaboration that examined the ecological significance of collective behavior through the lens of two enduring ecological puzzles: the paradox of enrichment and the paradox of the plankton.

The paradox of enrichment is seen when, in a predator-prey model, an increase in available food for the prey results in the predator's population growing unsustainably big and destabilizing. The paradox of the plankton refers to diverse ecological communities, such as different types of phytoplankton, persisting even though lots of similar species are vying for finite resources.

"It is not a given that complex ecosystems will be stable -- if you just throw a bunch of species together in an environment, theory tells us the result will likely be ecosystem collapse," Dalziel said. "That means real ecosystems must have some kind of special sauce that allows them to persist with a diverse array of species."

It turns out that collective behavior -- occurring among plants as well as microorganisms, animals and people -- could be a potent ingredient of the sauce, the researchers found.

Dalziel and Mark Novak of the College of Science, plus James Watson of the Oregon State College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and Stephen Ellner of Cornell University, started with a standard model of a simple food web: two generic "consumers" feeding on a shared resource.

A battery of equations expresses the model's multiple variables, such as consumer mortality rate and per-capita resource consumption, but in this version of the model, the consumers differ only in the efficiency with which they capture the resource.

"We constructed simulations in such a way that we could turn collective behavior on and off without changing anything else in the system," Dalziel said. "What we found was that adding collective behavior was a game changer in the simulations -- it stabilized ecosystems that ecological and evolutionary theory clearly say should not otherwise be stable."

That was a piece of the knowledge puzzle that had been missing, he said, noting that much work had been done to understand how local individual behavior scales up to affect group-level behavior and how those groups process information, but not much about why collective behavior happens in the first place.

Dalziel calls the findings a "good news story" that contrasts the negative role collective dynamics can play.

"Amidst the challenges we face with the spread of misinformation online, which also involves collective dynamics, here is an example where collective behavior plays a fundamental role in supporting life," he said. "And I also think it's neat that such an aesthetically striking aspect of ecosystems -- the flocks of birds etc. -- could also play an important role in their stability and diversity."

The National Science Foundation, DARPA, the National Institutes of Health and NASA supported this research.

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ecology research; nature; behavioral science; new species; ecology; ecosystems; environmental awareness; sustainability

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Research shows flocking birds, schooling fish, other collective movements can stabilize ecosystems

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In addition to being visually stunning, schools of herring, herds of wildebeest and countless other groups of organisms that act in concert can help complex ecosystems maintain their diversity and stability, new research by Oregon State University shows.

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Joaquin Barreda - The plastic continent floating in the Pacific

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Joaquin Barreda - The plastic continent floating in the Pacific

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Charles Moore was the first to raise the alarm. The American boat captain and oceanographer was horrified when, on his way back from a famous boat race in 1997, he encountered a sea of plastic so wide it took him seven days to cross it. What Moore found mobilised the scientific community, and the rest is history: the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, one of the biggest symptom's of the environmental crisis the planet is suffering, was now in the public eye.

Two decades later, it is a constantly growing continent of rubbish measuring some 1.6 million km² and containing 80,000 tonnes of plastic, according to a scientific study published in the journal Nature in 2018. It is now more than three times the size of France, to give some idea of its scale. But despite its size, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is invisible to satellites, as 94% of it is made up of minute fragments of plastic eroded from larger pieces.

THE ORIGINS OF THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH

These microplastics, measuring just a few millimetres in diameter, come from wastes thrown away on land as well as abandoned fishing gear including nets, baskets and cages. But shipping is also a big culprit. Waste from ships, largely glossed over in initial studies, is a major contributor to this ecological tragedy.

When these particles, which are scattered over the surface, reach the North Pacific Gyre - a circular sea water highway - the rotating currents clump them together and then spit them out as larger pieces which float across the ocean. The result is a big soup of floating rubbish drifting halfway between Hawaii and California.

Scientific evidence points to Asia as being the main contributor of rubbish to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, with another big factor being the increase in industrial fishing in the world's biggest ocean. According to the study published in Nature, two thirds of the items collected during the research contained text written in Japanese or Chinese - with a total of nine languages being identified - and the oldest piece of rubbish dated from the end of the 70s.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
SEE INFOGRAPHIC: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch [PDF]
THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH

At the 2019 International Solid Waste Association Congress held in Bilbao, Spain, Captain Charles Moore appeared pessimistic about ocean pollution and warned that plastic would cover every inch of the world's beaches in the future. A prophecy that may seem far-fetched, but which it seems we should take seriously considering it comes from the first man to sail through the garbage patch.

The damage to the animal kingdom is also impossible to quantify: each year, thousands of marine mammals and aquatic birds die after confusing items in the Pacific Garbage Patch for food or getting trapped in abandoned fishing nets. In 2016, a report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned about the presence of microplastics in up to 800 species of fish, crustaceans and molluscs.

Our health could also be another big victim of this accumulation of marine debris. Microscopic plastic ingested by fish and other species we eat enters our body through the food chain. For example, a study by Greenpeace and Incheon National University in South Korea published in 2018 concluded that 90% of the salt brands sampled worldwide contained microplastics.

INITIATIVES TO CLEAN THE OCEANS

The discovery of the Great Pacific garbage patch has raised the awareness of thousands of people and has resulted in multiple initiatives to reduce the amount of plastic in the ocean. Let's take a look at some of them:

Plastic Free Waters
According to a recent study by NY/NJ Baykeeper, there are at least 165 million plastic particles floating in New York Harbor. In response to this, the Plastic Free Waters initiative was created, which brings together public sector organisations, NGOs and private companies with one objective: to eradicate plastic from water bodies in the region.

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The plastic continent floating in the Pacific

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Its nickname, the eighth continent, says it all, and is no exaggeration. Lying between California and Hawaii, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is three times the size of France and is the world's biggest ocean waste repository, with 1.8 billion pieces of floating plastic which kill thousands of marine animals each year.

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Australia fires - Chiara

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Australia fires: A visual guide to the bushfire crisis

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How Australia has been battling bushfires during a devastating fire season.

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https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/14/world/haiti-earthquake/index.html

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more than 300 people dead after 7.2-magnitude earthquake strikes haiti - cnn

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More than 300 people dead after 7.2-magnitude earthquake strikes Haiti

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The US Geological Survey said it's likely that casualties are "high" after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti Saturday morning.

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China -  Two new species of dinosaurs discovered

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China -  Two new species of dinosaurs discovered

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Two new dinosaur species, as big as a blue whale, discovered in China

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Scientists have confirmed the discovery of two massive new dinosaur species in northwest China -- some of the first vertebrates uncovered in the region, according to a new study published Thursday.

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ROME, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Locals were evacuated from small communities around 40 km (25 miles) east of Rome on Friday when a wildfire broke out as the Italian capital faced temperatures of around 37 degrees Celsius (99 Fahrenheit).

Swathes of southern Italy have been plagued by wildfires in recent weeks, with flames ravaging woodland in Calabria, in the toe of the Italian boot, and on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.

Wednesday saw the temperature reach almost 49 Celsius in south-eastern Sicily, reported as the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe. read more

The heatwave is now moving north and overnight 25 families were evacuated from their homes as fires spread through the nature reserve of Monte Catillo, near the Rome suburb of Tivoli, firefighters said in a tweet.

Around 30 residents of a home for poor children and orphans were also evacuated to escape the flames.

Wildfires also broke out overnight near the town of Otranto, in Italy's southern heel, firefighters said. A nearby seaside resort was evacuated due to the choking smoke and the coastal road heading south from Otranto was closed to traffic.

Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Thursday promised financial help for communities hit by the fires, and a plan of action to replant forest areas and make the Italian countryside more resilient to natural disasters.

Reporting by Gavin Jones Editing by Angelo Amante and David Holmes

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Wildfire breaks out east of Rome, locals evacuated

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ROME, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Locals were evacuated from small communities around 40 km (25 miles) east of Rome on Friday when a wildfire broke out as the Italian capital faced temperatures of around 37 degrees Celsius (99 Fahrenheit).

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/04/world/europe/turkey-fires-erdogan-anger.html

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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has come under a concerted attack by his opponents over his handling of the worst forest fires in decades.

Video

Forest fires continued in Turkey after more than a week as the country dealt with an economic crisis and the pandemic. The fires are the worst the country has seen in decades. Credit Credit... Yasin Akgul/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

ISTANBUL - As Turkey battles its worst forest fires in decades, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is under ferocious attack for his handling of the disaster, as well as his broader management of a country that was already battered by an economic crisis and the pandemic.

Fires blazed uncontrollably for the eighth day on Wednesday, aggravated by a record-breaking heat wave that follows a prolonged drought. The nation has watched in horror images on television and social media, as thousands of people have been forced to evacuate homes, coastal resorts and whole villages, primarily in the south, and herds of livestock have perished in fast-moving blazes.

In a summer of widespread extreme weather - from floods in Germany and Belgium to record-breaking heat waves and wildfires in Russia, Italy, Greece, Canada and the United States - the emergency in Turkey has given fodder to an increasingly vocal and united opposition to Mr. Erdogan. Tensions are running high across Turkey, where the government has long been accused of corruption and mismanagement, worsening the country's economic troubles and the crippling effects of the coronavirus.

At least eight people have died in the fires and dozens have been hospitalized, suffering from burns and smoke inhalation. More than 170 wildfires have broken out in the past week in 39 of Turkey's 81 provinces, burning hundreds of square miles of forest, and destroying farmland and dozens of homes.

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Volunteers resting as they fight wildfires on Wednesday in the Turkish village of Turgut, near the tourist resort of Marmaris. Credit... Emre Tazegul/Associated Press

Among the dead were a couple waiting for their son to arrive and help them evacuate, two firefighters whose truck overturned into a fire and a young volunteer ferrying water to firefighters by motorbike.

A farming couple reached by telephone Wednesday sobbed as they described how they had been left to beat back the flames themselves, without help from firefighters, when the inferno reached their village, Cokertme, on the Aegean coast in southwestern Turkey.

The couple, Nurten Bozkurt, 59 and her husband Cengiz, 55, took their livestock down to the sea when military police ordered them to evacuate, but slipped back the next morning to try to save their home and barn and surrounding houses from the encroaching fire.

"My eyes, my hands are still burning," Mr. Bozkurt said. "I went to the barn, my wife stayed at the house. Every three to five minutes fire was falling on the straw and the manure heap."

At the house, Mrs. Bozkurt doused the roof and balcony whenever coils of smoke appeared.

"We succeeded," she said. "We have saved 10 to 15 houses. We didn't see any firefighters."

But the forest around them was decimated and their livelihoods with it, they said.

"Around our village there isn't a place left unburned," Mr. Bozkurt said, breaking into tears. "Our biggest loss is the olive trees and pines. Most of all, they are gone."

The disaster has affected mostly southern coastal districts that are held by the largest opposition party, the Republican People's Party, or C.H.P., and local mayors and party officials were quick to raise the alarm. But they soon complained in interviews and video appeals that they were not receiving the help needed from the central government - planes and helicopters to douse the blazes.

A wildfire burning Wednesday in the forest in Turgut. Credit... Emre Tazegul/Associated Press

Among the criticisms of Mr. Erdogan's government have been its mothballing of planes to combat forest fires and its decision to contract for only three Russian planes in their place.

Mr. Erdogan faces re-election in two years and though he is still the most popular politician in Turkey, he has been sliding in the polls. In a sign of the looming political battle, government opponents and supporters have waged concerted social media campaigns; critics attacked the government for failure to fight the wildfires, and the government responded with accusations that they were trying to undermine the state.

A social media campaign, #HelpTurkey, took off early Monday morning, and in a matter of hours reached 2.5 million tweets. Well-known celebrities joined the appeal, calling for international assistance in combating the fires.

But there were signs of a possible coordinated influence campaign behind it, Marc Owen Jones, an associate professor at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, said in an analysis posted on Twitter. He found that the accounts that drove the most traffic with the hashtag had changed their names and deleted their tweets afterward, and many of them appeared to be phony identities or "sock puppets," tactics used in previous cases of political manipulation of social media traffic.

Mr. Erdogan's director of communications, Fahrettin Altun, accused the opposition of using a social media campaign orchestrated from abroad to undermine the state. The government - which has been accused of running its own influence campaigns in the past - and its supporters responded with hashtags like #StrongTurkey and #WeDon'tNeedHelp.

Fire crews and locals working on Tuesday to put out a blaze spreading in the Aegean coast city of Oren, near Milas, Turkey. Credit... Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

"The so-called aid campaign, organized abroad and from a single center, was initiated with ideological motivations, with the aim of portraying our state as helpless and weakening our state-nation unity," Mr. Altun said in a statement. "Our country, Turkey, is strong."

The social media combat continued Wednesday, with new hashtags from opponents calling for Mr. Erdogan to go trending briefly.

The C.H.P. leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, joined in the criticism in a speech Tuesday, accusing Mr. Erdogan of failing to have a master plan in place for fighting forest fires and warning that Turkey needed to prepare immediately for future climate-related crises.

He also criticized the government for turning on its critics with language that suggested they were anti-state.

"When people whose souls are so hurt call for help," he said, "instead of understanding them, labeling the people as terrorists and collaborators is a tactic that only incompetent governments will resort to."

Mr. Erdogan has largely remained above the fray, promising aid for fire victims and thanking foreign countries for their assistance with firefighting equipment and planes. He traveled to one of the worst-hit regions over the weekend and pledged to start rebuilding homes and barns within a month.

People walking on Monday in the Turkish village of Kalemli, which was destroyed by wildfires. It was near Manavgat. Credit... Associated Press

But government officials and allies have sought to deflect blame for the disaster back onto their opponents, suggesting that the fires were set by saboteurs, and describing the appeal for help from abroad as an insidious plot against the government.

Devlet Bahceli, leader of the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party and a political ally of Mr. Erdogan, called the opposition "opportunists using the forest fires for political profit" and looking "for an environment to exploit our country's fragile and delicate environment."

The columnist Hilal Kaplan, known for her strong pro-government stance, wrote in the daily Sabah that the social media campaign against the government reminded her of the period in 2013 when popular protests took over the central Taksim Square in Istanbul, and the attempted coup on July 15, 2016. She warned of another coup against Mr. Erdogan's government.

"There is a strange activity," she wrote. "As I was accused of being paranoid when I wrote about the possibility of a coup four months before July 15, they will try the same trick again."

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Turks Wage War on Social Media as Raging Fires Turn Political

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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has come under a concerted attack by his opponents over his handling of the worst forest fires in decades. ISTANBUL - As Turkey battles its worst forest fires in decades, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is under ferocious attack for his handling of the disaster, as well as his broader management of a country that was already battered by an economic crisis and the pandemic.

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Warming Western Antarctic Peninsula waters impact plankton community

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Warming Western Antarctic Peninsula waters impact plankton community

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Warming water and receding sea ice is changing the plankton community in the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Credit: British Antarctic Survey

Warming water and receding sea ice in the Western Antarctic Peninsula is changing the local plankton community with potential consequences for climate change, according to research led by scientists from Duke University and Duke Kunshan.

The five-year study, conducted in the Western Antarctic Peninsula, found water temperature and sea-ice cover to be dominant factors affecting the makeup of microscopic sea life, which had declined in species richness and evenness, with those changes leading to less ocean absorption of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas associated with global warming.

The study's lead author, Yajuan Lin, an assistant professor of biogeochemistry at Duke Kunshan University, in China said: "This invisible forest in the ocean sucks up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, so changes to it are incredibly important. The research suggests that forest may be doing less of this in the Western Antarctic Peninsula."

Published in the scientific journal Nature Communications on August 16, the study, which began in 2012, is the longest ever time-series research on DNA-based plankton community structure and continuous carbon export in the Antarctic region, and for the first time quantitively links plankton community structure to carbon export potential there.

It was supported by a US National Science Foundation grant to Nicolas Cassar, a professor of biogeochemistry at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. The research team and collaborators, which included scientists from UNC Chapel Hill, Rutgers, Columbia University and the British Antarctic Survey made annual trips to the Western Antarctic Peninsula, spent primarily aboard the research vessel Laurence M. Gould, with short spells at the U.S. Antarctic base Palmer Station and the British Antarctic Survey station Rothera.

They collected DNA samples of microbial sea life, including algae and microzooplankton, as well as employing a mass spectrometer to monitor carbon sequestration levels. Following each trip, researchers spent months at Duke University and at the University of Nantes analyzing the samples using a high-throughput DNA sequencing technology, which allowed them to measure species numbers, community composition, carbon levels and other features in the samples, despite their microscopic size.

They found significant changes in the community of microscopic sea life as some organisms better adapted the to a warmer environment with less ice survived and others perished. This shift may have an impact on climate change, as analysis of the changing community showed a reduction in the amount of carbon dioxide it absorbed from the atmosphere, said Lin.

Professor Mike Meredith, an oceanographer at British Antarctic Survey and co-author of the paper said: "The coastal regions of Antarctica are especially vulnerable to climatic change, and some of them are showing rapid losses of ice. This new research shows that as this progresses and spreads, it could result in substantial declines in plankton diversity. This could have knock-on consequences for the Antarctic ecosystem, and also affect the Southern Ocean's ability to mitigate our carbon emissions. The findings are particularly timely and relevant, in the wake of the recent report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change."

The findings also come ahead of the 2021 United National Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, scheduled for October, where it could add to debates about both biodiversity conservation and climate change.

Yajuan added: "Our results add to the data about climate change and biodiversity, and could help to provide as clearer picture of what's happening," she said. "However, a longer study will be needed to confirm the pattern."

"Decline in plankton diversity and carbon flux with reduced sea ice extent along the Western Antarctic Peninsula" is published in Nature Communications.

More information: Yajuan Lin et al, Decline in plankton diversity and carbon flux with reduced sea ice extent along the Western Antarctic Peninsula, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25235-w

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Warming Western Antarctic Peninsula waters impact plankton community

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Warming water and receding sea ice in the Western Antarctic Peninsula is changing the local plankton community with potential consequences for climate change, according to research led by scientists from Duke University and Duke Kunshan.

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The first case of a new virus called Marburg was found in Guinea, South Africa. They say that the cause of this virus is the same as the Ebola virus. However, this virus has a mortality rate of 88% that which they say is 40 times stronger than the Covid-19. Plus, they say that Marburg virus can be spread to both humans and animals.

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Marburg virus disease is a highly virulent disease that causes haemorrhagic fever, with a fatality ratio of up to 88%.

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China Henan Zhengzhou flood 2021
This flooding cause 302 people died in Henan and 14 people died in a subway.

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US Agency International Development, Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington D. C., Distrito de Columbia, EE. UU.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58208792

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photos: europe battles wildfires amid scorching heat

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Photos: Europe battles wildfires amid scorching heat

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A summer of record-setting heat in southern Europe has set off devastating wildfires that have torn through forests and homes and destroyed vital infrastructure from Turkey to Spain.

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Anastasia - extreme fires burning https://www.npr.org/2021/08/09/1026137249/with-extreme-fires-burning-forest-service-stops-good-fires-too

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Facing record-breaking dry conditions across the West, the U.S. Forest Service announced it will aggressively put out wildfires this summer. As a result, the agency's use of "good fire," the lower-intensity blazes that clear out overgrown forests, will also stop.

With thousands of firefighting personnel battling extreme blazes, federal officials say no one can be spared for fire prevention work. But some fire experts worry that the blanket rule takes away the most important tools foresters have to reduce future wildfire risk, even in parts of the country where it may be safe to use them. More than 40 scientists sent a letter requesting the Forest Service reconsider the policy change.

"It's a tough decision, I think, because politically, there's a lot of pressure to put every single fire out," says Crystal Kolden, fire scientist at the University of California, Merced. "The problem is that political pressure is not based on good science."

Many extreme fires across the West are being fueled by overgrown forests, where dense vegetation has accumulated over a century of fire suppression. In recent years, the Forest Service has worked to reduce that risk by using fire proactively.

The agency is now suspending the use of prescribed burns, where foresters set carefully controlled fires that remove brush and vegetation, but don't kill the mature trees. It's also suspending what's known as "managed wildfires for resource benefit," where naturally caused fires are cautiously allowed to burn if they're in remote areas and don't pose a risk to people.

"We are in a 'triage mode' where our primary focus must be on fires that threaten communities and infrastructure," Forest Service Chief Randy Moore wrote in a letter announcing the change. "When western fire activity abates, we will resume using all the tools in our toolbox."

Political pressure grows to attack wildfires

The agency has faced growing pressure since the Tamarack Fire exploded south of Lake Tahoe, Calif. in July, destroying at least 14 homes. Sparked by lightning in high mountain wilderness, the Forest Service didn't send fire crews due to safety concerns over the remoteness of the location. After burning for more than a week, winds drove the fire into the town of Markleeville.

While the Tamarack Fire was not considered a managed burn to benefit the ecosystem, California Governor Gavin Newsom called for a policy shift.

"We need your help to change the culture in terms of the suppression strategies, in this climate, literally and figuratively, to be more aggressive on these federal fires," Newsom told President Biden.

The Biden Administration responded quickly.

"We have to have more boots on the ground," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Newsom last week. "And I pledge to you and commit to you that will happen."

Kicking the wildfire down the road

Still, the suspension is raising flags for some forest ecologists who say, with millions of acres of forest overloaded with vegetation, the agency can't afford to fall farther behind on reducing fire risk in the West.

"If we're going to stop managed wildfire now, then we're kicking the can down the road for those fuels to burn and they may burn in even hotter and drier conditions," Kolden says .

While summertime burns aren't used in all Western forests, banning beneficial fires could limit the number of acres the Forest Service reduces vegetation on this year, leaving overgrowth that may be the fuel for dangerous fires down the road.

Summer in California can be a useful time for the Forest Service to do prescribed burns and other vegetation treatments. In June through September 2019, the agency completed burns on almost 13,000 acres, according to public data.

Summer is also when many naturally caused wildfires begin, sparked by lightning in wilderness areas. In 2009, the Forest Service adopted a policy to allow more of these fires to spread, especially where the terrain is too remote for prescribed burns.

In the Southwest, the Forest Service managed fires like this on more than 270,000 acres in 2020 to benefit the ecosystem. In that part of the country, managed wildfires have become a significant strategy, because summer monsoon rains reduce the risk those fires could get out of hand. But the policy is controversial, because in rare cases, managed wildfires have escaped, threatening homes and people.

Western U.S. still has a fire deficit

Where federal agencies have completed their work, this approach of controlling and managing has helped prevent wildfires from reaching extremes. With less vegetation on the ground in those areas, the fires don't reach high intensity, as was seen in parts of the 2013 Rim Fire around Yosemite National Park.

"Every time I've been out on a large wildfire, the only thing that has moderated fire spread has been past fire footprints on the landscape," says Mike Beasley, a retired fire manager who worked for the National Park Service and Forest Service for decades.

Despite the record-breaking wildfires of recent years, the Western U.S. still has a fire deficit. Millions of acres once burned every year, either in fires caused by lightning or set by Native American tribes who used fire to shape the landscape. Over millennia, forest ecosystems were accustomed to these low-grade fires, but that changed when the era of fire suppression began. For much of the last century, the Forest Service actively stopped all fires, adopting the "10am rule," where fires had to be extinguished by 10am the next day.

That policy helped set the stage for the extreme wildfires today, which have burned hotter and more intensely than many forests are adapted to.

"The amount of fuel that's built up over that time period is bigger than anything these forests have experienced in recent millennia," says Keala Hagmann, research ecologist at the University of Washington. "We do have tools at our disposal to change the ways these fires are burning and the window of opportunity is closing rapidly."

An estimated 20 million acres of forested land in California, nearly 20% of the state, needs some form of fuel reduction. California signed an agreement with the Forest Service last year to reduce vegetation on 1 million acres a year collectively, but the goal is still far off. In 2019, projects only took place on 100,000 acres statewide.

Hotter climate boosts fire risk and chances to reduce it

With thousands of firefighters occupied on wildfires in extremely dry conditions, some say the shift in policy is a necessary tradeoff this summer to protect communities and prevent more homes from burning.

"Governor Newsom supports the science of 'good fires'," a spokesperson for Newsom responded by email. "But there are no 'good fires' in atrocious conditions, and that's what the western states are experiencing right now."

As the climate warms, hotter droughts are becoming increasingly common in the Western U.S.. Just as is happening this year, dry conditions could continue to limit the use of beneficial fire when burning is deemed too risky. Firefighters, exhausted from months of battling extreme blazes, are less available to assist with prescribed burns.

"The challenge here is that it's easy to say: with climate change, we shouldn't do this anymore," Kolden says. "But that is a fire suppression mentality and that's what got us in this situation in the first place."

Fire experts say Western states will need to embrace 'good fire' at a much more dramatic scale to stave off the record-breaking fires seen in recent years. Communities need to create defensible space, reducing the flammable vegetation around them, as well as embracing wildfire building codes and retrofitting existing homes with fire-resistant materials.

"I'm afraid for the future," says Beasley. "It's going to be such a political hot button topic. They're going to take the path of least risk and that's just going to be to suppress. And that's not going to be successful in all cases and we better be prepared for that."

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With Extreme Fires Burning, Forest Service Stops 'Good Fires' Too

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Facing record-breaking dry conditions across the West, the U.S. Forest Service announced it will aggressively put out wildfires this summer. As a result, the agency's use of "good fire," the lower-intensity blazes that clear out overgrown forests, will also stop. With thousands of firefighting personnel battling extreme blazes, federal officials say no one can be spared for fire prevention work.

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The Great Pacific garbage patch/Pacific trash vortex - North Pacific Ocean

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The Great Pacific garbage patch/Pacific trash vortex - North Pacific Ocean

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(Paraphrased from different sites.)
In the North Pacific ocean, alarming amounts of plastic and floating trash have been spotted accumulating around countries in Asia, North America, and South America. Today, the *man-made* pollution is only rapidly growing due to carelessness and few restrictions from governments on irresponsible companies, as well as a lack of both sustainable and profitable alternatives as of today, and are great hazards towards marine ecosystems and species (great hazards to humans, too, who require the stability of the food chain). The patch has been claimed to cover 1.6 million square kilometers, according to researchers from The Ocean Cleanup project (who are urgently trying to find an efficient solution).

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An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 centered under the Talkeetna Mountains in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough shook Southcentral Alaska on Sunday evening.

The quake hit just before 11 p.m. and was centered about 60 miles east of Talkeetna and around 100 miles northeast of Anchorage, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center. It was centered at a depth of about 27 miles. the center reported.

The earthquake was felt from Homer to Fairbanks, and was especially strong in the Mat-Su and Anchorage areas. ADN readers on Facebook described items falling off shelves, and many described an extended rolling motion with a sharp jolt midway.

"Talkeetna ... long rumble followed by a very strong jolt that flexed the house and sent some stuff on shelves to the floor," wrote Mark Westman of Talkeetna. "Then more rumbling. It was a long one. No damage, but the big jolt in the middle definitely rattled the nerves, that one packed a punch." He later added in a message, "It was notable for the duration as well as the big jolt in the middle."

Ellen Betts, who lives northeast of Wasilla, said "it started out gently then grew in magnitude in waves ... It lasted more than a minute."

There were no immediate reports of damage.

WATCH: Tamala Pickney sent Alaska's News Source this video of last night's earthquake shaking her home in Eagle River, caught on security camera footage. The magnitude 6.1 quake was felt throughout Southcentral Alaska and the Interior. pic.twitter.com/P4lzZYKn2K
- Alaska's News Source (@AKNewsNow) May 31, 2021

According to the Alaska Earthquake Center, the quake was centered 55 miles north of Sutton and 65 miles northeast of Palmer. A number of aftershocks were recorded.

It was the strongest earthquake centered in Southcentral Alaska since the 7.1 quake in November 2018.

Good morning, AK! Many of us may have lingering questions from last night's M6.1 event, so we've posted a news story on our website to help address any add'l thoughts (and share interesting details!). Check it out: https://t.co/jViT9o6OxU pic.twitter.com/f74PraZnhU
- Alaska Earthquake Center (@AKearthquake) May 31, 2021

Did you feel it? Tell us about it in the comments, or post about it on our Facebook page or tell us about it on Twitter.

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6.1 earthquake shakes Southcentral Alaska

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An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 centered under the Talkeetna Mountains in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough shook Southcentral Alaska on Sunday evening. The quake hit just before 11 p.m. and was centered about 60 miles east of Talkeetna and around 100 miles northeast of Anchorage, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center.

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wildfires update: latest news on the dixie and parlays canyon fires  - cnn

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Crews battle western wildfires that have caused thousands of evacuations

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A wildfire in California is growing by thousands of acres while one in Utah has forced thousands of residents from their homes -- and crews say there is much more work to be done before the flames are under control.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-58196663

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For the past 17 months, a wandering herd of elephants in China has embarked on an adventure of mammoth proportions.

Now, after straying hundreds of kilometres from their nature reserve, the animals are on the final leg of their journey home, Chinese officials announced last week.

From breaking into villagers' homes to giving birth while on the road, it's been an epic journey that could have been straight out of The Lord of the Rings.

This is the story of how the fellowship of elephants journeyed there and back again.

Leaving the shire

Tucked in the bottom end of the southern Yunnan province, the sprawling Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve lies right by the border of Myanmar and Laos.

A lush tropical forest that stretches for about 241,000 hectares - about one and a half times the size of London - it is home to most of Yunnan's endangered Asian elephants.

Some time in March 2020, a herd of about 14 elephants decided to leave this jungle paradise, heading north.

Nobody batted an eyelid at first. Wild elephants are known to roam freely and regularly in the region, such that one city, Pu'er, even runs "elephant canteens" to feed their large visitors.

Most don't stray very far, and usually head home after a while. But months after the herd left, officials started to realise that this was no ordinary trip.

This realisation literally hit home earlier this year when reports emerged of the elephants crashing into people's houses, munching on their crops, and guzzling their water.

CCTV footage of the elephants wandering around the streets of various cities also went viral.

Even now experts remain baffled by their behaviour.

But in a paper due to be published soon in the Conservation Letters journal, a team of China-based experts led by Professor Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz theorise that the elephants left to find more food due to several reasons.

One is the growing elephant population - and thus greater competition for food. Thanks to conservation efforts by Chinese authorities, the province has seen its elephant population nearly double over the last three decades to about 300.

"Now we need to deal with the consequences of this success, which is a real challenge because the elephants are running out of physical space to move without interacting with people, crops, or infrastructure," Prof Campos-Arceiz, a principal investigator at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, told the BBC.

An extreme drought, which lasted for a year up to the elephants' departure, also led food to be more scarce.

Others have pointed out that over the decades, deforestation and encroaching farmland have reduced elephants' habitats in China outside protected areas.

Authorities have tried to boost forest protections. But ironically this has also meant less available food for the elephants within nature reserves, with a thicker forest canopy blocking off more sunlight, resulting in fewer edible plants growing in the understorey, said Prof Campos-Arceiz.

Mammoth task

As the herd headed northwards over the green hills and forests of Yunnan, Chinese officials swung into action.

An emergency taskforce was set up, marshalling a cast of thousands to guide the elephants away from villages and cities.

Elephants are known for their voracious appetite, and so far they have wolfed down a staggering 180 tonnes of corn, bananas, pineapples and other food laid out for them. Even a sideview mirror was torn off by a curious elephant inspecting a vehicle.

A fleet of drones tracking the elephants captured some iconic moments, such as a mudbath...

...a tussle between two young elephants...

...and babies who had slipped into a trench.

In April two elephants peeled off and decided to return home. Another one strayed in June, and officials eventually tranquilised and transported him home as they were worried that he would not survive alone. All three were males, which usually travel alone.

But the tribe welcomed new members too: at least two elephants gave birth, according to Prof Campos-Arceiz.

Throughout it all, the people of China remained transfixed. The Asian elephants of Yunnan became a household name as their adventures became national news, and villagers lined their route hoping for a glimpse.

Every movement was closely monitored not just by the drones but also scientists studying their trails and faeces, and even paparazzi livestreamers who ate their leftover pineapples.

The elephants also got their own celebrity rumour - a claim that they "got drunk" after consuming tonnes of corn wine was quickly debunked by experts.

Homeward bound

By early June, the herd had reached the provincial capital of Kunming - more than 500km from home and the furthest any Yunnan wild elephant had ever gone.

Some began to worry for their survival as they headed to cooler climes and prolonged their interaction with human civilisation.

What many saw as endearing behaviour, such as roaming in towns as a close pack and lying down for a nap, were actually signs of stress and exhaustion, experts have told the BBC.

Much to officials' relief, the elephants began turning southwards a few weeks later, and soon neared the Yuanjiang river.

Authorities said that within the herd's immediate radius, only one bridge was suitable for an elephant crossing.

The taskforce sent out thousands of soldiers and workers to lay out food as bait, set up electric fences, create artificial paths, and even sprinkle water on roads to ensure they were cool enough for the elephants to step on.

But the animals were less reluctant to follow. What would have been a straightforward 30km journey turned into a 143km trek as they wandered off-piste, according to reports.

Finally, on 8 August, the herd lumbered across the bridge over the Yuanjiang river. Though they were still 200km away from the Xishuangbanna nature reserve, local media heralded the start of the final leg of their journey.

There is no guarantee that they will make it all the way back home, nor stay for long even if they do. Shen Qingzhong, a senior engineer with the nature reserve, told reporters that it was "almost certain that the elephants will start moving north again eventually".

After spending millions of yuan on guiding the elephants home, authorities promised to establish "a unified protection management system" and step up habitat protection and restoration. Plans to create a national park for the Asian elephants have also been accelerated.

But even if their return is delayed, the elephants have already achieved the impossible, embarking on an epic journey that has raised global awareness about the plight of their endangered species.

Tolkien would have been proud.

Additional reporting by Suranjana Tewari and Yitsing Wang.

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There and back again: The epic adventures of China's wandering elephants

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For the past 17 months, a wandering herd of elephants in China has embarked on an adventure of mammoth proportions. Now, after straying hundreds of kilometres from their nature reserve, the animals are on the final leg of their journey home, Chinese officials announced last week.

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ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Fanned by strong winds, two new big wildfires erupted Monday in hard-hit Greece, triggering evacuation alerts for villages southeast and northwest of Athens - only days after blazes consumed large tracts of forest north of the Greek capital.

Greece has been roiled by hundreds of wildfires this month, on the heels of its most severe heat wave in decades, which left its forests tinder dry. Other Mediterranean countries - Turkey, Italy, Algeria and Spain among them - have suffered similar problems.

Scientists say there is little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving more extreme weather events.

The worst of the two blazes that erupted Monday was in the Vilia area northwest of the Greek capital, which triggered an evacuation alert for eight villages. Greece's minister for public order, Michalis Chrysochoidis, said the flames were coursing through a densely forested area with scattered villages, none of which were in direct danger.

"We are trying to stop the fire from spreading" towards the nearby large village of Vilia, he said.

That blaze was being fought by 240 firefighters - including 143 from Poland - supported by eight water-dropping planes and nine helicopters.

Another fire broke out earlier in the Keratea region southeast of Athens, burning shrubland and threatening a national park in the Sounion area. Three communities were ordered evacuated. Some residents desperately drenched their homes, while volunteers with hoses and branches helped fight the fires. More than 100 firefighters, eight water-dropping planes and 11 helicopters were striving to contain the blaze, which appeared to be on the wane by evening.

"Right now the situation there has improved, there are scattered active fires within the perimeter and efforts are continuing to contain them," Chrysohoidis said.

Local mayor Dimitris Loukas told Greek television that authorities were investigating reports of arson. He said residents had seen someone in a car setting a dumpster on fire.

The fire service said 45 wildfires erupted across the country between late Sunday and late Monday. Most were quickly contained.

Two major fires in Greece that began in early August, one on the island of Evia and another in a national park north of Athens, were still smoldering Monday, and firefighters were trying to secure their perimeters. On Evia, water-bombing planes were deployed to assist ground forces.

On Monday, Greece's civil protection chief, Nikos Hardalias, who coordinates the fight against wildfires as well as the country's response to the coronavirus pandemic, was taken to an Athens hospital where he underwent unscheduled heart surgery. A health ministry statement said the operation was successful.

Weeks of wildfires have stretched Greece's response capabilities to the limit. About two dozen European and Mideast countries sen crews, aircraft and vehicles to help. Most have left, although 40 Austrian firefighters remained in the southern Peloponnese region, where two major fires have been burning for days.

Several other Mediterranean countries have suffered intense heat and quickly spreading wildfires in recent weeks, including Algeria, where wildfires killed at least 75 people; Turkey, where at least 16 people have died and Italy, which saw several fire-related deaths.

Worsening drought and heat have also fueled wildfires this summer in the western United States and in Russia's northern Siberia region.

___

Follow all AP stories on climate change developments at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-change

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Greece wildfires: Winds fan 2 new blazes outside of Athens

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ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Fanned by strong winds, two new big wildfires erupted Monday in hard-hit Greece, triggering evacuation alerts for villages southeast and northwest of Athens - only days after blazes consumed large tracts of forest north of the Greek capital.

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India has discovered a new plant species, the scientists from Punjab are calling it the Acetabularia jalakanyakae.

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Indian scientists discover 'mermaid' plant species

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Scientists say they found this new species of algae in the Andamans archipelago.

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Climate change and droughts cause a shortage on Colorado River, which forces water cuts around the region.

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Arizona farmers will take the initial brunt, but wider reductions loom as climate change continues to affect flows into the river.

Lake Mead, top left, and Boulder City, Nev., in July. The last time the lake was anywhere near full was two decades ago. Credit... Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

With climate change and long-term drought continuing to take a toll on the Colorado River, the federal government on Monday for the first time declared a water shortage at Lake Mead, one of the river's main reservoirs.

The declaration triggers cuts in water supply that, for now, mostly will affect Arizona farmers. Beginning next year they will be cut off from much of the water they have relied on for decades. Much smaller reductions are mandated for Nevada and for Mexico across the southern border.

But larger cuts, affecting far more of the 40 million people in the West who rely on the river for at least part of their water supply, are likely in coming years as a warming climate continues to reduce how much water flows into the Colorado from rain and melting snow.

"As this inexorable-seeming decline in the supply continues, the shortages that we're beginning to see implemented are only going to increase," said Jennifer Pitt, who directs the Colorado River program at the National Audubon Society. "Once we're on that train, it's not clear where it stops."

The Bureau of Reclamation, an agency of the Interior Department, declared the shortage as it issued its latest outlook for the river for the next 24 months. That forecast showed that by the end of this year Lake Mead, the huge reservoir near Las Vegas, would reach a level of 1,066 feet above sea level. It hasn't seen a level that low since it began to fill after the completion of Hoover Dam in the 1930s. The lake will be at 34 percent of capacity.

"Today's announcement highlights the challenges we face in the Colorado River basin and elsewhere in the West," said Tanya Trujillo, assistant interior secretary for water and science.

Water levels at Lake Mead and the other large Colorado reservoir, Lake Powell, in Utah, have been falling for years, leaving a telltale white "bathtub ring" of mineral deposits along the shoreline as demand has outpaced supply.

The mandatory cuts, referred to as Tier 1 reductions, are part of a contingency plan approved in 2019 after lengthy negotiations among the seven states that use Colorado River water: California, Nevada and Arizona in the lower basin, and New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming in the upper basin. American Indian tribes and Mexican officials have also been involved in the planning.

The shortage announced Monday affects only the lower basin states, but the Bureau of Reclamation may declare a similar shortage for the upper basin, perhaps as early as next year.

The shortage declaration will reduce Arizona's supply of Colorado River water, delivered by a system of canals and pumping stations called the Central Arizona Project, by about 20 percent, or 512,000 acre-feet. (An acre-foot is about 325,000 gallons, enough water for two or three households for a year.)

Park visitors explored a part of Lake Powell in Big Water, Utah, in June that used to be underwater. Credit... Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

In anticipation of the cuts, some farmers have fallowed fields or switched to less water-intensive crops. Others will be pumping more groundwater to make up for the cuts, which raises additional questions about sustainability because groundwater supplies are not unlimited.

"The river is the iconic resource," said Kevin Moran of the Environmental Defense Fund. "But we have to think about managing our groundwater as well."

The question for Lake Mead and the Colorado is whether the Tier 1 cuts will be enough to halt the decline in supply as climate change continues to affect the river's flow. Additional tiers, which could go into effect soon if the lake level continues to decline, as the forecast released Monday projects, would involve increasingly draconian cuts. And even further reductions may have to be negotiated.

This year has been one of the worst ever for runoff into the Colorado River, said Ted Cooke, general manager of the Central Arizona Project. "The big question is, what's going to happen in 2022?" he said. After two decades of drought, "one thing that we don't have is the resiliency in the reservoirs, because they're so low, to withstand the type of year that we had this year back to back."

Sharon B. Megdal, director of the Water Resources Research Center at the University of Arizona, said she thought the declaration's focus on the dire state of the river would lead to more efforts in the region to use less water. "I think we're going to see some adaptation," she said. "But I don't know if we can do that much to avoid further cuts."

With the various tier cuts that were negotiated, "We're really only talking through 2025," Dr. Megdal said. "If things continued to get worse and worse, I think there would be some interventions to do even more. We can't let the river system fail."

Lake Mead now contains about 12 million acre-feet of water, far below its capacity of nearly 30 million acre-feet. The last time it was anywhere near full was two decades ago.

Since then, much of the Southwest has been mired in a drought that climate scientists say rivals some long-lasting droughts in the past 2,000 years.

Even in the occasional recent year with good snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, the amount of water running off into the river has declined. Researchers say warming is largely to blame, as soils have become so dry that they soak up much of the melting snow like a sponge, before it can reach the river.

Planning for the likelihood of a reduced supply of Colorado River water began shortly after the drought first set in. By 2007, the states had developed guidelines for coping with shortages, which the 2019 agreement fleshed out.

"The announcement today is a recognition that the hydrology that was planned for years ago and we hoped we'd never see is here," said Camille Touton, a deputy commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation.

"The river is in uncharted territory," Mr. Moran said. "Climate scientists have pretty well articulated that something like 40 to 60 percent of the decline is due to a warming climate."

Mr. Moran said that the new infrastructure bill, which has passed the Senate but faces a rockier road in the House, includes at least several billion dollars that could help the region cope with this new reality. This includes money to improve so-called natural infrastructure, including forests, watersheds and underground aquifers, which could help bolster the supply, or at least slow the decline.

"Our water infrastructure is not just man-made reservoirs and treatment plants," he said. "It's the natural system, too."

Credit... The New York Times
Our Netting Zero series of virtual events brings together New York Times journalists with opinion leaders and experts to understand the challenges posed by global warming and to take the lead for change.

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In a First, U.S. Declares Shortage on Colorado River, Forcing Water Cuts

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Arizona farmers will take the initial brunt, but wider reductions loom as climate change continues to affect flows into the river. With climate change and long-term drought continuing to take a toll on the Colorado River, the federal government on Monday for the first time declared a water shortage at Lake Mead, one of the river's main reservoirs.

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After the US army leaving Afganistan, the Taliban has taken advantage of the situation and is taking over the country rapidly. Many civilians are trying to flee the country as quickly as possible and people have already died because of these efforts. There is a video that shows people hanging on to an airplane from the outside as it takes off. Women and children are highly at risk since the Taliban is taking away their rights!

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Taliban consolidate control 20 years after American troops first landed

The Taliban declared the restoration of their Islamic Emirate, days before the 20 th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks that sparked the U.S. invasion in Afghanistan. The new government places core hard-line leaders in top positions and excludes women and members of the Shiite minority, belying its earlier assurances that it would be representative of all Afghans.

Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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What's Happening in Afghanistan? Taliban Form New Government After U.S. Withdrawal

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The last American troops flew out of Afghanistan on Monday, with the country again under the control of the Taliban. Meanwhile, clashes between Taliban fighters and rival militias continued in some pockets of the country.

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Medellín's Green Corridors to combat urban heat island effect

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Medellín's Green Corridors to combat urban heat island effect

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7.2 earthquake

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https://www.popsci.com/science/wildfires-2021-statistics/

“A house you can rebuild; a bridge you can restring; a washed-out road you can fill in. But there is nothing you can do about a tree but mourn.”

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As of September 7, 78 large fires have been spreading across 10 states in the US-burning across 1.9 million acres of land thus far, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Over the course of this year, 5,104,228 acres have burned due to 43,555 separate wildfires. These fires have followed record drought and heatwave conditions across the western US, and have so far crushed towns and communities in their wake. There were more than a dozen new fires in California over Labor Day Weekend alone, according to local officials; all national forests in the state continue to be closed through September 17.
[Related: Wildfires could hit your hometown. Here's how to prepare.]
Blazes have become more and more hazardous in today's climate-largely due to climate change, the lack of controlled natural burns over the past century, and an increasingly dry and extended fire season throughout the western US and Canada. Fire containment is a key management practice and consists of creating a manmade or natural barrier around the perimeter of a fire. However, within this perimeter, flames may continue burning for months, so even 100 percent containment doesn't mean the fire has vanished.

Important wildfires to keep an eye on right now

Dixie fire in California

The Dixie fire, which is now the largest burning in the US and may soon be the biggest in Golden State history, was discovered on July 13. California's giant utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, has admitted to potentially sparking it, due to equipment failure. As of September 7, it's burned 917,579 acres (larger than the entire state of Rhode Island). The fire, which has burned across Northern California, engulfing entire homes in its wake, has caused evacuations in multiple counties. Currently, 59 percent of the fire has been contained.

Caldor fire in California

The Caldor fire started on August 14 and has since burned through 216,646 acres. A large chunk of that has been in Eldorado National Forest, about an hour outside of Sacramento. The fire continues to burn through the Sierra Nevada mountain range, causing mandatory evacuations around Lake Tahoe last week. Currently, 49 percent of the fire has been contained-a major difference from the 16 percent reported last week.

Monument fire in California

The Monument fire near Junction City, California, has reached 184,142 acres in Trinity National Forest and surrounding localities. The fire started due to lightning on July 30 and grew nearly 4,000 acres last week. Still, evacuation orders and warnings have been lifted as it shifts away from high-population regions, and repair work is already underway. Currently, 41 percent of the fire has been contained.

McFarland fire in California

The McFarland fire has burned through 122,653 acres. Located just below the Monument Fire, it started burning on July 29 and mowed through 40,000 acres from August 16 through the 17. Towns such as Weaverville and Hayfork were heavily affected by smoky air conditions due to McFarland and other local fires for the next handful of days. It destroyed 20 homes, even as dozens of personnel rushed to control it. Currently, 98 percent of the fire has been contained, and it may be 100 percent contained as soon as September 9.

River Complex in California

The River Complex started off with 31 lightning-induced fires in the Klamath National Forest on July 30. It's now shrunk down to two major fires: Cronan and Haypress. The full complex has reached 135,689 acres and is still causing evacuation orders in California. Currently, 19 percent of the fire has been contained.

Schneider Springs fire in Washington

Another lightning-induced blaze, the Schneider Springs fire began August 3 and has burned through 94,206 acres. Hot weather and low humidity helped it to grow last month, and a temporary closure was put in place for the entire Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest (now downgraded to Stage 2 restrictions). Currently, 14 percent of the fire has been contained.

Cub Creek 2 fire in Washington

The Cub Creek 2 fire, located on Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest lands, has burned through 70,186 acres since July 16. The latest reports show it's reached private property in the surrounding county as well. Currently, 70 percent of the fire has been contained.

Woods Creek fire in Montana

The Woods Creek fire has been burning since July 10 in central Montana and has now affected 55,424 acres. It was also caused by a lightning strike. While most of it is under control, a few flames continue burning in hard-to-access wilderness around the Big Belt Mountains. Currently, 90 percent of the fire has been contained.

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The Dixie fire is on track to be California's biggest ever

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As of September 7, 78 large fires have been spreading across 10 states in the US-burning across 1.9 million acres of land thus far, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Over the course of this year, 5,104,228 acres have burned due to 43,555 separate wildfires.

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Scientists have reported that the chances of the La niña occurring are very high because of the weather patterns that have been increasing these few weeks. This is because this hurricane season is ending with an above-average activity that because of earlier statics in the past could mean that La Niña could come back.

What is La niña?
La niña is a weather phenomenon that occurs in the pacific ocean. Trade winds are even stronger than usual which makes warm water from the surface move to the west towards Asia and the cold water rises from the deep to the surface and moves towards the coast of South America.

Source:
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/13/weather/la-nina-hurricanes-increase/index.html

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magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit Alaska August 14.

https://www.google.com/search?q=earthquake&oq=earthquake&aqs=chrome.0.0i512j0i457i512j0i402j69i65j69i60l2j69i65j69i61.2067j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOOQVeLVT9c3NCxMNzQ3KswpfMR4nJFb4OWPe8JSexl3nW2s5uHi4uLQz9U3MCqyNJ-05uQ1xqWMXFyuiUUlGYWlidmpShVG8bsuTTvHFinIAAQJU4IdpIwEw2Unu_cfem-vJcTF7lnsk5-cmCOoO4ltwYdXQDFhLo6QxIr8vPzcSsE7ujoLvmx-b68kAdJ-YK6Ho4MEswKDBoMhkPuALf7Xfi2GILj9BxiZmvatOMTGwsEowGDFpMEYxM8FcX9GVYVpirFxVQPjurvzbj9Z9ImJZxErVyrcmQAIftYJ6QAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiq2eyJjrbyAhUHEbkGHV2RCQoQuqkBKAMwAHoECAkQCQ

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USGS Magnitude 2.5+ Earthquakes, Past Day. 75 earthquakes. Only List Earthquakes Shown on Map. Magnitude. Format. Newest First.

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Two trees plants is a organization that  plants   trees in different parts of the world   and The amazon in brazil is one of them .

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https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1231462.shtml

The Greek government said there have been nearly 600 fires since the beginning of August.

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A flame is seen burning on a tree in a forest in the north of Athens, Greece, on Aug. 7, 2021.(Photo: Xinhua)

Photo taken on July 26, 2021 shows a burned area in Oristano, Sardinia, Italy.(Photo: Xinhua)

A firefighter battles against a wildfire at Varybobi, Acharnes, Greece, on Aug. 3, 2021.(Photo: Xinhua)

Photo taken on Aug. 12, 2021 shows burned bushes after a wildfire caused by high temperature in Siggiewi, Malta.(Photo: Xinhua)

Southern Europe is on fire as sizzling temperatures sweep across the region, causing raging wildfires in several countries.

Experts have linked wildfires to record-high temperatures. Europe is in the midst of its worst heatwave in a decade due to the heat dome which is a high-pressure bubble that traps heat within a certain area.

Temperatures in Siracuse, Italy, reached 48.8 degrees Celsius on Wednesday. The World Meteorological Organization said that it would be investigating the validity of this temperature report. If verified, it would become the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe.

Greece has been one of the badly affected countries, with more than 100,000 hectares of forestry and farmland burned in less than two weeks, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).

The Greek government said there have been nearly 600 fires since the beginning of August.

The fires broke out as Greece was roasted by the most intense and protracted heatwave in around 30 years, with temperatures in many parts of the country reaching 42 to 45 degrees Celsius.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday that the country came across the biggest ecological disaster of the last few decades, as multiple blazes erupted across the country powered by the extended heatwave recently.

"We managed to save thousands of people, but we lost forest land and properties," Mitsotakis said during a press conference.

"The climate crisis is here, and everything needs to change, from the orientation of the economy and the national energy policy to the state's operation and the behavior of each citizen in relation to the environment," he said.

Asked about the cause of the fires, Mitsotakis said it was "certain that all the fires did not break out by accident." Several people have been arrested over the past few days on suspicion of attempting to start fires, including some who are accused of doing so deliberately.

In Spain, record high prices for electricity have been registered in the country almost every day since Monday, coinciding with a heatwave which has seen temperatures rise to around 40 degrees Celsius in the capital of Madrid and several major cities.

On Thursday, dozens of firefighters backed by four water-dropping aircraft were battling a blaze in the northeastern province of Tarragona. The fire has destroyed some 40 hectares of protected forest, local officials said.

Two smaller fires were also burning in the northern wine-producing region of La Rioja and the northeastern province of Zaragoza.

In Albania, the country's Defense Ministry said on Friday that there have been six active fires across the country, but the situation is under control.

In Malta, the southern European island country was also hit by a strong heatwave, with temperatures in some places reaching 43 degrees Celsius.

According to the country's Civil Protection Department, Malta recorded 513 grass or rubbish fires between June 1 and Aug. 10.

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Wildfires rage in several countries as heatwave hits Southern Europe

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A flame is seen burning on a tree in a forest in the north of Athens, Greece, on Aug. 7, 2021.(Photo: Xinhua) Photo taken on July 26, 2021 shows a burned area in Oristano, Sardinia, Italy.(Photo: Xinhua) A firefighter battles against a wildfire at Varybobi, Acharnes, Greece, on Aug.

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Amazon Rainforest - Codajás, State of Amazonas, Brazil

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Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest rose 43% in April from the same month a year ago, preliminary government data showed on Friday, the second consecutive monthly rise as destruction picked up ahead of the annual burning season.

In the first four months of 2021, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon totaled 1,157 square kilometers, an area nearly the size of Los Angeles and down 4% from a year earlier, according to national space research agency Inpe.

Brazil is under intense international pressure led by the United States to rein in destruction of the world's largest tropical rainforest, critical in curbing catastrophic climate change because of the vast amount of greenhouse gas absorbed.

At a leaders summit last month organized by the United States, President Jair Bolsonaro committed to increase funding for environmental enforcement and to end deforestation by 2030.

But U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, which is in talks to possibly fund Brazilian conservation efforts, says it expects immediate action to reduce deforestation this year.

Illegal logging and forest fires have soared since Bolsonaro took office in 2019, with deforestation hitting a 12-year high in 2020, government data showed.

"Biden doesn't want to be in a position where it looks like he is being too soft on Brazil when it comes to the environment," said Anya Prusa, a senior associate for the Brazil Institute at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington.

The overall trend in deforestation matters more than a single month, Prusa added.

"If deforestation goes back up, if we see again significant forest fires in the Amazon in August and September this year, it will make it harder for the U.S. to continue talking to Brazil."

Bolsonaro's press representatives referred questions to the vice president's office.

The Vice Presidency said in a statement that the data was designed to help authorities rapidly respond to deforestation, adding that comparing single months from different years was not appropriate and only longer term comparisons should be made.

Negotiations with the United States continue normally, the statement said.

Early months of the year, when intense rains prevent loggers from easily working in the forest, have limited impact on the Amazon's overall annual deforestation rates, as destruction peaks in the drier season from May to October.

Deforestation in the month of July 2020 alone was higher than the four months of January to April combined this year.

Immense clouds during the rainy season also hide fresh deforestation from government satellites. Cloud cover in the region ranged from 26% to 48% in the first four months of the year, far higher than the 17% to 32% seen in the same period of 2020.

Any deforestation hidden early in the year is registered by satellites in subsequent months when the clouds clear.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Destruction of Brazil's Amazon rainforest speeds up for 2nd straight month

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Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest rose 43% in April from the same month a year ago, preliminary government data showed on Friday, the second consecutive monthly rise as destruction picked up ahead of the annual burning season.

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A Chinese giant panda was able to give birth after 7 tries. The panda gave birth at a Singapore wildlife club, a rare event for such an endangered species. The cub was born on Saturday weighing about 200 grams, but the gender is yet to be announced.

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SINGAPORE, Aug 16 (Reuters) - A Chinese giant panda at a Singapore wildlife park has given birth to a cub - the first born in the Southeast Asian country and a rare event for an endangered species.

Pandas Kai Kai, 13, and Jia Jia, 12, entered their seventh breeding season in April this year with the aid of artificial insemination, after arriving in Singapore in 2012 on a decade-long loan from China.

Weighing about 200 grammes (7 oz), the cub was born on Saturday but the gender has yet to be determined, Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) told Reuters, adding mother and cub were doing well.

WRS said female giant pandas can display hormonal and behavioural signs of pregnancy even when not pregnant, but the organisation detected signs last month that a cub was on the way and the pregnancy was confirmed on Aug. 10.

"Our vet picked up on ultrasound, not only a clear outline of a foetus but one with a strong heartbeat," WRS said.

The newborn will appear in public in about three months.

Giant pandas loaned to France and Japan have also given birth to cubs this year. read more

China has been sending its black and white ambassadors abroad in a sign of goodwill since the 1950s as part of what is known as "panda diplomacy".

Reporting by Chen Lin; Editing by Martin Petty

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Chinese giant panda gives birth in Singapore on seventh attempt

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SINGAPORE, Aug 16 (Reuters) - A Chinese giant panda at a Singapore wildlife park has given birth to a cub - the first born in the Southeast Asian country and a rare event for an endangered species.

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What's better than a giant, plant-eating dinosaur? Two dinosaurs, of course.

Scientists in China discovered two new dinosaur species when analyzing fossils from the country's northwest regions. Their findings, published in a study in Scientific Reports, conclude that two of the specimens were from previously unknown species.

The dinosaurs are some of the first vertebrates to be reported in the region, "increasing the diversity of the fauna as well as the information on Chinese sauropods," according to the study.

Scientists estimate the species lived around 120 to 130 million years ago, during the early Cretaceous period. Both were sauropods, a category of plant-eating dinos with long necks that includes brachiosaurus.

Scientists named the species Silutitan sinensis (or "silu" which is Mandarin for "Silk Road") and Hamititan xinjiangensis (named for where the fossil specimen was found in Xinjiang).

You may have noticed both names have the word "titan" in them, the Greek meaning for "giant" - that's because researchers estimate that the Silutitan species could have been over 70 feet long, while the Hamititian species could have grown to be 56 feet long. For comparison, the largest animal living on Earth today - the blue whale - can range from 75 to 100 feet.
Josie Fischels is an intern on NPR's News Desk.

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Scientists Discover Not 1, But 2 New Dinosaur Species In China

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subscribe to Short Wave podcast What's better than a giant, plant-eating dinosaur? Two dinosaurs, of course. Scientists in China discovered two new dinosaur species when analyzing fossils from the country's northwest regions. Their findings, published in a study in Scientific Reports , conclude that two of the specimens were from previously unknown species.

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Rare new orchid species just discovered in the Andes

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For its size, Ecuador has an impressive biological diversity that harbours a unique set of species and ecosystems, many of them endemic or threatened. Because of this great biodiversity, most studies still focus on recording species richness and very little is known about how these species actually interact. This is why in 2017 Dr Catherine H. Graham from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, with support from the European Research Council and local NGO Aves y Conservation, initiated an ambitious project in the northwestern Andes of Ecuador to study the ecology of plant-hummingbird interactions along an altitudinal and land-use gradient.

To this end, researchers established 18 transects in areas of well-preserved cloud forest and sites at different altitude and with different levels of disturbance, and visited them monthly to count the flowers that attract hummingbirds and to place time-lapse cameras in flowering plants.

Several new species to science were discovered during the intensive botanical work of identifying the nearly 400 plant species recorded by the surveys and cameras. One of them is a new orchid species called Lepanthes microprosartima.

Found on the western slopes of Pichincha volcano in northern Ecuador, L. microprosartima is endemic to the Yanacocha and Verdecocha reserves, where it grows at 3200 to 3800 m above sea level in evergreen montane forest -- remarkably, this species can thrive even under deep shade in the forest.

Over three years of monitoring, only 40 individuals of L. microprosartima were found, which suggests it is a rare species. Because of this, and because it is only found in a small area, researchers preliminarily assessed it as Critically Endangered according to IUCN criteria.

Within the same hummingbird monitoring project, another new orchid -- Lepanthes caranqui -- was discovered in eastern Pichincha. Around the same time, a different research group from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador found the same species in Imbabura. While in Imbabura it was found growing in páramo, with small groups on roadside embankments, in Pichincha it grew in evergreen montane forest, on top of tree trunks or lower branches, in the company of other orchid species. Its name, Lepanthes caranqui, honors the Caranqui culture that historically occupied the areas where this plant grows.

But the wonders of Ecuadorean biodiversity don't stop there -- a research project of Ecuador's National Institute of Biodiversity found another new species, as small as 3 cm, in the southwest of El Oro. Lepanthes oro-lojaensis was actually discovered on the border between El Oro and Loja provinces, hence its name. It was only found from one locality, where its populations are threatened by cattle ranching, fires, plantations of exotic species, and the collection of shrubs as firewood. This is why researchers believe it should be listed as Critically Endangered according to IUCN criteria.

These additions to the Ecuadorean flora are all described in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal PhytoKeys. They are proof that Ecuador -- one of the world's megadiverse countries -- hides much more biodiversity waiting to be explored.

Journal Reference:

Francisco Tobar Suarez, María Fernanda López, María José Gavilanes, Marco Federico Monteros, Tatiana Santander García, Catherine Helen Graham. Three new endemic species of Lepanthes (Orchidaceae, Pleurothallidinae) from the highlands of Ecuador. PhytoKeys, 2021; 180: 111 DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.180.62671

Cite This Page:

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new species; nature; ecology research; endangered animals; ecology; exotic species; rainforests; environmental policy

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Rare new orchid species just discovered in the Andes

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For its size, Ecuador has an impressive biological diversity that harbours a unique set of species and ecosystems, many of them endemic or threatened. Because of this great biodiversity, most studies still focus on recording species richness and very little is known about how these species actually interact.

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All the way in Israel, fires are disturbing the peace of several small communities that live in the forest surrounding the big city. These communities were forced to evacuate when the forest started burning, sending great clouds of smoke all the way to Jerusalem. 12 firefighting planes were sent over to control the situation, forcing fires that were 10km away from the big city to dwindle.

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JERUSALEM, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Wildfires in wooded hills outside Jerusalem sent smoke clouds billowing over the city on Sunday as planes and crews on the ground fought flames that forced the evacuation of several small communities.

Israel's Magen David Adom national ambulance service reported no serious injuries, and there appeared to be little danger that the fires, some 10 km (6 miles) west of Jerusalem, would reach the city.

Dedi Simchi, Israel's fire and rescue commissioner, said 12 firefighting planes were deployed along with crews from some 60 fire engines.

"I am glad to say that we managed to prevent entire communities from being burned," Simchi said in a briefing to Israel's internal security minister broadcast live on television, some five hours after the fire erupted.

Emergency services said some four villages were evacuated. At the briefing, Simchi said they no longer faced any "critical danger", although "there are some pockets, where homes have caught fire which we are extinguishing".

He said crews would remain deployed throughout the night and possibly over the next few days to prevent the fire from spreading, amid high temperatures and strong winds.

Fire brigade and police officials said it was too early to determine the cause of the fire.

Reporting by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Susan Fenton and Alison Williams

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Wildfire in Jerusalem hills sends smoke clouds over city

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JERUSALEM, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Wildfires in wooded hills outside Jerusalem sent smoke clouds billowing over the city on Sunday as planes and crews on the ground fought flames that forced the evacuation of several small communities.

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They are growing corals.

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Magnitude 7.2 Earthquake hit Haiti last night

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At 06:00 GMT Tuesday, Grace, which has been upgraded from a tropical depression to a tropical storm, was west of the city of Les Cayes and moving further westward towards Jamaica, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).

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Haiti earthquake: Tropical Storm Grace hampers rescue

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At 06:00 GMT Tuesday, Grace, which has been upgraded from a tropical depression to a tropical storm, was west of the city of Les Cayes and moving further westward towards Jamaica, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).

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"Today’s farmers produce more food with less land and fewer resources with an eye ever toward improving quality."

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U.S. soybean farmers take great pride in caring for the land they farm. Through a long-held ethic of leaving their farms and resources in better shape for the next generation and a more holistic understanding of conservation science, for decades, farmers have embraced environmental sustainability in a manner strikingly consistent with how we think of sustainability today.

Aspiring to reach today's sustainability goals, modern farmers wear many hats, from scientist to engineer and from data analyst to business strategist. When they need additional information, they reach out to consultants and advisors to get the job done. Today's farmers produce more food with less land and fewer resources with an eye ever toward improving quality. They are driven by a principle of continuous improvement in every aspect of their pursuit. This holistic doctrine is deeply personal. In many cases, their farm is also their family home.

Investments in research and education projects, supported by the U.S. farmer-funded soybean checkoff, are empowering farmers to capture value for their U.S. soy crops in diverse and exciting ways. From tofu, tempeh and miso to baked goods, packaged foods and snacks, both soybean oil and soy protein provide companies with high-quality and environmentally friendly options to support the population's increasing need for food.

In addition, soy sets trends, particularly as a complete plant protein in the growing health and wellness space. Protein is a powerhouse nutrient and soy is one of the few complete plant-based proteins that also helps provide essential nutrients for a well-balanced diet.

Innovation plays a key role, as soybean oils with specific qualities for the food industry deliver revolutionary advantages and soybean meal with specific nutrient profiles promise increased efficiency for livestock producers.

U.S. soy's versatility as an ingredient in the non-food space also offers a renewable, bio-based option in everyday products as diverse as biodegradable plastics, tires, asphalt and even sandals. Soy presents a sustainable solution.

U.S. soybean farmers are a part of the climate solution

Soybeans, the second largest crop grown on U.S. soil, cover more than 85 million acres of land in 2021, and U.S. soybean farmers work hard to advance the health of our planet through farming practices, taking into account soil health, water quality and habitat conservation.

That dedication to the world around them also pays off through increased efficiency made possible by precision agriculture - a suite of farming practices harnessing satellite technology and advanced data analysis to inform farmers about field latitude and longitude where water or treatments are indicated. Using precision agricultural practices, farmers narrow in on every square foot of land and determine exactly what is needed to grow a healthy crop. As a result, they grow more protein per acre, using less water per ton of output than any other plant source. As many farmers know, farming in harmony with the environment is just good business.

With progress fueled by technology, farmers' enhanced focus on sustainability does not go unnoticed. The U.S. Soybean Sustainability Assurance Protocol (SSAP) empowers exporters to verify the sustainability of U.S. soy. This independently audited program measures sustainability attributes such as biodiversity, production practices, public and labor health, as well as continuous improvement.

U.S. soybean farmers stay sustainable even as our growing world presents development challenges including limited resources and more mouths to feed. The soybean checkoff supports farmers every step of the way. Through the checkoff, farmers make critical innovation investments through ground-breaking research and even better methods to analyze data.

The U.S. soy community continues to collaborate, domestically and globally, to prioritize all three widely viewed aspects of sustainability -- economic, social, and environmental. After a diverse group of global soy stakeholders mapped these priorities to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it became clear that U.S. soy has much more to offer a global future. Soy extends solutions not only toward zero hunger, but also plays a fundamental role in clean water and sanitation, responsible consumption and production, climate action, life on land and partnerships.

The aspirational vision needed to propel soy forward through the year 2025 can be found in the environmental goals set seven years ago by soybean farmers as well as partner organizations. Those include lowering greenhouse gases by 10%, reducing soil erosion by 25%, increasing energy-use efficiency by 10% and reducing land use impact by 10%.

Coming soon: Food companies can showcase responsible sourcing with sustainable U.S. soy mark on labels

While U.S. soy farmers advance to meet those goals, companies looking to build and showcase their commitment to the health of our planet will value the recent launch of U.S. Soy's Sustainable U.S. Soy Mark. The mark recognizes U.S. grown soy ingredients - and when you see the mark associated with products, you can rest assured that it was grown using environmentally sound farming practices and is helping to contribute to a healthier planet for all. Following a pilot program, the trademark communicating soy as a sustainable solution directly to consumers will be available to companies that qualify by using soy as a key ingredient in the items they produce.

Polly Ruhland is CEO of the United Soybean Board, the organization that manages the national soybean checkoff, a farmer-funded initiative that invests in research, promotion and education projects to create value for soybean farmers.

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Environmental stewardship and leading for the future of food

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U.S. soybean farmers take great pride in caring for the land they farm. Through a long-held ethic of leaving their farms and resources in better shape for the next generation and a more holistic understanding of conservation science, for decades, farmers have embraced environmental sustainability in a manner strikingly consistent with how we think of sustainability today.

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Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel

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Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel

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Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210811113120.htm

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A new study from Tel Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute revealed that over the last 20,000-50,000 years birds have undergone a major extinction event, inflicted chiefly by humans, which caused the disappearance of about 10%-20% of all avian species. According to the researchers, the vast majority of the extinct species shared several features: they were large, they lived on islands, and many of them were flightless.

The study was led by Prof. Shai Meiri of the School of Zoology at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University, and Amir Fromm of the Weizmann Institute of Science. The paper was published in the Journal of Biogeography.

Prof. Meiri: "We conducted a comprehensive review of scientific literature, and for the first time collected quantitative data on the numbers and traits of extinct species of birds worldwide. Those that became extinct in the last 300 years or so are relatively well known, while earlier species are known to science from remains found in archaeological and paleontological sites worldwide. Altogether we were able to list 469 avian species that became extinct over the last 50,000 years, but we believe that the real number is much higher."

The researchers think that the vast extinction was caused primarily by humans, who hunted the birds for food, or by animals brought to islands by humans -- that fed on the birds and/or their eggs. This assumption is based mainly on two facts: First, the greater part of bird remains were found on human sites, apparently belonging to birds consumed by the inhabitants. Second, in most cases the extinctions occurred a short time after the arrival of humans.

The researchers also found that extinction was not random, as most extinct species shared three major features:

About 90% of them lived on islands. When humans arrived on the island, the birds were hunted by them, or fell victim to other animals introduced by humans, such as pigs, rats, monkeys, and cats.

Most extinct bird species were large, some very large. Consequently, since each bird provided humans with a great quantity of food, they were a preferred target for hunters. In fact, the body mass of the extinct species was found to be up to 10 times as large as that of surviving species. Previous studies have found a similar phenomenon among mammals and reptiles, especially lizards and turtles that lived on islands: the larger ones were hunted by humans and became extinct.

A large portion of the extinct bird species were flightless, and often unable to escape their pursuers. The study found that the number of flightless bird species that became extinct is double the number of flightless species still existing today; all in all, 68% of the flightless bird species known to science became extinct. One of the better-known examples is the moa bird in New Zealand: 11 species of moa became extinct within 300 hundred years, due to hunting by humans

Prof. Meiri: "Our study indicates that before the major extinction event of the past millennia, many more large, even giant, as well as flightless avian lived on our globe, and the diversity of birds living on islands was much greater than today. We hope that our findings can serve as warning signals regarding bird species currently threatened with extinction, and it is therefore important to check whether they have similar features. It must be noted, however, that conditions have changed considerably, and today the main cause for extinction of species by humans is not hunting but rather the destruction of natural habitats."

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extinction; new species; endangered animals; bird flu research; early birds; fossils; cultures; early mammals

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Where have all the birds gone? Humans behind extinction of hundreds of bird species over the last 50,000 years

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A new study has revealed that over the last 20,000 to 50,000 years, birds have undergone a major extinction event, inflicted chiefly by humans, which caused the disappearance of about 10 to 20 percent of all avian species.

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https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/fires-floods-mucilage-whats-happening-in-turkey

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Without a doubt, climate change is a common issue for the whole world to focus on. It is always right beside us and appears in different forms. For example, the rise in global temperatures, which are now 1.2 degrees Celcius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, is both heating up the Earth and destabilizing it. The number and effects of climate change related events are increasing day by day.

For sure, one of the main effects is the constantly increasing temperatures. In many parts of the world, this summer's heat is breaking records. Another problem caused by dry and hot air combined with low humidity is forest fires. The fires in Australia, California and Siberia that lasted for months are an indication of this. The Mediterranean Basin countries, which are expected to be the most impacted by the acute effects of climate change, are currently suffering from such forest fires. Italy, Greece, Spain, Algeria and Turkey have been dealing with a great disaster for days. The slightest spark opens the door to a catastrophe these days, where temperatures occasionally reach 45-50 degrees Celcius (113-122 degrees Fahrenheit) and humidity levels are below 10%.

Lives are burning, black smoke clouds the air, rising over our forests, endangering trees and plant life. However, an ecosystem without plants cannot survive for long.

A firefighter continues to hold the line of the Dixie Fire near Taylorsville, California, U.S., Aug. 10, 2021. (Reuters Photo)

Trees make up the majority of plants. Even a single tree has dozens of benefits, so much so that a single adult tree with leaves can meet the daily oxygen needs of 2 to 10 people. They absorb carbon dioxide, an important greenhouse gas, and keep our world cool. According to World Resources Institute (WRI) assessments, forests absorb 7.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide globally. This value is equivalent to 1.5 times the annual carbon emissions of the United States. Trees also play an active role in the water cycle through sweating and contribute to the cooling of the environment by absorbing thermal energy present in the environment.

Unfortunately, we are destroying these unique treasures with our own hands, sometimes to create settlements and sometimes to open lands up for agriculture. Sometimes we sacrifice these natural miracles for a comfortable life. We use trees with impunity for new furniture, for wooden dwellings, for wood-based structures.

According to the data of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), 15 billion trees are cut down worldwide annually for the production of paper and timber. Only 5 billion new ones are planted to replace the lost ones. Therefore, we wipe out 10 billion trees from the Earth's surface every year.

According to the World Forest Outlook 2020 (SOFO2020) Report published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 420 million hectares (1.04 billion acres) of forested area has been lost in the last 30 years due to different uses. Forests are known as the most effective and low-cost method in combating today's global climate crisis.

Another problem that destroys our precious forests is fire. Again, according to the SOFO 2020 report, approximately 100 million hectares of land have been damaged by fires in the last 30 years. There are certain causes and triggering elements that lead to a fire. These can be natural causes such as lightning, or human-led causes such as cigarette butts or barbecues. Sometimes there are sabotages that aim to shake the integrity of a country.

There has been another factor that we cannot ignore: global climate change. Fire is difficult to control under favorable conditions. The conditions that lead to an uncontrollable situation are extreme heat, droughts due to heat, low humidity and a decrease in precipitation. The prominent factor among these is the extreme heat or heat waves that we encounter more frequently because of climate change.

The world's fire seasons

In the fires that took place in California this year, which have continued for weeks, 1 million hectares of land have turned to ash so far. The Siberian fires in Russia have become unstoppable. Forested land was damaged in fires in Australia that started in July 2019 and lasted for about eight months. The main reason for the fire's growth was shown to be long-lasting high temperatures and droughts.

The amount of greenhouse gas released into the atmosphere from the fires over a period of approximately nine months was calculated as 434 million tons. This value is equivalent to Turkey's greenhouse gas emissions in the same period. It was determined that around 1 billion animals were killed or injured by the fires. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, the Mediterranean Basin, which includes our country, is among the areas that will be most affected by the negative effects of climate change. Droughts, heatwaves, fires, floods and tornadoes are among the events that have begun to occur more frequently in Turkey recently.

Search and rescue team members evacuate locals during flash floods sweeping through towns in the Black Sea region, in Bozkurt, a town in Kastamonu province, northern Turkey, Aug. 12, 2021. (Reuters Photo)

The event with the biggest impact among these was undoubtedly the fires the country recently experienced. According to data from the General Directorate of Forestry (OGM), while there has been an increase in the number of fires in Turkey over the years, there has been a decrease in the total area damaged by these fires. While the number of forest fires that occurred in the 1940s was around 1,000, this number has reached 3,500 today.

Effective crisis management

Turkey is going through difficult times due to;

Mucilage covers the surface of the Marmara Sea, Kadıköy district, Istanbul, Turkey, June 7, 2021. (Photo by Getty Images)

Nevertheless, in terms of crisis management, Turkey is doing a good job. For example, the fires in the country's south were fought in a short time and are now under control.

First of all, the OGM, which is known to have a successful history, mobilized its resources. Relevant ministers were transferred to the region at jet speed. Crisis centers were established. Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) and National Medical Rescue Team (UMKE) teams were on the field as usual. The Turkish Red Crescent was in the region with an army of volunteers as well. Security forces mobilized all their means. In addition to land-based water cannon vehicles (TOMAs), military and gendarmerie helicopters, coastal safety and coast guard teams from the sea responded to the fire within their means.

The amenities of technology were also used. With the domestic satellite Göktürk and domestic unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), fire zones were detected, intervention points were determined and successful interventions were ensured by directing aerial extinguishing vehicles in this way.

Local governments from many parts of Turkey also sent reinforcements to the fire team. With the support of brother countries such as Azerbaijan and Ukraine, as well as the European Union, the fires that affected a large area were brought under control. From the first day, the ministers of Environment and Urbanization, Agriculture and Forestry, and Transport and Infrastructure were transferred to locales. Damage assessments were made. Messages of unity and integrity were given.

Doomsayers on the scene

As in every event, there were also those who wanted to take advantage of such disasters. The first one was seen in the case of the Turkish Aeronautical Association (THK) planes. Then it followed with claims that those fires were started so that hotels, mines and settlements could be constructed on the cleared land. I return these entirely baseless claims to their owners, as they are obnoxious and overlook the effort given in the struggle in which Turkey sacrificed nine lives.

Article 169 of the Turkish Constitution makes it necessary to reforest the burned areas. There is no need for forest fires to happen in order to open a tourism facility or grant a mining license anyway. It is already possible to allocate certain areas for these projects because of related laws such as the Tourism Promotion Law and the Forest Law. Therefore, it is pointless to start fires that are difficult to control. In these fires, two thermal power plants were lost, both of which are billion-dollar investments. Who would allow such huge investments to be wasted for a few buildings to be built in these areas? I would like to reiterate once again that these are extremely inconsistent claims.

The green homeland

Some 29% of Turkey's land is covered with forests. The country is one of the rare countries that has increased the amount of land dedicated to forests. In the last 20 years, 5.4 billion new saplings have been planted. According to OGM assessments, Turkey's forest assets increased by 2.1 million hectares.

This great achievement was also included in the Global Forest Resources Assessment Report of the FAO covering the years 2015-2020. According to the report, Turkey ranked first in Europe and sixth in the world in afforestation between 2015 and 2020.

Forests are momentous ecosystems that do not grow easily. That is why it hurts us so much to see the destruction from these fires. That is why we want to restore the burned areas as soon as possible. However, nature has the ability to repair and renew itself. When a burned area is left to itself, we will witness a new greening, resprouting and resurrection there in a few years. This is the policy applied and the path followed in almost every part of the world.

The vast majority of Turkey's burned areas consist of red pines. The seeds of red pines are quite thick. They can remain under the ground for a long time without germination. During fires, these shells can become thin and sprout after the fire. Therefore, red pine forests can almost repair themselves.

However, there is such public pressure in Turkey for the burned areas to be greened by human hands. Some malicious circles use this as leverage and organize campaigns. It can abuse the value Turkish people give to green spaces. It is better to leave the job to the professionals. There is a well-established institution in this country with a 200-year history: the OGM. Let's entrust the job to this competent agency and witness the renewal of nature together.

From crisis to risk

Undoubtedly, Turkey has gained a lot of experience and developed its infrastructure in the face of countless disasters. It successfully presents crisis management in disaster response. However, it needs to transfer its experience gained from crisis management to risk management.

Turkey should carry out studies to prevent possible disasters by identifying the regions or structures that may be affected, possible damage, and how to minimize the negative effects in cases where disasters cannot be prevented. There is a danger staring the country in the face: Climate change.

Turkey is experiencing its devastating effects more and more severely with each passing day. Temperatures will continue to rise and droughts will increase, which will trigger more fires. Therefore, it is inevitable for Turkey to improve itself within the scope of combating and adapting to climate change. Forests are now strategic resources. The country must take all the necessary steps to protect them.

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Fires, floods, mucilage: What's happening in Turkey? | Opinion

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Without a doubt, climate change is a common issue for the whole world to focus on. It is always right beside us and appears in different forms. For example, the rise in global temperatures, which are now 1.2 degrees Celcius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, is both heating up the Earth and destabilizing it.

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Wildfires in California, Utah and Oregon.

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wildfires update: latest news on the dixie and parlays canyon fires  - cnn

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Crews battle Western wildfires that have caused thousands of evacuations

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A wildfire in California is growing by thousands of acres while one in Utah has forced thousands of residents from their homes -- and crews say there is much more work to be done before the flames are under control.

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Senegal's Circular Gardens to combat desertification

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Senegal's Circular Gardens to combat desertification

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The project marks a new, more local approach to what is known as the Green Wall initiative, launched in 2007, that aims to slow desertification across Africa's Sahel region, the arid belt south of the Sahara Desert, by planting an 8,000-km line of trees from Senegal to Djibouti.

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BOKI DIAWE, Senegal, July 28 (Reuters) - Every night Moussa Kamara works at his bakery preparing hundreds of loaves but at sunrise, instead of going home to sleep, he now starts a second back-breaking job - hoeing the earth and tending newly sown seeds in a specially designed circular garden.

Kamara, 47, believes the garden will prove even more important than the bakery in the future for feeding his extended family, including 25 children, and other residents of Boki Dawe, a Senegalese town near the border with Mauritania.

He is part of a project that aims to create hundreds of such gardens - known as 'Tolou Keur' in Senegal's Wolof language - that organisers hope will boost food security, reduce regional desertification and engage thousands of community workers.

"This project is incredibly important," said Kamara, finally at home after a night spent at the bakery followed by 10 hours of cultivating edible and medicinal plants in the garden.

"When you grow one tree, over 20 years people and animals will benefit from it," said Kamara, whose commitment and hard work have earned him the role of garden caretaker.

The project marks a new, more local approach to what is known as the Green Wall initiative, launched in 2007, that aims to slow desertification across Africa's Sahel region, the arid belt south of the Sahara Desert, by planting an 8,000-km line of trees from Senegal to Djibouti.

The wider initiative has only managed to plant 4% of the pledged 100 million hectares of trees, and completing it by 2030, as planned, could cost up to $43 billion, according to United Nations estimates.

SELF-SUFFICIENCY

By contrast, the 'Tolou Keur' gardens have flourished in the seven months since the project began and now number around two dozen, said Senegal's reforestation agency.

Three months after a garden is completed, its agents begin a series of monthly visits over two years to assess progress.

The gardens hold plants and trees resistant to hot, dry climates, including papaya, mango, moringa and sage. Circular beds allow roots to grow inwards, trapping liquids and bacteria and improving water retention and composting.

Project manager Karine Fakhoury said it was important that local people felt fully engaged: "This is not an external project, where somebody comes from outside and tells people what to do. It is something entirely indigenous."

The gardens are partly a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senegal shut its borders early last year to try to curb the spread of the coronavirus, cutting imports and exposing rural communities' dependence on foreign food and medicines.

This prompted the reforestation agency to seek ways to help villages become more self-sufficient.

Aly Ndiaye, a Senegalese agricultural engineer based in Brazil who got stuck in Senegal when the borders closed, stressed the importance of "smaller actions that are permanent".

"A thousand Tolou Keur is already 1.5 million trees," said Ndiaye, the mastermind behind the circular bed design. "So if we start, we can do a lot."

Not all the gardens have succeeded. In the remote village of Walalde, the desert has already begun to reclaim the land set aside and there have been problems with the solar-powered pump.

But in the eastern town of Kanel the garden is thriving. Its caretakers solved a water pump issue by digging traditional irrigation canals. A concrete wall and guard dogs help keep out rodents that would eat the lush mint and hibiscus plants inside.

Kamara the baker believes the gardens could offer a further benefit - discouraging sub-Saharan Africans from embarking on long, perilous journeys as illegal migrants in search of better lives in Europe and America.

"The day people realise the full potential of the Great Green Wall, they will stop these dangerous migration routes where you can lose your life at sea," he said. "It's better to stay, work the soil, cultivate and see what you can earn."

Reporting by Christophe Van Der Perre and Cooper Inveen; Writing by Cooper Inveen Editing by Edward McAllister and Gareth Jones

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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WIDER IMAGE Senegalese plant circular gardens in Green Wall defence against desert

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Every night Moussa Kamara works at his bakery preparing hundreds of loaves but at sunrise, instead of going home to sleep, he now starts a second back-breaking job - hoeing the earth and tending newly sown seeds in a specially designed circular garden.