Climate and Environment

Storms, flooding cause chaos on Greek holiday island of Crete

  • On the road between Ierapetra and Sitia, flooding trapped 23 people in their cars, state television channel ERT reported.
  • Floods after heavy storms trapped some people in their cars and forced the evacuation of some tourists on the Greek holiday island of Crete, local officials said Saturday.
  • On the road between Ierapetra and Sitia, flooding trapped 23 people in their cars, state television channel ERT reported.
Floods after heavy storms trapped some people in their cars and forced the evacuation of some tourists on the Greek holiday island of Crete, local officials said Saturday.
The force of the flooding washed some cars and trees into the sea.
"We had to evacuate a few tourists and a woman had to be taken to hospital as a precaution," the mayor of the Cretan port of Ierapetra, Manolis Frangoulis, told AFP.
The town, on the southeast coast of Crete, was hit by torrential rain Friday and Saturday, cutting off roads that had been filled with debris.
"We have cars in the sea and all the department is working to at least re-establish transport," Frangoulis.
On the road between Ierapetra and Sitia, flooding trapped 23 people in their cars, state television channel ERT reported.
Three tourists and their taxi driver had to abandon their vehicle after flood waters began to carry away their vehicle, ERT added.
At the port of Canea, a popular tourist destination, giant waves damaged seafront restaurants and tourist venues.
The civil protection agency called on residents of several towns to limit their movements.
The deputy governor of the Heraklion region, Nikos Syrigonakis, said emergency services were working to clear small landslides and remove debris from local roads.
They remained on high alert, monitoring the water levels of the streams and rivers, he told the Greek news agency ANA.
Between Friday and Saturday at 1550 GMT (6:50 pm), 42 cm of rain fell in the Canea department, said the Greek national observatory.
The wind speeds were reached up to eight and nine on the Beaufort Scale, said the EMY weather service.
bur-yap/jj/giv

politics

Judge pauses construction of border project in Texas national park

  • "Effective immediately and until the Court orders otherwise, Defendants SHALL NOT build border barrier or related infrastructure, or engage in any construction or ground disturbing activities, in the Big Bend Sector until and unless Defendants comply with all applicable laws," Judge Kathleen Cardone wrote in her order.
  • A US federal judge on Friday issued an emergency injunction blocking President Donald Trump's administration from restarting border barrier and road construction across the Big Bend region in Texas.
  • "Effective immediately and until the Court orders otherwise, Defendants SHALL NOT build border barrier or related infrastructure, or engage in any construction or ground disturbing activities, in the Big Bend Sector until and unless Defendants comply with all applicable laws," Judge Kathleen Cardone wrote in her order.
A US federal judge on Friday issued an emergency injunction blocking President Donald Trump's administration from restarting border barrier and road construction across the Big Bend region in Texas.
The Department of Homeland Security plans to build vehicle barriers, patrol roads, lighting and detection technology in and around Big Bend National Park, known for its spectacular views and rich biodiversity, including hundreds of bird species, bobcats and black bears.
"Effective immediately and until the Court orders otherwise, Defendants SHALL NOT build border barrier or related infrastructure, or engage in any construction or ground disturbing activities, in the Big Bend Sector until and unless Defendants comply with all applicable laws," Judge Kathleen Cardone wrote in her order.
An underlying lawsuit filed by Friends of the Ruidosa Church, the Center for Biological Diversity, and a Big Bend-area river guide and landowner challenges the federal government's decision to waive dozens of laws in order to fast-track the $1.7 billion project across Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park and the wider region.
"This is a historic victory," Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, told AFP. "The fight's not over, but today's injunction is a win for people and wildlife across West Texas and across the country, and it proves that no president can bulldoze a national park for political theater and expect to get away with it."
Bulldozers broke ground in August on the public lands that blend desert, river and mountain ecosystems and are home to the famed Santa Elena Canyon, before Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott announced a pause following fierce local opposition that crossed party lines.
But the CBP had said in a court filing this week that the pause had lapsed on September 30 and work would soon resume.
ia/pnb

law

US Supreme Court to hear high-stakes climate case

BY ISSAM AHMED

  • The questions also bear on so-called "climate superfunds" -- laws passed by New York and Vermont that would make polluters pay for climate resilience projects.
  • The US Supreme Court hears a climate case Monday that could upend dozens of lawsuits aimed at making polluters pay for their role in global warming and allegedly deceiving the public about the dangers of fossil fuels.
  • The questions also bear on so-called "climate superfunds" -- laws passed by New York and Vermont that would make polluters pay for climate resilience projects.
The US Supreme Court hears a climate case Monday that could upend dozens of lawsuits aimed at making polluters pay for their role in global warming and allegedly deceiving the public about the dangers of fossil fuels.
Here is what to know about Suncor v Boulder. 

Accountability or regulation?

The city and county of Boulder, in the state of Colorado, sued ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy in 2018, claiming they "knowingly caused and contributed to the alteration of the climate" while "concealing and/or misrepresenting the dangers" associated with their products. 
Suncor operates a refinery in Colorado, while ExxonMobil has deep ties to the Rocky Mountain state. The plaintiffs say they have suffered losses amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars from wildfires, flooding and other weather extremes and are seeking compensation.
It is one of around 40 similar lawsuits brought by cities, states, tribes and other local jurisdictions, modeled on successful litigation against tobacco and opioid producers. 
The companies contend such suits aim to impose an enormous "carbon tax" that could "bankrupt" the energy industry -- and are essentially asking the court to make them all go away.
Corey Riday-White, managing attorney for the nonprofit Center for Climate Integrity, disputes that characterization. "Truly, this is a corporate accountability case," he told AFP, citing the recent example of Meta, which reached a major settlement over teen social media addiction.
- Reversals common at top court - 
After failing to move the case to federal court, the companies lost bids to have it dismissed in state court and again at Colorado's Supreme Court. 
President Donald Trump's administration filed a brief urging the US Supreme Court to take up the appeal, and the judges agreed.
Sam Sankar, senior vice president of programs for the legal nonprofit Earthjustice, which filed a brief in the case supporting Boulder, was not overly optimistic. 
"If you won a decision and the Supreme Court takes your case, that's not a good day for you," he told AFP.
The court is being asked to decide whether federal law -- specifically the Clean Air Act -- bars Boulder's claims, whether the US Constitution itself prohibits this kind of lawsuit, and whether the court can review the case at this stage.
- The possibilities - 
If the justices focus on the last question, "that essentially just kicks the can down the road" since the wider questions would likely be raised later, Katrina Kuh, a professor of environmental law at Pace University, told AFP.
A ruling on the federal law questions, however, would matter for many pending suits.
"It could extinguish them entirely," said Kuh. Or, the justices could narrow them -- allowing Colorado for example to apply its state law only to emissions within the state.
The questions also bear on so-called "climate superfunds" -- laws passed by New York and Vermont that would make polluters pay for climate resilience projects. New York's was struck down by a federal judge last month, and an adverse Supreme Court ruling could shut the door to it being revived on appeal.
- A wrinkle and a recusal - 
The companies argue Congress gave the Environmental Protection Agency sole authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions through the Clean Air Act. 
But Trump's EPA in February overturned a scientific determination called the "Endangerment Finding" and said it had no such authority.
"It's certainly going to be tricky for the court to thread the needle," said Sankar, between upholding the administration's position and giving the oil companies what they seek.
Republicans in Congress are meanwhile attempting to pass an immunity shield that would also void such cases.
Ahead of the hearing, ultraconservative Justice Samuel Alito recused himself following calls from critics to step aside over his oil and gas stock holdings. 
Conservatives still hold a 5-3 majority with Alito out, but a 4-4 split is now possible -- which would leave the Colorado ruling in place and let the case proceed towards trial.
ia/mlm

California

Sea levels to rise in California as coastal wave surges up west coast

BY HUW GRIFFITH

  • "The general rule of thumb is that every two to four inches (5-10 centimeters) of sea level rise that we see in that background state essentially doubles your flood risk. 
  • Sea levels in California are set to rise by as much as a foot (30 centimeters) in the coming days as an enormous wave washes up the US West Coast.
  • "The general rule of thumb is that every two to four inches (5-10 centimeters) of sea level rise that we see in that background state essentially doubles your flood risk. 
Sea levels in California are set to rise by as much as a foot (30 centimeters) in the coming days as an enormous wave washes up the US West Coast.
The huge surge of energy, known as a "coastal trapped wave" or a "Kelvin wave," is part of El Nino, a months-long phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean that scientists say could generate powerful storms and floods in some parts of the world, while leaving others in drought.
The Kelvin wave is not anything like a tsunami; nor does it crash on beaches. Rather it is a sustained bulge of excess water up to 30 kilometers (18 miles) wide that will hug the coastline as it travels all the way up to Alaska.
Dillon Amaya, an oceanographer at North Carolina State University, said the elevated sea levels could collide with other natural phenomena to create problems for coastal communities.
"What this wave is doing is it's raising sea states, and then when... you combine this wave with things like storm surge from passing weather, large swells, or things like astronomically high tide....(you) elevate your risk for things like flooding and also beach erosion," Amaya told AFP by telephone.
"The general rule of thumb is that every two to four inches (5-10 centimeters) of sea level rise that we see in that background state essentially doubles your flood risk. 
"So it doesn't sound like a lot, but because it's over a huge volume of water, and it's combined with these other factors, you start to get the flood risk."
In recent weeks parts of Southern California have been hit by storm surges that have eaten away at beaches or damaged properties.
In Dana Point and Laguna Beach, south of Los Angeles, several houses have been left uninhabitable, and at least one has completely collapsed.
In Malibu, an enormous sink hole emerged in the driveway of a home belonging to Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage when pounding waves from a nearby hurricane eroded the coastline.

El Nino

The Kelvin wave is essentially both a cause and a symptom of El Nino, said Amaya, and originates in waters near Indonesia when trade winds die down.
"Those trade winds hold up a ton of really warm water in the Western Equatorial Pacific because they're pushing on the surface waters as they blow. 
"If they weaken for too long... water is then able to effectively slosh back along the equatorial strip from Indonesia all the way to South America."
As this wave makes it way over the Pacific, it suppresses the cold water that usually comes up from the deep ocean, making the surface temperature higher.
It is this ocean warming that we call El Nino.
"So these Kelvin waves are, in many ways, the driving force of El Nino. They help El Nino grow and mature over the course of several months," said Amaya.
As the equatorial Kelvin wave hits South America, the energy converts into a coastal Kelvin wave, and heads both north and south along the continents.
The wave going towards the US is currently somewhere north of Cabo, Mexico, and travelling around six miles (10 kilometers) an hour, said Amaya, who expects it to reach San Diego within the next week.
While Kelvin waves are common -- there are five or six during every El Nino -- this one arrives at a delicate time, said Amaya, with sea temperatures already elevated.
"When it gets really warm, that water expands... which causes sea levels to rise just because the water is warm, so you get an additional additive increase in sea level," he said.
"Southern California... just got battered by offshore tropical cyclones, which led to flooding events already and beach erosion, so there's lots of anxiety about extra flood risk coming from El Nino and these waves."
hg/ksb

Amazon

Amazon vows $1 bn for data center towns, decries 'myths'

  • In March, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI signed a White House pledge to provide their own power for new data centers and pay for any grid upgrades they require. arp/ksb
  • Amazon on Friday pledged more than $1 billion over five years for US communities that host its data centers, the latest tech giant seeking to win over residents increasingly hostile to the AI-fueled construction boom.
  • In March, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI signed a White House pledge to provide their own power for new data centers and pay for any grid upgrades they require. arp/ksb
Amazon on Friday pledged more than $1 billion over five years for US communities that host its data centers, the latest tech giant seeking to win over residents increasingly hostile to the AI-fueled construction boom.
The "Built Together" program, unveiled by Amazon Web Services chief Matt Garman in a 3,000-word blog post, will fund free community college degrees and trades training as well as energy-efficiency upgrades for schools and homes.
The company also announced a "Data Center Commitment," promising that its facilities will not drive up local electricity bills and that it will publish annual figures on energy and water use.
Garman said AWS would stop using nondisclosure agreements with government agencies on its projects, a practice that has become a major flashpoint for the movement opposing data centers.
Microsoft made a similar move in March, the first major tech firm to do so.
Garman cast the buildout as a national security imperative on par with the 1950s interstate highway system.
He warned that with more than 100 local moratoriums under consideration nationwide, the United States "could be writing its own losing ticket" in the AI race and that "the consequences would last generations."
He also took aim at what he called myths about data centers, disputing as false arguments that they drive up power costs, deplete water supply and cause pollution from diesel fumes. 
Citing "widespread reports," Garman said some countries were deliberately seeding misinformation in the United States to slow construction -- an argument also made by the Trump administration.
Disinformation researchers and fact-checkers say such claims overstate the role of foreign influence campaigns in a grassroots movement that spans the political spectrum and nearly every US state.
President Donald Trump, a vocal champion of the buildout, has warned that communities rejecting the facilities would "end up being backwards and poor."
Amazon's rivals have made similar overtures. 
In January, Microsoft pledged to fully cover its data centers' power costs and stop requesting local tax breaks, and OpenAI promised that its Stargate data centers would not raise local electricity prices.
In March, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI signed a White House pledge to provide their own power for new data centers and pay for any grid upgrades they require.
arp/ksb

Canadair

Italy's firefighting planes return home after scorching summer

BY JULIETTE RABAT

  • Italy operates one of the world's largest fleets of Canadair amphibious aircraft -- part boat, part plane -- that can respond quickly to a fire because they do not need to land to take on water from lakes, reservoirs or the sea.
  • After a gruelling summer skimming lakes and coastlines to dump thousands of tonnes of water on wildfires across a parched Europe, Italy's fleet of bright yellow and red Canadair planes has finally returned home to a base near Rome for maintenance.
  • Italy operates one of the world's largest fleets of Canadair amphibious aircraft -- part boat, part plane -- that can respond quickly to a fire because they do not need to land to take on water from lakes, reservoirs or the sea.
After a gruelling summer skimming lakes and coastlines to dump thousands of tonnes of water on wildfires across a parched Europe, Italy's fleet of bright yellow and red Canadair planes has finally returned home to a base near Rome for maintenance.
Italy operates one of the world's largest fleets of Canadair amphibious aircraft -- part boat, part plane -- that can respond quickly to a fire because they do not need to land to take on water from lakes, reservoirs or the sea.
This summer brought Italy's fourth-largest fire season since 2006, with 113,800 hectares burned in 645 fires, according to data from the European EFFIS system, keeping the country's 18 water bombers busy.
But the planes were called to tackle wild blazes abroad too, as part of the European Union's shared firefighting resources, with the continent battling a historic fire season.
"At the start of the summer, we deployed to Portugal and Spain, where we faced two quite difficult situations," said Francesco Morgante, a pilot with Avincis, the company that manages the fleet on behalf of Italy's fire service.
Both countries saw devastating fires, threatening cities and tourist hotspots.
"After that, our own country required our full attention, particularly due to the emergency situation in northern Italy, which was quite unexpected and unusual this year," the 58-year-old Morgante told AFP.
The Canadair water bombers are manufactured exclusively by Calgary-based De Havilland.
Italy has the CL-415 model, but like many European countries is awaiting delivery of new-generation aircraft, the DHC-515, which comes with a price tag of around 100 million euros ($113 million).
 

'Ideal tool'

 
The Canadair is capable of scooping up over 6,000 litres of water in just 12 seconds without landing -- thanks to two intakes beneath the fuselage -- and dropping the load in three seconds, making it an "ideal tool" for firefighting, said Morgante.
"It is a versatile, flexible tool capable of tackling medium-to-large fires", and "enables a fire to be contained even when it is already fully developed," he said, from the cramped cockpit of one of the water bombers.
A vast, newly renovated hangar houses planes undergoing inspection, including one with its twin turboprop engines exposed.
The in-depth checks are performed on every aircraft in the fleet over a period of several weeks after summer, Maurizio Tomassi, head of maintenance operations at Avincis, told AFP, adding they hope to complete the maintenance by March. 
In the meantime, the closure of the last operational base in Calabria on October 31 will mark the official end of this year's summer season. 
 
- 'No weather break' - 
 
Western Europe has just recorded its hottest summer on record -- with some 540,000 hectares going up in smoke across the European Union between mid-June and early September.
That makes the issue of how many Canadair fleets are available to member states more pressing than ever.
Over the years, there has been "a slow, gradual increase in the need" for the bombers, said Morgante.
"Having a fleet that meets our needs at both national and European levels... is essential," he said.
For pilots, technical staff and operational coordinators alike, this summer will go down in the record books.
"We didn't get that moment when a summer storm rolls in, the temperature drops by three or four degrees, and you get a two-day break before things potentially pick up again -- if they pick up at all," Morgante said.
"That weather 'break' simply didn't happen." 
Alessandro Sette, the 50-year-old head of the operations room which handles incoming requests from the Italian Civil Protection agency, agreed it has been "an exceptional summer".
"Work started early in the morning because the planes took off at first light... and operations usually wrapped up at dusk, making for long, intense days," he said.
But on this quiet late-September morning, there is no movement on the screen used to track aircraft flight paths.
"Practically all the planes are on the ground," he said with satisfaction.
jra/ide/st

climate

World powers gather in Pacific to chart climate battle

BY BEN STRANG

  • Top delegates to the Pacific talks will hold a one-day retreat on low-lying Tuvalu, a small island nation laying plans to relocate the population if it is consumed by the ocean.
  • World powers are flying delegates to the Pacific to haggle over the fight against global warming, and to see the plight of island nations surrounded by a rising ocean.
  • Top delegates to the Pacific talks will hold a one-day retreat on low-lying Tuvalu, a small island nation laying plans to relocate the population if it is consumed by the ocean.
World powers are flying delegates to the Pacific to haggle over the fight against global warming, and to see the plight of island nations surrounded by a rising ocean.
Ministers, climate negotiators and a handful of leaders will meet in the Fijian city of Nadi for the October 5-8 talks.
They will be charting the course for a major UN-sponsored global climate summit, known as COP31, to be held in November in Turkey's Antalya province.
For Pacific nations, hosting the preliminary talks in their region offers an opportunity to draw the world's attention to life on the frontline of climate change.
Pacific leaders are pushing for the world to stick to a target of limiting global warming to 1.5C, enhance access to climate finance, and give more attention to the impact on oceans.
The sea level is rising at a record pace, driven by warming oceans and glacier melt, according to a UN report.
Up to 1.2 billion people could be displaced by 2050, with Pacific island countries experiencing sea level rise at twice the global average, said the report released in August.
It also highlighted a financing gap, with developing countries needing US$310-US$365 billion to adapt, yet having only US$26 billion in adaptation finance available in 2023.
Top delegates to the Pacific talks will hold a one-day retreat on low-lying Tuvalu, a small island nation laying plans to relocate the population if it is consumed by the ocean.
They will be shown Tuvalu's land reclamation efforts.
The island capital Funafuti's highest point is just two metres above sea-level, and two of its nine coral atolls are already largely swamped by rising seas.
 

'Act now'

 
"Sea-level rise is not a future threat, it is a present reality," Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo told the UN General Assembly ahead of the climate talks.
"Tuvalu's message is clear: the world must act now decisively, collectively, and with urgency to protect the future for generations to come."
Last year, Australia bowed out of a contest with Turkey to host the COP31 summit in a deal that let it preside over negotiations and bring the preparatory talks to the Pacific.
As leader of the climate talks, however, major coal exporter Australia has faced heat over the scale of its fossil fuel extraction.
Chris Bowen, the country's climate minister, says Australia is rapidly expanding its renewable energy sources, which are essential for a transition away from fossil fuels.
Bowen, president of the COP31 negotiations, also rejected media criticism that the pre-COP talks in the Pacific had failed to lure enough world leaders.
Fewer than a dozen world leaders have so far publicly confirmed that they will attend the meetings in Fiji and Tuvalu, mostly from the Pacific.
Fiji said last month it expected the heads of state for Antigua and Barbuda, Cape Verde, Thailand, the Maldives and Timor-Leste would attend.
"It's not normally a leaders meeting," Bowen told reporters in the run-up to the talks, which are usually held at the ministerial and senior-negotiator level.
 

'Very, very sad'

 
Organisers have not released detailed figures on attendance.
Bowen said last month 4,000 people from 60 nations would attend, without providing a full breakdown. 
Marine scientist Rajneel Singh -- part of a team that reported large-scale coral death around Tuvalu from a 2024 marine heatwave -- said he was disheartened by a perceived lack of attention to the climate challenge.
"It's very, very sad. There's no awareness of what's happening," Singh told AFP.
Nepal's foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, has confirmed he will attend the Pacific climate meeting, after the August 26 Himalayan flood disaster.
A tsunami-like wall of water and debris triggered by a glacial and rock collapse on the Nepal-China border on August 26 killed nearly 1,500 and left 5,800 missing in the two countries.
"What we're trying to convey to the world is this: these issues of climate change are not theoretical anymore," Khanal told AFP in an interview in New York.
bes/djw/abs

climate

Return of swarming moth spectacle has Australia in a flutter

BY STEVEN TRASK

  • In a good year, four billion moths or more would escape the inland heat to seek shelter in the alpine caves of eastern Australia. 
  • Moth swarms so thick they can blot out the stars are fluttering across Australia, heralding a migratory spectacle unseen since the creature's brush with extinction nearly 10 years ago.
  • In a good year, four billion moths or more would escape the inland heat to seek shelter in the alpine caves of eastern Australia. 
Moth swarms so thick they can blot out the stars are fluttering across Australia, heralding a migratory spectacle unseen since the creature's brush with extinction nearly 10 years ago.
The great migration of the Bogong moth was once a yearly feature of the Australian spring, the insects humming down the nation's east coast in their billions as they searched for cooler climes.
But drought, pesticides and habitat destruction triggered an unprecedented collapse that began in 2017, eventually wiping out an estimated 99.5 percent of the Bogong moth population.
While vast clouds of flying bugs might not be everyone's cup of tea, scientists have been delighted to find that the Bogongs are back.
"There have been happy tears in my office because this is what nature should be," said conservation biologist Marissa Parrott. 
"People are noticing those big swarms again. They can celebrate what I think is one of nature's great spectacles." 
In a good year, four billion moths or more would escape the inland heat to seek shelter in the alpine caves of eastern Australia. 
"So many Bogong moths would come through that they could block out the stars and the moon as they went overhead," said Parrott, from Zoos Victoria. 
Photos showed how the endangered moths clustered together so densely inside their caves, it was impossible to see the rock beneath.
"They get up into the mountains and into these caves, where they make this beautiful tiling pattern," said Western Sydney University insect researcher Eleanor Drinkwater. 
"They cover the walls in this very dense mat of moths. 
"They hang out there until the weather starts getting cooler, and they come back down to their breeding grounds."
Their migration has long fascinated scientists, who have puzzled over how they found their way on a journey they only ever make once.
 

Celestial navigation

 
By placing a tether around captive moths and projecting stars on the wall, researchers last year showed how Bogongs used the Milky Way.
They were the first invertebrates -- a broad group of animals including spiders, snails and worms -- shown to use celestial navigation for such long trips.
Bogong moths are thought to help plants spread pollen and are also a key food source for the mountain pygmy possum, a critically endangered cave-dwelling marsupial.
"They are very, very important to Australian ecosystems," Drinkwater said.
Drawn towards the blazing stadium floodlights, Bogong swarms caused havoc at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Forecasters warned that heavy rain was about to drench the event's closing ceremony -- only to realise the radar had picked up a cloud of Bogongs.
While the Bogong migration continued in the years following the population crash, scientists were aghast at how few moths were making the journey.
"People described going into the caves and finding barely any moths, and just kind of being in shock," Drinkwater said.
Researchers are still working to better understand what contributed to the Bogong bounce-back, but believe a spate of wetter weather has helped.
With a severe El Nino forecast to send temperatures soaring over summer, scientists hope the rebound is not short lived. 
"It's great they're back, and we're really excited they're back," said Drinkwater. 
"But we're still worried about them."
sft/djw/abs

landslide

Nepal's grim DNA puzzle to identify flood dead

BY PAAVAN MATHEMA AND ANUP OJHA

  • "I searched for him everywhere, but I could not find his body," 53-year-old Ram told AFP, still waiting for answers about his son Suroj Kumar, a garage mechanic in Betrawati, which was swamped by the floods.
  • Clutching a photograph of his missing son, Rajesh Ram is pinning his hopes on DNA testing -- like thousands of others desperately seeking relatives swept away by Nepal's catastrophic Himalayan floods.
  • "I searched for him everywhere, but I could not find his body," 53-year-old Ram told AFP, still waiting for answers about his son Suroj Kumar, a garage mechanic in Betrawati, which was swamped by the floods.
Clutching a photograph of his missing son, Rajesh Ram is pinning his hopes on DNA testing -- like thousands of others desperately seeking relatives swept away by Nepal's catastrophic Himalayan floods.
"I searched for him everywhere, but I could not find his body," 53-year-old Ram told AFP, still waiting for answers about his son Suroj Kumar, a garage mechanic in Betrawati, which was swamped by the floods.
Nepal was overwhelmed by the sheer scale of destruction from the tsunami-like wall of freezing water and debris triggered by a glacial and rock collapse on the Nepal-China border on August 26.
The scale of the identification task is immense.
With thousands of DNA profiles to process, fragmented remains and limited technical capacity and manpower, experts warn matching bodies to families could take weeks.
Nepali disaster authorities have recovered 1,454 bodies -- but around a third of those are only partial remains. 
Just 112 bodies have been identified and returned to their families. A further 5,285 people are missing in Nepal, including hundreds of foreigners.
In China, the toll is 43 dead and 519 missing, according to state media -- taking the combined toll to nearly 1,500 dead and 5,800 missing.
At Nepal's two forensic laboratories, both in Kathmandu, experts are working to profile samples and build a database on a scale they have never handled before.
"In a year we would analyse 1,000-1,500 samples, often in case of paternity or crime scenes," said Mukul Pradhan, chief scientific officer at the National Forensic Science Laboratory. "We are now processing thousands of samples."

'Pain'

A total of 3,685 forensic samples are undergoing DNA testing, including more than 1,300 collected from recovered bodies.
Blood samples are easier to profile, but those taken from teeth or bones can take several days to process.
Nepal has buried more than 1,200 bodies, carefully numbering and tagging them so they can be retrieved if a DNA match is found.
"A large number of people are missing, and the bodies that have been found they are difficult to identify," said Nepali police spokesman Abi Narayan Kafle. "We understand the pain people are in, and our teams are working diligently."
Some bodies were carried far downstream by the floodwaters, further complicating the task, said Nirajan Thapa,Chief of Biology section at the National Forensic Science Laboratory.
"In an earthquake or an accident, people are recovered in a specific area, so we work in a closed scenario -- the body’s DNA has to be compared to a limited number of samples," Thapa said. "But that scale has now become very large."
DNA alone cannot identify a body without a reference sample from a relative.
"Just by extracting a DNA profile is not enough to identify someone," Thapa said. "We have to extract a DNA profile from their relatives and then compare".
That means authorities must process samples from both unidentified remains and thousands of relatives before they can establish matches.
Several countries have sent in support teams, including neighbouring India and China, as well as South Korea. Fingerprint experts from the United States and Singapore are also assisting.
Thapa said that with that help, matching could begin within a few weeks.
But until the results come, the families behind those samples face a painful limbo. Some families have held symbolic cremation funerals for the missing.
Ram wonders if he will ever get any answers. "I am waiting if I can find any remains of my son," he said.
pm/pjm/lkd

heatwave

'Catastrophic': Swiss glaciers lose fifth of mass in five years

BY ELODIE LE MAOU WITH AGNES PEDRERO IN GENEVA

  • Between 2022 and 2026, the melt rate at Switzerland's glaciers was "more than twice as high as in any previously monitored five-year period", the GLAMOS report said, noting an ice volume loss of almost 20 percent since 2021.
  • Switzerland's glaciers, which are disproportionately impacted by climate change, have lost nearly 20 percent of their mass in five years, experts said Thursday, with 2026 registering the second-biggest melt on record.
  • Between 2022 and 2026, the melt rate at Switzerland's glaciers was "more than twice as high as in any previously monitored five-year period", the GLAMOS report said, noting an ice volume loss of almost 20 percent since 2021.
Switzerland's glaciers, which are disproportionately impacted by climate change, have lost nearly 20 percent of their mass in five years, experts said Thursday, with 2026 registering the second-biggest melt on record.
Swiss glaciers saw 5.5 percent of their volume melt away this year, the Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS) network found in a new study, published after a record hot summer preceded by a winter with little snowfall.
"The glaciers this year have lost enormous quantities of ice," said GLAMOS chief Matthias Huss, describing 2026 as "a catastrophic year".
Perched on the Scex Rouge glacier, at an altitude of nearly 3,000 metres, he gazed across the landscape in despair.
"This is a glacier that isn't surviving," he said.
"There will be probably no ice in 10 or maybe 15 years."
He carefully dismantled the four-metre-long aluminium measurement stake inserted at the centre of the glacier.
In late July, when it was installed, it was completely embedded, but now more than three metres protrude from the grey surface of the ice. 
"It's not that we are surprised, because we know how fast the glaciers are melting," Huss said.
"But to see the colours of the mountains where there is no snow left, there is just these rocks and these dark glaciers that are a relic from the past... it's just incredible."
Between 2022 and 2026, the melt rate at Switzerland's glaciers was "more than twice as high as in any previously monitored five-year period", the GLAMOS report said, noting an ice volume loss of almost 20 percent since 2021.
While Switzerland's glaciers have long been shrinking, the melt has recently sped up dramatically.
While 10 percent of Swiss ice volume disappeared between 1990 and 2000, 27 percent was lost in the past 10 years, the report showed.
GLAMOS based its findings on extensive measurements at 23 reference glaciers in September, which it extrapolated to the nearly 1,300 glacial formations still found in Switzerland.
 

'No chance of surviving'

 
The report comes after a summer where the months of June, July and August were each the hottest ever recorded in Switzerland since measurements began in 1864, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology.
This year, the protective snow cover on the glaciers had already partially disappeared during the June heatwaves, and had completely disappeared by September, even at high altitudes, GLAMOS said.
"Alpine glaciers have no chance of surviving in the long term under such conditions," GLAMOS said in a statement.
Due to significant melting this year, the researchers even had to reposition measurement stakes -- including on the highest-altitude glaciers -- further up after the ice melted away in the original locations.
The average ice thickness of some glaciers decreased by 2.5 to 4.0 metres, while the more exposed glacier tongues saw losses of up to 10 metres of thickness over the summer.
 

Rhone and Aletsch Glaciers

 
Although temperatures were higher this year, the ice loss did not surpass the record set in 2022, since many glaciers saw more snow before the summer melt than they had four years ago.
Less dust from the Sahara Desert also settled on the glaciers this year, allowing more sunlight to be reflected back into the atmosphere rather than being absorbed by the snow.
There were exceptions, however.
Four major glaciers experienced record melting this year, including the iconic Rhone Glacier and the Aletsch -- the biggest glacier in the Alps.
As the glaciers retreat, concern is meanwhile growing over the future availability of water resources.
Between July and September this year, the glaciers lost a total of around 2.2 trillion litres of water.
Huss said that quantity was "difficult to imagine".
"It's more than four times the annual freshwater consumption of Swiss households," he pointed out.
elm-apo/nl/rjm/cw

pollution

Plastic treaty talks chair sees deal possible in March

BY SARA HUSSEIN

  •   - Pragmatism -    Sources told AFP some countries are increasingly supportive of a document that would offer options, with more ambitious countries choosing to limit production or certain products, while others do not.
  • Countries negotiating a world-first treaty to limit plastic pollution are less divided than before and a deal could be agreed in March, the diplomat chairing the talks told AFP on Thursday.
  •   - Pragmatism -    Sources told AFP some countries are increasingly supportive of a document that would offer options, with more ambitious countries choosing to limit production or certain products, while others do not.
Countries negotiating a world-first treaty to limit plastic pollution are less divided than before and a deal could be agreed in March, the diplomat chairing the talks told AFP on Thursday.
Chilean ambassador Julio Cordano took over the role earlier this year after his predecessor resigned, and with the talks having overrun their initial schedule by more than a year.
But speaking in Bangkok after informal closed-door talks with heads of delegations, Cordano said he was hopeful a deal could be clinched at the next official round of negotiations.
"My plan and my expectation is that we will be able to adopt the treaty in INC 5.4 (March meeting), if we follow the correct steps, if we make consistent progress, and if we complete the roadmap that I presented," he said.
Work on a treaty to address plastic pollution began in 2022 with a two-year timeline.
But crunch talks in South Korea in 2024 fell apart, and a renewed effort in Geneva the following year made no progress either.
A majority of nations have called for ambitious, legally binding measures to curb production of plastic, which is expected to triple by 2060.
But a smaller bloc of mostly oil-producing states -- including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Russia -- have pushed back against such restrictions, seeking to focus more narrowly on waste management. 
Ahead of the Bangkok talks, Cordano released an "aid to negotiations" -- a non-binding outline of a possible treaty, with brackets around the most contentious sections.
These are mostly the same issues that sank previous rounds, including a cap on plastic production, mention of human health, and designating problematic plastic products or chemicals of concern.
But Cordano insisted countries were not as far apart as they might seem.
"I think you would be surprised to hear members on these topics. I think they are much more closer than simply binary positions that are irreconcilable," he said.
 
- Pragmatism - 
 
Sources told AFP some countries are increasingly supportive of a document that would offer options, with more ambitious countries choosing to limit production or certain products, while others do not.
Cordano said the idea of "different pathways or different departure points" was "embedded in our mandate."
He also called for pragmatism and a focus on the end goal of a treaty.
"There's more than one way to achieve that, and I think members are realising that."
There are still serious disputes to resolve however, including mechanisms for adopting a treaty and amending it in the future.
Some countries want all decisions to be made by consensus, which opponents say allows a small minority to block progress.
Cordano said his goal remained a "treaty that will be accepted by everyone," but he acknowledged concerns about future application of a deal if consensus is the rule.
It is "about how can we collectively understand and come up with a system that would allow this treaty in the future to be effective, not to be stopped, not to be frozen because there is no consensus," he said.
The diplomat expects to release a new "aid to negotiations next month, before a last round of informal talks in January.
"Everybody sees that this is a problem that requires a solution," he said.
"I think people are seeing eye-to-eye... I think this is a reason to be optimistic."
sah/hmn

Singapore

Indonesia haze chokes neighbours, but little legal recourse

BY JAN HENNOP

  • It is not the first time Indonesian haze has caused a regional pollution crisis, but neighbouring countries have few options for legal recourse, experts say:   - Case at the ICJ -   Suggestions that Malaysia and Singapore take Indonesia to the UN's highest judicial organ, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, face a basic obstacle: "The main issue is jurisdiction, as the ICJ generally requires the consent of both states," said Professor Mohd Hazmi Mohd Rusli of Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia.
  • Haze from Indonesian wildfires has blanketed neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore for more than a month, closing schools and sending respiratory complaints skyrocketing.
  • It is not the first time Indonesian haze has caused a regional pollution crisis, but neighbouring countries have few options for legal recourse, experts say:   - Case at the ICJ -   Suggestions that Malaysia and Singapore take Indonesia to the UN's highest judicial organ, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, face a basic obstacle: "The main issue is jurisdiction, as the ICJ generally requires the consent of both states," said Professor Mohd Hazmi Mohd Rusli of Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia.
Haze from Indonesian wildfires has blanketed neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore for more than a month, closing schools and sending respiratory complaints skyrocketing.
It is not the first time Indonesian haze has caused a regional pollution crisis, but neighbouring countries have few options for legal recourse, experts say:
 

Case at the ICJ

 
Suggestions that Malaysia and Singapore take Indonesia to the UN's highest judicial organ, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, face a basic obstacle:
"The main issue is jurisdiction, as the ICJ generally requires the consent of both states," said Professor Mohd Hazmi Mohd Rusli of Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia.
The ICJ can only hear a dispute where states have accepted its jurisdiction, for example through a special agreement, compatible declarations recognising the court's compulsory jurisdiction, or a treaty clause referring disputes to it.
Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore are neither signatories nor parties to the 1979 Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, a European-centred treaty framework intended to curb cross-border air pollution.
And experts agree Indonesia would be unlikely to willingly accept ICJ jurisdiction on the issue.
All three countries are parties to the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, but the 2002 deal has no clause on litigation before the ICJ.
 
- What about ASEAN? - 
 
The ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution is a legally binding regional treaty, intended to prevent and monitor cross-border haze from land and forest fires, and to mitigate its effects.
But its enforcement provisions are limited.
"It is legally binding, but it does not provide a mechanism for one member state to simply sue another," said Hazmi.
Instead, it seeks to solve the problem through "national action and regional cooperation".
Legal analysts say ASEAN's emphasis on consensus, sovereignty and non-interference puts the brakes on how much diplomatic pressure can be applied to member states over domestic land management and fire enforcement.
"For now, I think the more practical approach is stronger ASEAN cooperation, including hotspot monitoring, information sharing, prevention and stronger enforcement against illegal burning," Hazmi said.
 
- Civil action - 
 
One option could be for Malaysians or Singaporeans to try to sue companies linked to the fires in an Indonesian court, said Azam Hawari, a legal expert at the environmental law charity, ClientEarth.
However, "claimants would need to show a link between the company's activities, the haze that reached them, and their losses," Azam said, adding he was not aware of such a case having been brought successfully.
Added Hazmi: "Transboundary haze does not automatically mean Indonesia is internationally responsible."
"There must still be sufficient evidence to establish the link between activities in Indonesia and the harm suffered in Malaysia or Singapore," he said.
 

Previous attempts

 
Singapore enacted its own Transboundary haze Pollution Act in 2014, after pollution levels spiked into hazardous territory the year before, followed by another episode in 2015.
The law aimed to punish companies whose activities outside Singapore caused or contributed to unhealthy levels of haze in Singapore.
Enforcement proved a major weakness because it relied heavily on cooperation from foreign authorities.
Establishing responsibility was also challenging because it required authorities to share maps pinpointing fire hotspots, and conflicting or overlapping land rights could further complicate matters.
Bringing a case against some companies with no presence in Singapore also made collecting fines or damages hard.
Singapore's investigations into four Indonesian companies over their alleged role in the 2015 transboundary haze remain open and proved a source of diplomatic tensions with Jakarta at the time.
Singapore will now most likely "wait for Indonesia to finger certain companies first before we take action against these same companies under the Act", said Professor Alan Tan, an environmental law expert at the National University of Singapore.
"Otherwise, any action that Singapore takes would appear to the Indonesians to be unilateral, and could be politically controversial."
Tan said: "Regrettably, not much has changed by way of how the root causes of fires remain unaddressed in Indonesia."
str-jhe/sah/abs

transport

Cable car offers small hope for Mongolia's gridlocked capital

BY PETER CATTERALL AND EENEE PUREVDORJ

  • - 'Exhausted' and ill - During cold winters, Ulaanbaatar is frequently ranked as one of the world's most polluted cities and regularly exceeds World Health Organization recommendations for air quality.
  • Mongolia's capital Ulaanbaatar has long been plagued by notorious traffic jams and suffocating winter smog -- the result of breakneck urban growth and infrastructure that has struggled to keep up.
  • - 'Exhausted' and ill - During cold winters, Ulaanbaatar is frequently ranked as one of the world's most polluted cities and regularly exceeds World Health Organization recommendations for air quality.
Mongolia's capital Ulaanbaatar has long been plagued by notorious traffic jams and suffocating winter smog -- the result of breakneck urban growth and infrastructure that has struggled to keep up.
Developers now hope that a 4.2-kilometre (2.6-mile) cross-river cable car might help on the margins, cutting a three-hour journey to just minutes.
Weary residents, however, have long wished for a more ambitious response to the city's heavy traffic and pollution problems.
"I think (the cable car) might improve things a bit," 68-year-old Narantsetseg Aleksandr told AFP in one of Ulaanbaatar's sprawling northern suburbs.
"For families living up on these -remote hillside areas, cable cars could be very beneficial since they wouldn't have to rely entirely on buses," he said.
Authorities have long touted various plans to reduce pollution and traffic, which sound "effective on paper" but ended up being "mostly talk", he said.
"There isn't much actual work or real tangible progress being made."
For more than a decade, an underground metro system has been touted for the city to tackle congestion -- but work has yet to begin.
For 25-year-old truck driver Enkhbayar Myanganbayar, metro promises always seemed "far beyond realistic expectations" as congestion in the capital has worsened.
"Ever since I was a child, various ministers have promised to build a metro," he told AFP.
"It was obvious from the start that it was untrue."

'A lot of sense'

In contrast, the Tuul River cable car -- spearheaded by French firm Poma with a concessional loan from the French government -- is already under development and expected to be completed by the end of the year, potentially followed by more lines.
"The project's cost is low and construction is very fast compared with a metro," project manager Cecile Broi told AFP.
Mongolia's capital has expanded significantly since the end of the Soviet-allied communist era.
In 1990, it was home to around half a million people. Now, Ulaanbaatar's population exceeds 1.5 million.
While the city centre is nestled in the Tuul River valley, its sprawling suburbs stretch into the surrounding mountainous areas.
The project is a "perfect illustration of a situation where cable transport makes a lot of sense", Broi said.
By car, getting between the line's two stations can take as long as three hours when traffic is at its worst, she said, while a ride on the cable car will take just 12 minutes.
Construction on the electric cable car, which Poma says will be capable of transporting 2,300 passengers per hour, began last March.
The line will soar over a major thoroughfare, as well as the wide Tuul River floodplain and the Trans-Mongolian Railway.

'Exhausted' and ill 

During cold winters, Ulaanbaatar is frequently ranked as one of the world's most polluted cities and regularly exceeds World Health Organization recommendations for air quality.
For 42-year-old resident Erdenejargal Khorolsuren, solutions could not come fast enough.
She told AFP that the city's incessant traffic has negatively impacted her son's education.
Five years ago, when he began attending a school across the city, "he was full of energy and enthusiasm, but over time the long commute exhausted him", she said.
"His motivation to attend school plummeted and he became constantly fatigued and sick with frequent headaches."
Narantsetseg said that air pollution severely affects quality of life, particularly during the frigid winters when residents in the "ger" districts -- named after traditional nomadic dwellings -- burn coal or other solid fuels to heat their homes.
"Schoolchildren cough a lot from the smoke and catch frequent colds... Buying medicine when (they) get sick puts a real financial strain on us," he said.
Broi, the project manager, acknowledged that a single cable car line will not be a panacea for all of Ulaanbaatar's longstanding woes.
"The usual model is to build a cable transport system that... allows the public to discover the technology, understand how it works and become familiar with this mode of transport," she said.
"Of course, the idea afterwards is to build more of them."
bur-pfc/dhw/rox/ami/ceg

food

Rice work: Dutch test new crop to save sinking peatlands

BY RICHARD CARTER

  • She said the rice being harvested now was a grain from northern Japan, which seems the best adapted to Dutch conditions.
  • In a soggy field between Amsterdam and The Hague, farmer Sander Roeleveld ploughs a small white combine harvester into his crops, gathering a grain never before harvested in the Netherlands: rice.
  • She said the rice being harvested now was a grain from northern Japan, which seems the best adapted to Dutch conditions.
In a soggy field between Amsterdam and The Hague, farmer Sander Roeleveld ploughs a small white combine harvester into his crops, gathering a grain never before harvested in the Netherlands: rice.
The surroundings could scarcely be more Dutch. Canals criss-cross polders lying two metres below sea level. Windmills grace the horizon as cows -- for centuries the country's agricultural staple -- graze in the nearby grassland.
But the warming climate is allowing Dutch farmers to produce wine and now even experiment with rice, previously unthinkable in such a wet, temperate country.
And researchers behind the scheme hope rice cultivation could help address one of the country's most pressing environmental challenges: peat soils that are sinking as they dry out, pushing parts of the low-lying Netherlands ever lower.
"It's extraordinary," said Philippe Terheggen, chairman of the Land van Ons association that has provided the fields for the rice harvest.
"We would never have thought maybe 20 years ago that we would be able to grow rice in the Netherlands," the 68-year-old told AFP as the harvester whirred behind him.
"But it's also scary because it tells you what is possible... now the climate has changed," he said.
For now, the project is a pilot scheme, consisting of just 0.6 hectares (1.5 acres), with organisers hoping to produce around three tonnes of short-grain rice suitable for sushi or risotto.
The team is working with around 30 different rice cultivars from as far afield as Russia, China, Japan and Uzbekistan, to see which grows best in the Dutch climate.
Roeleveld, who describes himself as a "pioneer", said he wanted to show other farmers that rice could grow in boggy Dutch soil.
"My goal is to show that more things are possible on wetland than just grass," the 53-year-old told AFP.
"Of course, when you have had cows for 600 years, it's really hard to imagine that you want to do something else than having milk from your cow," he laughed.
"I just want to show that things can be changed for the benefit of the future."
 

'Crazy idea'

 
But the project is about much more than crop diversification. Researchers believe it could help tackle one of the Netherlands' most persistent environmental problems.
Roughly one-tenth of the country is peatland, which farmers drain for grass to feed their cattle.
As the peat dries out, it releases millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide while causing the land to subside by up to several centimetres a year in the worst-affected areas.
According to Wageningen University, greenhouse gas emissions from Dutch peat soils account for around two to three percent of the country's total emissions.
The only way to resolve this vicious cycle is to keep the fields wet -- but then farmers would have nothing to grow there... until now.
"Basically it started with just a crazy idea," explained Julian Helfenstein, a researcher from Wageningen University and Research, who is piloting the project along with colleagues from nearby Leiden University.
It is a rare combination of both adapting to climate change and mitigating its effects, said the 36-year-old.
"Rice is an opportunity for this part of the world to adapt to climate change, so to grow something that previously wasn't possible," he said.
"But also to mitigate climate change because it stops this peat from degrading and emitting all the CO2 because you can keep it wet."
The peat issue affects not just the Netherlands, but much of northern Europe, including Germany, Belgium, even the Baltic states, he said.
Helfenstein and his team are closely monitoring the CO2 and methane emissions from cultivating rice compared to maintaining grassland -- to ensure the cure is not worse than the illness.
"So far the results are promising," he said.
"As an environmental scientist, you're always pointing to the problems. And it can be a bit depressing, like, 'oh, here's more climate change, here's more pollution'," said Helfenstein.
"And then here's an opportunity for science to work also towards a solution. So I find that thrilling."
 

'Chewy, but great'

 
Local restaurants have already voiced an interest in offering premium Dutch-sourced rice, said Guusje van der Vossen from the Wij Land association which helps farmers transition to more sustainable production.
She said the rice being harvested now was a grain from northern Japan, which seems the best adapted to Dutch conditions.
The 27-year-old is one of the few people ever to have eaten Dutch-grown rice -- from an experimental batch grown last year.
"It tasted delicious, to be honest," she laughed, saying the aim was to make sushi with it -- and maybe sake.
"It was a bit chewy, but also great."
ric/sbk/abs

Panama

Empty nets in Latin America as fish flee El Nino

BY WITH JUAN JOSE RODRIGUEZ IN PANAMA

  • El Nino is the warming phase of a natural cycle in the tropical Pacific that causes hotter and drier conditions in some places, and cooler and wetter in others.
  • Fishermen along Latin America's Pacific coast are reeling in half-empty nets as ocean warming aggravated by El Nino causes tuna, anchovies and other top catches to migrate to cooler waters.
  • El Nino is the warming phase of a natural cycle in the tropical Pacific that causes hotter and drier conditions in some places, and cooler and wetter in others.
Fishermen along Latin America's Pacific coast are reeling in half-empty nets as ocean warming aggravated by El Nino causes tuna, anchovies and other top catches to migrate to cooler waters.
From Ecuador and Peru in South America, to Panama and Guatemala in Central America, some skippers have stopped going out altogether as fish stocks dwindle close to shore, in seas running at up to six degrees Celsius above normal.
"The water is warm," Juan Ollague, 56, told AFP in the southwestern Ecuadoran port of Santa Rosa where hundreds of idle fishing boats are crammed into a small port.
After a night on the water, Ollague returns with just six small tuna. 
"We came away empty-handed," he lamented.
"Fishing used to be good, now it's terrible," fellow skipper Darwin Zambrano, 53, complained as he untangled a net that hasn't scooped up big tuna like albacore or bonito in weeks.
El Nino is the warming phase of a natural cycle in the tropical Pacific that causes hotter and drier conditions in some places, and cooler and wetter in others.
This year's "super" El Nino, which is expected to peak later this year, is already wreaking havoc in Central America, where drought is endangering animals and stunting crops.
The average sea surface temperature, excluding polar regions, reached 21.07C in August, tying with March 2024 as the hottest on record, according to the European Union's Copernicus climage change observatory.
The average sea temperatures off Ecuador's coast rose by 2.5-3C at the surface and up to 6C at a depth of 40 meters in the past ten weeks, said oceanographer Jonathan Cedeno, who led a mission from Guayaquil's Polytechnic University to measure the temperatures. 

'Losing money'

On Panama's Pacific coast, Rigoberto Gonzalez said he has to sail further and further from shore to earn a living.
This means spending more on food, ice to preserve the fish, and fuel for the small boat he uses to catch snapper, kingfish and barracuda. 
"We go out with $100 worth of gas, and when we come back, we earn $150" from sales of the fish, which has to be divided among four workers, Gonzalez, 59, told AFP, on Veracruz beach.
In nearby Panama City, some fishermen have thrown in the towel and decided to remain in port.
"We can't keep losing money," Jesus Morales, leader of the artisanal fishermen's union of Panama, said.
Further north, in Iztapa, Guatemala, 50-year-old Eliseo Ovando said it now takes three days to catch what he used to pull from the water in a day, and complains that only commercial fisheries receive government assistance to ride out the shortages.
"The big fish eat the little ones," he said, referring to the struggles of small-scale operators like himself.
In Peru, the world's biggest catcher of anchovies, fishermen are turning to construction to feed their families as their tiny prey slips out of reach.

Economic ripple effect

 
In Panama City, the poor yields are visible at a wholesale fish market next to the dock that supplies the city's supermarkets. 
"Less is arriving" off the boats, says Carlos Nieto, a 46-year-old vendor. And sometimes the catch is "damaged by the heat," he said.
Nieto now spends about $600 a month on ice, "practically a whole salary."
For now, vendors in Panama haven't passed on their higher costs and reduced income to consumers in the form of significantly higher prices.
But in Ecuador, the world's second-largest tuna producer after Thailand, the prices of mahi-mahi (also known as dorado) and swordfish have doubled due to the shortage, according to the industry.
In Santa Rosa, the sea's dwindling bounty has a knock-on effect, leading to the temporary closure of food stalls along the port.
Francisco Orlando, who earns a living filleting fish, is worried that he could soon be out of a job.
"We're hoping they (fishermen) catch fish," the 37-year-old explained as he sharpened his knives to separate the bones from the meat. 
"If they do, we work. If they don't, we don't." 
vid-sp-axm/pld/jjr/cb/sla

bear

First Hollywood, now Fat Bear Week: nepobaby wins Alaska contest

  • Backpack's victory -- by a razor-thin margin of just 5,000 votes out of 200,000 cast for the final alone -- continues something of a family tradition: his mother Holly is a previous winner.
  • The winner of this year's Fat Bear Week has been crowned after a nail-biting final -- and it's the son of a former champion.
  • Backpack's victory -- by a razor-thin margin of just 5,000 votes out of 200,000 cast for the final alone -- continues something of a family tradition: his mother Holly is a previous winner.
The winner of this year's Fat Bear Week has been crowned after a nail-biting final -- and it's the son of a former champion.
Backpack, a 20-year-old male beloved by rangers in Alaska for his quiet determination, edged out female fellow finalist Dancing Queen in the annual ursine eating competition at Katmai National Park.
More than 2.3 million people voted in the week-long competition that sees bears unwittingly jostle in a series of head-to-head contests to decide which one of them has most impressively piled on the pounds ahead of hibernation.
Viewers watch a livestream of the enormous animals as they scoop salmon from the Brooks River, while visitors to a dedicated website can browse biographies of some of the top contenders, including before-and-after pictures showing how much weight the bears have gained over a summer of feasting.
Backpack's victory -- by a razor-thin margin of just 5,000 votes out of 200,000 cast for the final alone -- continues something of a family tradition: his mother Holly is a previous winner.
The animal, known officially by the more prosaic name Bear 89, was nicknamed Backpack by rangers who noted his habit of climbing on his mother's back when she swam across the river.
He previously suffered a leg injury that left him with a limp and has apparently adapted his lifestyle, preferring to spend his time lazing on a rock, rather than fighting with fellow bears.
"Unlike many large adult male bears, Backpack hasn't shown much aggression toward his competitors," his contestant profile says.
Sarah Bruce, a Katmai park ranger, told Alaska Public Media that Backpack now weighs around 1,200 pounds (544 kilograms) and is a clear fan favorite.
"He's one of the bears that we've been able to watch on the live cams since the live cams were put in in 2012," she said.
The bears of Katmai spend summer and early autumn gorging themselves on salmon as they look to bulk up ahead of a long winter of hibernation.
For five months, the creatures will not eat or drink, slowing all bodily functions as they shelter away from the harsh Alaskan weather.
While the increasingly popular annual competition is largely for fun, organisers say it is helpful in raising awareness of brown bears and their Alaskan habitats, as well as the risks they face from human activity.
hg/pnb

oceans

Polar oceans transformed as warming melts ice habitats: research

  • The Copernicus Ocean State Report depicts profound changes across the world's seas, from record-breaking heatwaves in the Mediterranean and Black seas to shifts in marine ecosystems and increasingly acidic waters.
  •   Climate change is increasingly reshaping the polar oceans, with Arctic waters warming rapidly, sea ice shrinking and wildlife losing habitat at both ends of the planet, an annual report said Wednesday.
  • The Copernicus Ocean State Report depicts profound changes across the world's seas, from record-breaking heatwaves in the Mediterranean and Black seas to shifts in marine ecosystems and increasingly acidic waters.
 
Climate change is increasingly reshaping the polar oceans, with Arctic waters warming rapidly, sea ice shrinking and wildlife losing habitat at both ends of the planet, an annual report said Wednesday.
The Copernicus Ocean State Report depicts profound changes across the world's seas, from record-breaking heatwaves in the Mediterranean and Black seas to shifts in marine ecosystems and increasingly acidic waters.
"The message is very clear. The ocean is changing rapidly," said Pierre Bahurel, director general of Mercator Ocean International, which runs the European Union's Copernicus Marine Service.
Some of the more dramatic effects from global warming are taking place in the poles, which occupy around 20 percent of the global ocean surface.
The Arctic's combined sea surface and sea-ice surface temperature rose 4.2C between 1982 and 2024, or around 1C per decade, according to the 10th annual oceans report.
By comparison, global sea surface temperatures have been increasing by 0.12C per decade.
In the Kara Sea north of Siberia, temperatures have climbed by 6.7C since 1982, or 1.68C per decade.
As temperatures rise, Arctic sea ice has shrunk by nearly half a million square kilometres per decade since 1979, equivalent to losing an area the size of Spain every 10 years.
The retreating ice exposes Arctic coastlines to waves, worsening coastal erosion and raising risks for coastal communities and infrastructure, the report warned.
"The Arctic sea ice has been declining since the early 80s, leaving around 60 percent of coastal infrastructure vulnerable to erosion and sea level rise," Karina von Schuckmann, director of the oceans report, said in a media briefing.
Ice loss in Antarctica, meanwhile, is threatening penguin populations on the frozen continent.
Record-low Antarctic sea ice in 2022 coincided with the first-ever recorded large-scale breeding failure of emperor penguins, the report said.
Emperor penguins rely on stable sea ice to live, hunt and breed and their chicks can perish if they fall in freezing water before developing waterproof feathers.
In April, emperor penguins were upgraded from "near threatened" to "endangered" by the IUCN, the global authority on threatened wildlife.
More than 90 percent of emperor penguin colonies could be near-extinct by 2100 if sea ice loss persists at its current rate.
lt-aag/np/giv

commission

Truth commission demands compensation for Sweden's Sami people

BY JOHANNES LEDEL

  • In June 2023, a commission set up by Norway's parliament delivered a damning report on historical injustices against and attempts to assimilate indigenous Sami, Kvens and other ethnic Finnish people, and in November 2024, Norway's parliament formally apologised to the minorities.
  • A Swedish truth commission on Wednesday urged the state to apologise for injustices committed against its indigenous Sami people, including assimilation programmes, and provide compensation and redress.
  • In June 2023, a commission set up by Norway's parliament delivered a damning report on historical injustices against and attempts to assimilate indigenous Sami, Kvens and other ethnic Finnish people, and in November 2024, Norway's parliament formally apologised to the minorities.
A Swedish truth commission on Wednesday urged the state to apologise for injustices committed against its indigenous Sami people, including assimilation programmes, and provide compensation and redress.
The Truth Commission for the Sami People presented 71 proposals to the government, authorities, museums and Church of Sweden "to acknowledge and take responsibility, compensate for the human rights of the Sami people and find a way forward based on equality and respect" for those rights.
"Discrimination against Sami, racism, hatred and threats must cease," the commission said in a statement hours before it presented its final report to the government.
There are an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 Sami people across the vast Arctic wilderness of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and Russia's Kola peninsula.
They have lived by hunting, fishing and reindeer herding for thousands of years, and been subjected to colonisation for centuries.
Sweden's truth commission, set up in 2021, was tasked with charting and investigating the policies affecting the Sami and their implementation.
 

Children taken away

 
The commission presented its final report to the government at a ceremony in the city of Ostersund, known as Staare in the Southern Sami language.
"The Commission's report shows that, for a long time, the state and the church controlled who was considered Sami and the conditions of Sami life," the head of the commission Lena Nyberg said.
Among other abuses, Nyberg said that "children were forced away from their families to be raised in nomad schools, work homes and boarding schools, in order to be segregated or assimilated."   
"This has of course affected the entire lives of these children, their children's lives, and their grandchildren's lives," Nyberg said.
She also said the state still to this day was "violating the human rights of the Sami".
"The state must acknowledge and offer compensation for this, and create the conditions needed to heal wounds and be able to move forward," Nyberg said.
Reindeer herding has been a bone of contention for years, with the Sami insisting their land rights in vast swathes of the north are at threat from industry, including mining, forestry, wind and hydro power required for the green transition. 
In 2021, the Lutheran Church of Sweden apologised for centuries of "severe violations of human dignity" against the Sami people.
 

Forced Christian conversion

 
A central part of the commission's work has been to gather testimony from Sami people about their experiences, collating some 300 interviews and written accounts.
The persecution of the Sami, Europe's only indigenous people, goes back to the 17th century, when the state began colonising and exploiting their resource-rich lands.
They were first brutally forced to adopt Christianity and abandon their shamanism, before assimilation efforts intensified in the 19th and 20th centuries as the far north's economic importance grew.
In June 2023, a commission set up by Norway's parliament delivered a damning report on historical injustices against and attempts to assimilate indigenous Sami, Kvens and other ethnic Finnish people, and in November 2024, Norway's parliament formally apologised to the minorities.
In December 2025, a Finnish truth and reconciliation commission called on Finland to rectify injustices committed against the Sami.
jll-po/rlp

environment

Haze pushes Kuala Lumpur, Singapore into world's most polluted cities

BY ISAAC CHONG WITH TARYN NG IN SINGAPORE

  • Singapore ranked third at 155.
  • Malaysia's capital topped a global pollution ranking on Wednesday and nearby Singapore came in third, with smoke from wildfires in neighbouring Indonesia blamed for the unhealthy conditions.
  • Singapore ranked third at 155.
Malaysia's capital topped a global pollution ranking on Wednesday and nearby Singapore came in third, with smoke from wildfires in neighbouring Indonesia blamed for the unhealthy conditions.
A milky haze has shrouded the cities for more than a month as smoke drifted from fires on Borneo and Sumatra islands.
Kuala Lumpur was the world's most polluted major city early on Wednesday, according to Swiss monitor IQAir, with an Air Quality Index (AQI) reading of 166. Singapore ranked third at 155.
The AQI converts measurements of pollutants into a single figure indicating air quality and potential health risks. Readings above 150 are classified as unhealthy, while levels above 300 are considered hazardous.
"It's really impacting our health and also the visibility," said Izzah Irdina, 22, a recent graduate from Kuala Lumpur.
"During this haze I can't even see the Merdeka 118," she said, referring to the world's second-tallest building.
"In another two months I hope the haze will end," added Izzah, who said she mostly stayed indoors.
Anusuriyeh, 41, told AFP she was "not sure when it's going to end because it's a natural disaster".
"But I'm taking daily vitamins to keep my vitality, and my children too are wearing a mask and taking vitamins," said the employee of Malaysia's petroleum giant Petronas.
Transboundary haze is a recurring problem in Southeast Asia, but this year's episode has been particularly severe.
Hot, dry conditions associated with the El Nino weather phenomenon have fuelled the fires in Indonesia, which are also linked to land clearing, making the blazes harder to contain.
 

'Pray for rain'

 
In Singapore, 18-year-old student Darius Chew, who suffers from allergic rhinitis, said the haze had forced him to reduce his sporting activities.
"I've cut down on sports because it's really hard to continue as soon as I start sneezing," Chew told AFP.
Fellow student Ryan Ang, 18, who has asthma, said he had been sneezing more frequently and suffering from a runny nose, particularly in the mornings and at night.
"I'm not really cutting down on outdoor activities much, but it's affecting my health a bit," Ang said.
"You can't really do as much as you want to do," he added.
Retired Singaporean Athirah Abudullah, 69, said the haze has had less impact on her because she spends most of her time indoors.
She ventured out mainly for groceries and prayers at the mosque, but said her granddaughter, who suffered from eczema, had been affected by the haze.
"We have no choice, we just face it," Athirah said.
"We just pray for rain every day."
strs/jhe/ami

environment

Ivory Coast clamps down on harmful illegal gold rush

BY MARIETOU BA

  •   - 'Suited everyone' -   Artisanal prospectors began mining gold illegally on a large scale in Ivory Coast in the 2000s, at a time when violent political crises weakened the state. 
  • A gaping hole in the ground dug by a hundred prospectors is all that is left of an illegal gold mine in Ivory Coast, one of many the state has vowed to eradicate within six months.
  •   - 'Suited everyone' -   Artisanal prospectors began mining gold illegally on a large scale in Ivory Coast in the 2000s, at a time when violent political crises weakened the state. 
A gaping hole in the ground dug by a hundred prospectors is all that is left of an illegal gold mine in Ivory Coast, one of many the state has vowed to eradicate within six months.
Near the central village of Baziafla, flanked by tall grass, the pit was excavated over several weeks with spades, pickaxes and crushers, before the miners were driven out of town by the local authorities.
As across much of west Africa, particularly Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mali, Ivory Coast is experiencing a boom in both legal and illegal artisanal gold mining, the latter of which the government has condemned as a "scourge". 
Besides damaging the environment and the health of locals nearby, the profits from illegal mining help finance the jihadists and armed groups running rampant across the neighbouring Sahel region, according to experts.
The black market for irregularly mined gold represents millions of dollars that would have otherwise ended up in the Ivorian state's coffers. 
The government toughened prison sentences this month to up to 20 years, stepped up surveillance measures and increased the number of brigades deployed in a bid to tackle the issue.
At the same time, the local authorities have intensified their warnings. 
"To put an end to illegal gold mining, we have to stamp out all forms of complicity," local official Gueu Georges Gombagui told AFP. 
His region of Mara
 
houe is among those most pockmarked by artisanal pits, with around 15 mines identified, including the one near Baziafla.
 
- 'Nothing else to do' - 
 
"From today, you will have to watch over your villages," Gombagui told around 100 local officials gathered in the village of Tibeita on a recent morning, urging them to "denounce" the prospectors and their accomplices. 
By his side, the regional mining and geology director, Souleymane Sanogo, took aim at a climate of indulgence which allows irregular miners to thrive. 
Among the culprits: owners letting their land, the youths delivering the fuel to run the mining machinery, but also "certain officials" in both Ivory Coast and abroad financing illegal mines to reap the profits. 
Yet, on the ground, everyone denies having a hand in the trade. 
When the prospectors are at work -- sometimes for months at a time -- "we do hear the noises", Baziafla's interim leader David You Bi Bolou said.
But "we don't have the strength necessary to go and interrupt them", he insisted. 
Women are recruited to wash away the mud to reveal the nuggets of the precious metal, conceded Jacqueline Djangone, the head of the village women's association. 
But she denies ever having done so herself.
Illegal prospecting "is an activity that young people get into because there's nothing else to do", acknowledged Michael Gohore Bi Vro, the deputy leader of Baziafla's youth organisation.
He, too, said he abstains from getting involved due to the damage illegal mining does to the land, especially as a result of the chemicals used for extracting gold. 
"We can't grow anything anymore," he said. 
The damage has even spread to Lake Kossou, Ivory Coast's largest, and an important source of water for the region.
After dredging up Kossou's sediments and using mercury to bind the gold into nuggets, the prospectors dump their toxic waste back in the lake, raged Gombagui, the prefect.
"The fish are no longer able to reproduce," he said. 
 

'Suited everyone'

 
Artisanal prospectors began mining gold illegally on a large scale in Ivory Coast in the 2000s, at a time when violent political crises weakened the state. 
After returning to stability, the mining business has boomed.
Between 2012 and 2023, official gold production nearly quadrupled from 13 to 51 tonnes, while the country also boasts veins of iron, diamonds, nickel, manganese, bauxite, copper and coltan. 
On top of the legal boom, the state has attempted to clamp down on clandestine prospecting. 
Since 2021, nearly 4,500 people, 65 percent of them foreigners, were dragged before the courts on irregular mining charges, according to official statistics. 
Over that time, the authorities have dismantled 8,500 illegal pits. 
But critics say that only the small-time players ever get arrested, with the ringleaders most often getting off scot-free. 
Around 200 kilometres (124 miles) from Baziafla in the commune of Bore, dozens of pits dug near the main road provide evidence of the recent presence of gold miners, chased out by the authorities at the beginning of September.
In one neighbourhood of the small town, many shacks where the prospectors lived and did business for more than a decade have also been destroyed.
"Gold mining suited everyone," one young resident said.
bam/sbk/kjm