Category: Environment

January 9, 2011 (AFP) – At least seven people, including two children, were killed in mudslides in Sri Lanka where more than 750,000 people have been driven out of their homes by floods, officials said Sunday. The island’s two main monsoon seasons run from May to September and December to February. A six-year-old boy and […]

January 9, 2011 (AFP) – Two children were buried alive in mudslides on Sunday in Sri Lanka where more than 600,000 people have been driven out of their homes by floods, officials said. A six-year-old boy and a nine-year-old girl were killed in separate incidents in the district of Badulla. Heavy rains have caused flooding […]

Dec 16, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan tea firm Eswaran Brothers Exports has got ‘Carbon Neutral’ certification by reducing emissions and buying carbon offsets from a biomass renewable energy project on a tea estate, a statement said. “It’s among the initial steps we have taken in our drive to become a truly ethical and sustainable […]

CANCUN, December 11, 2010 (AFP) – Global talks on climate change on Saturday set up a new fund to manage billions of dollars in aid to poor nations in a hard-fought package urging deep cuts in industrial emissions. After two weeks of talks in Mexico and two virtually sleepless final days, more than 190 countries […]

Sri Lanka turns former Tiger hideout into wildlife sanctuary November 30, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka is to turn a vast jungle area that was a base for the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels into a wildlife sanctuary, 18 months after the end of island’s bloody civil war, the government said Tuesday. The jungles of Mullaittivu, […]

Nov 13, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has drafted a national strategy for climate change adaptation with the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), a statement said. The ADB, working with the Ministry of Environment, has given technical assistance for a new framework to enable Sri Lanka’s economy and people to cope with climate […]

PENANG, November 10, 2010 (AFP) – Overfishing in Southeast Asian seas has left garoupas and sea bass in dire straits, searching for mates on denuded seabeds, according to experts alarmed by ever-declining catches. Marine scientists and fishermen say that popular fish species — especially the large and valuable ones — have been caught indiscriminately, causing […]

SYDNEY, November 5, 2010 (AFP) – Archaeologists Friday revealed they have found a piece of a stone axe dated as 35,500 years old on sacred Aboriginal land in Australia, the oldest object of its type ever found. The shard of stone, found in Australia’s lush and remote far northern reaches in May, has marks that […]

PARIS, November 4, 2010 (AFP) – Physicists in Scotland said on Thursday they had devised a flexible material that manipulates light, marking a small step towards “invisibility” clothing beloved of science fiction writers and Harry Potter. The work is in the domain of metamaterials, or compounds with a surface that interacts with light thanks to […]

WASHINGTON, October 29, 2010 (AFP) – One out of four Sun-like stars in our Milky Way galaxy could host Earth-size planets, making life-bearing systems like ours possibly more common than previously thought, an astronomical study said Thursday. Dubbed the most extensive planetary census of its kind, the NASA-funded study at the University of California, Berkeley […]

JAKARTA, October 27, 2010 (AFP) – At least 112 people were killed and hundreds remained missing in Indonesia Wednesday after a tsunami triggered by a powerful earthquake smashed into a remote island chain, washing away entire villages. Another 25 people have been killed after the eruption of the country’s most active volcano, as the force […]

SYDNEY, October 19, 2010 (AFP) – Coral reefs in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean are dying from the worst bleaching effect in more than a decade, Australian marine scientists said Tuesday. The bleaching, triggered by a large pool of warm water which swept into the Indian Ocean in May, has caused corals from Indonesia […]