Gemstars Earth

Sao Paulo (AFP) July 1, 2022 Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon reached a record level during the first half of 2022, the INPE national space agency said Friday. The world's largest tropical rain forest lost 3,750 square kilometers (1,450 square miles) of jungle since the beginning of the year, the worst numbers for that period since record-keeping began in 2016. The previous worst figure of 3,605 square kilometer more

Manaus, Brazil (AFP) July 1, 2022 In Manaus, the largest city in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, tons of stinking trash fill the canals and streams, giving one the feeling that they're visiting a post-apocalyptic wasteland. On the west side of the city, in a poor neighborhood where homes have been erected on stilts, a worker uses an excavator to scoop up a bucket-load of bottles, pieces of plastic and even home appliances that h more

Paris (AFP) July 3, 2022 From ocean depths to mountain peaks, humans have littered the planet with tiny shards of plastic. We have even absorbed these microplastics into our bodies - with uncertain implications. Images of plastic pollution have become familiar: a turtle suffocated by a shopping bag, water bottles washed up on beaches, or the monstrous "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" of floating detritus. Millions more

Rome (AFP) July 2, 2022 The city of Verona, in northeast Italy, on Saturday announced restrictions on the use of drinking water, due to an ongoing drought in the Mediterranean country. "Due to the weather situation and its impact on the water supply, the mayor has signed an order restricting the use of drinking water for domestic purposes," read a message on the city's website. Under the drought order, which la more