Tag: Environment
PAL, Cebu Pacific, Airasia announce flight changes on impending Boracay closure
The three major carriers in the country have shifted their focus on flights to and from Boracay, to other island destinations following the impending...
Duterte approves six-month closure of Boracay starting April 26
By Arjay L. Balinbin
PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte has approved the recommendation of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of the Interior...
DENR calls for more investments in ‘green infrastructure’
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources called for both the public and private sectors to invest in "green infrastructure".
In a statement on Tuesday,...
PCCI calls for government to reconsider plan to shut down Boracay
The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) has called on the government to hear out stakeholders before finalizing its shutdown on Boracay establishments.
In...
DENR to draft management plans for other tourist spots
THE DEPARTMENT of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will come up with management plans for other tourist sites in the country to avoid the...
House committee on tourism backs temporary closure of Boracay
The House committee on tourism expressed support in the proposed temporary closure of Boracay as following its own inquiry into the woes of the...
Lawmakers say closing Boracay for a year will do more harm...
Senators on Friday, March 16, expressed their dismay over the recommendation of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Interior and...
DENR chief warns Boracay establishments not connected to sewer lines
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) called for the local government unit in Aklan to strictly enforce the legislation that requires both...
Binay calls for evaluation of LGUs in ‘island destinations’
Senator Maria Lourdes Nancy S. Binay on Thursday, March 8, wants an inventory of the country's tourism island destinations to check the local government...
DENR mulls forming task force to enforce wildlife protection laws
The Department of Environment and Natural Resource (DENR) is mulling over the formation of a separate bureau to strictly enforce wildlife and environmental laws...
Duterte rejects call to lift ban on open-pit mining, calls mining...
By Rosemarie A. Zamora
President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Tuesday, Nov. 21 has rejected the recommendation to lift the ban on open-pit mining.
“Ayaw ko because...
DENR to use drones to monitor emissions
THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources is set to use drones to monitor emission levels in industrial areas to curb air pollution from...
Rich nations far behind on $100-billion climate pledge — study
PARIS -- Wealthy countries are falling well short of their pledge to provide $100 billion a year to developing countries by 2020 as part...
Deadly heat from climate change may hit slums hardest
MIAMI -- With sheet metal roofs, concrete floors, poor ventilation, and spotty electricity, crowded urban slums in Africa can expect to get even hotter...
Underwater photography shootout
THE STAGE is set for the world’s largest underwater macro photography shootout and it is happening in the Philippines.
Dubbed as the “World Cup of...
Climbing Australia’s giant red rock Uluru banned
CLIMBING the world’s largest monolith Uluru was banned Wednesday amid concerns it was becoming a “theme park,” undermining the giant red rock’s deep cultural...
DENR turns over P153M for waste management in Calabarzon
THE DEPARTMENT of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has allocated funds to finance its continuing ecological waste management project in the Calabarzon Region, composed...
Forest fires stoke record loss in world tree cover
OSLO -- Forest fires in Brazil and Indonesia contributed to a record loss in global tree cover in 2016, equivalent to the size of...
A chance Amazon encounter, then a tribe’s near extinction
WAIAPI, BRAZIL -- Tzako Waiapi remembers perfectly the day he first stumbled across white men while hunting in the Amazon rainforest: within months nearly...
Climate-disrupting volcanoes helped topple ancient Egypt
PARIS — Sun-choking debris cast off by volcanoes more than 2,000 years ago starved headwaters feeding the Nile river and hastened the downfall of...
Massacre fears spark race to save rare Australia parrot
SYDNEY — Critically endangered Swift Parrots are under threat from squirrel-like sugar gliders in a battle for space in Australia’s ancient forests, scientists said...
Planting the seeds of hope
HOPE LITERALLY grows in Pantar, Lanao del Norte, as concerned organizations and government agencies have banded together to teach halal organic farming to families...
Shipping risks rise as Antarctic ice hits record low
SYDNEY — Sea ice cover in Antarctica dropped to a record low this year, scientists said Wednesday, as they warned the frozen continent’s unpredictable...
Climate change and hurricanes: Do we need a smoking gun?
PARIS -- Many climate scientists are convinced that mega-storms Harvey and Irma -- which left scores dead and caused massive economic losses -- were...
Chile’s Easter Island declares huge marine protection zone
LA SERENA, CHILE — Indigenous people who live on Chile’s Easter Island far out in the Pacific have voted to create a vast marine...
Scientists expose true extent of cuckoo’s cunning
PARIS — The common cuckoo, notorious for evading parental duty by hiding her eggs in the nests of other brooding birds, is even more...
Sea Shepherd pulls plug on Japan whale hunt
SYDNEY – Activist group Sea Shepherd on Tuesday pulled the plug on its annual campaign to disrupt Japanese whaling, saying it can no longer...
Mexico helped push vaquita porpoise to brink of extinction – activists
MEXICO CITY – Mexican fishing authorities have boycotted the effort to save the critically endangered vaquita marina porpoise, environmentalists said Monday, calling them “accomplices”...
Fiona the baby hippo, or how animals go viral
WASHINGTON – First, Bao Bao and Bei Bei the pandas made a splash at the National Zoo in Washington. Then, April the Giraffe wowed...
‘Missing link’ bolsters bold theory on dino evolution
PARIS — An oddball, vegetarian dinosaur with the silhouette of a flesh-ripping velociraptor, whose fossilized remains were unearthed in southern Chile 13 years ago,...
Coal plants might be even more toxic than we thought
By Eric Roston, Bloomberg
SCIENTISTS studying the aftermath of a massive coal-ash spill in North Carolina have discovered a byproduct of the fossil fuel that...
Dutch students grow their own biodegradable car
EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS -- What’s made of sugar, can carry four people, and travel at 50 miles (80 km) per hour? A biodegradable car, whose...
Small odds of reaching 2°C
PARIS — There is a 5% chance of limiting average global warming to under 2°C (3.6° Fahrenheit), the target set in the 2015 climate-rescue...
Other planets may never be as hospitable as Earth
PARIS — Scientists dealt a blow Monday to the quest for organisms inhabiting worlds besides Earth, saying our planet was unusual in its ability...
Earth’s 2017 resource ‘budget’ spent by next week — report
PARIS -- Humanity will have used up its allowance of planetary resources such as water, soil, and clean air for all of 2017 by...
Scientists dim sunlight, suck up carbon dioxide to cool planet
OSLO -- Scientists are sucking carbon dioxide from the air with giant fans and preparing to release chemicals from a balloon to dim the...
Duterte plans to increase taxes on mining
PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte on Friday said that he eyes an increase in taxes paid by mining companies.
During a speech at a conference...
World’s northernmost coral reef in Japan bleached
TOKYO -- Bleaching has damaged the world’s northernmost coral reef in Japan, a researcher said Tuesday, the latest example of a global phenomenon scientists...
Study throw dog domestication theories to the wolves
PARIS -- From the tiny chihuahua to the massive Saint Bernard, domestic dogs today trace their roots to a single group of wolves that...
New study reveals how frogs flourished after dinosaurs croaked
MIAMI — A massive asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs millions of years ago created room for frogs to colonize the Earth, said...
Are asteroids humanity’s ‘greatest challenge’?
PARIS -- Throughout its 4.5-billion-year history, Earth has been repeatedly pummeled by space rocks that have caused anything from an innocuous splash in the...
UN chief: Save the oceans to avert ‘global catastrophe’
UNITED NATIONS (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres recently urged countries to put aside national gain to save the oceans and avert a “global catastrophe”...
In the name of conservation: eavesdropping on fish sex
SCIENTISTS recently unveiled a unique new method for counting stocks of threatened fish — eavesdropping on their love calls when the fish gather in...
From trash to treasure
STUDENTS from three leading fashion schools in the country joined the Aboitiz Foundation’s recent Green Fashion Revolution, a fashion design competition that challenges participants...
Humans threaten crucial ‘fossil’ groundwater: study
VIENNA — Human activity risks contaminating pristine water locked underground for millennia and long thought impervious to pollution, said a study Tuesday that warned...
