Several giant tortoises and 30 scientists have been held hostage in the Galapagos Islands by fishermen who are demanding more rights to fish for sharks. The scientists are being confined in the Charles Darwin research station, on the island of Santa Cruz, by the fishermen who are refusing to allow food or supplies to reach them, threatening the welfare of the scientists and the tortoises.
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/ 5 December 2003
The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa) has expressed its concern over the decision of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism to allow the controversial N2 toll road to run through the Eastern Cape.
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/ 5 November 2003
An 11km dam is being built across a small northern section of the shrunken Aral Sea in Central Asia, which is described as the world’s worst environmental disaster.
The saline inland sea been drying out for 25 years since the former Soviet Union began a vast irrigation scheme drawing water from its two tributary rivers to grow cotton and rice in the desert.
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/ 29 October 2003
Two genetically modified (GM) varieties, oil-seed rape and sugar beet, face a Europe-wide ban after long-awaited field-scale trials showed that the crops damaged wildlife and would have a serious long-term effect on bee, butterfly and bird populations.
The largest Coca-Cola plant in India is being accused of putting thousands of farmers out of work by draining the water that feeds their wells, and poisoning the land with waste sludge that the company claims is fertiliser.
Plans to build sewerage works for the 1,2-billion people in the world who live without fresh water and sanitation should be abandoned, says Michael Rouse, the incoming president of the World Water Association.
Long after the conflicts are over, the environmental damage still remains. We catalogue the damage done to Kuwait, Kosovo and Afghanistan during the wars in these countries
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/ 5 February 2003
A report on the prospects for the genetic engineering giant Monsanto, which has 91% of the world’s market in genetically modified (GM) seeds, says the company ”could be another financial disaster waiting to happen”.
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/ 27 November 2002
The stricken tanker Prestige — which broke apart and sank off Spain’s Atlantic coast this week, taking its destructive cargo to the ocean floor with it — threatens to be Europe’s biggest ecological disaster in decades. Oil-covered seabirds expiring is usually the first image of a tanker disaster.
Africa’s largest development project, a 1040km, ,3-billion oil pipeline between Chad and Cameroon, is being criticised for damaging the interests of the poor — the people it was supposed to help. World Bank officials admitted that the Chad government has spent the grant money on arms.