Tag: Climate and environment

Paris prepares for 100-day countdown to the Olympics. It wants to rekindle love for the Games
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Paris prepares for 100-day countdown to the Olympics. It wants to rekindle love for the Games

PARIS -- In Paris' outskirts, a bright-eyed young girl is eager for the Olympic and Paralympic Games to end.That's because the swimming club where 10-year-old Lyla Kebbi trains will inherit an Olympic pool. It will be dismantled after the Games and trucked from the Olympic race venue in Paris' high-rise business district to Sevran, a Paris-area town with less glitter and wealth. There, the pieces will be bolted back together and — voila ! — Kebbi and her swim team will have a new Olympic-sized pool to splash around in.“It’s incredible !” she says. “I hope it’s going to bring us luck," adds her mother, Nora.In 100 days as of Wednesday, the Paris Olympics will kick off with a wildly ambitious waterborne opening ceremony. But the first Games in a century in France’s capital won't be judged f...
Ancient sea turtle housed at Boston aquarium for more than 50 years passes another physical
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Ancient sea turtle housed at Boston aquarium for more than 50 years passes another physical

BOSTON -- Apparently, it's pretty easy being green after all.That was the takeaway from Tuesday's physical examination of Myrtle, an ancient green sea turtle that has delighted visitors to the New England Aquarium in Boston for more than 50 years. Veterinarians performed Myrtle's checkup after the 500-pound reptile was hoisted from the aquarium's Giant Ocean Tank in an enormous crate on a chain. Watching the humungous turtle elevated from the tank in a way that resembled the way a piano is lifted outside a building provided some of the aquarium patrons with an unexpected thrill.Myrtle is thought to be up to 95 years old, which would place her just beyond the upper boundaries of the species' longevity. But the big turtle is “in robust condition” despite her advanced age, said Mike O'Neill,...
Burning Man survived a muddy quagmire. Will the experiment last 30 more years?
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Burning Man survived a muddy quagmire. Will the experiment last 30 more years?

RENO, Nev. -- The blank canvass of desert wilderness in northern Nevada seemed the perfect place in 1992 for artistic anarchists to relocate their annual burning of a towering, anonymous effigy. It was goodbye to San Francisco’s Baker Beach, hello to the Nevada playa, the long-ago floor of an inland sea.The tiny gathering became Burning Man's surrealistic circus, fueled by acts of kindness and avant-garde theatrics, sometimes with a dose of hallucinogens or nudity. The spectacle flourished as the festival ballooned over the next three decades.Some say it grew too much, too fast.Things came to a head in 2011 when tickets sold out for the first time. Organizers responded with a short-lived lottery system that left people out of what was supposed to be a radically inclusive event. As Burning...
King Charles III’s Christmas message reflects a coronation theme and calls for planet’s protection
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King Charles III’s Christmas message reflects a coronation theme and calls for planet’s protection

LONDON -- LONDON (AP) — King Charles III reflected his coronation theme of public service Monday in a Christmas message that he connected to the health of the planet and wars that are raging.In a prerecorded video shot with him standing beside a Christmas tree in Buckingham Palace, the king spoke of the message of Jesus’ life in serving those less fortunate as he honored the “selfless army” that forms the “backbone of our society” helping others.“My heart has been warmed by countless examples of the imaginative ways in which people are caring for one another, going the extra mile to help those around them simply because they know it is the right thing to do,” he said.It was the king’s second Christmas speech since he ascended the throne after his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died in Septem...
Thousands of lights at Chicago Botanic Garden illuminate tunnels, lilies and art
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Thousands of lights at Chicago Botanic Garden illuminate tunnels, lilies and art

GLENCOE, Ill. -- Chicago Botanic Garden is dazzling patrons and visitors from around the world with their fifth annual holiday display of light and music: Lightscape. Clusters of multigenerational households push strollers, carry children and walk arm in arm with older relatives as they navigate the 1.3-mile (2.1-kilometer) experience in the village of Glencoe, near Chicago. More than 22 light installations by various local and international artists light a path through established gardens that snake around the Great Basin in the core of the garden’s 385 acres. Highlights of the experience include passing through the “Electric Ribbon Tunnel” created by Culture Creative; “Sea of Light," created by UK artist Ithaca, which has 4,800 individually controlled balls of LED light; “Lilies,” by UK...
Story of a devastating wildfire that reads ‘like a thriller’ wins Baillie Gifford nonfiction prize
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Story of a devastating wildfire that reads ‘like a thriller’ wins Baillie Gifford nonfiction prize

LONDON -- A book about a fire that ravaged a Canadian city and has been called a portent of climate chaos won Britain’s leading nonfiction book prize on Thursday.John Vaillant’s “Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World” was awarded the 50,000 pound ($62,000) Baillie Gifford Prize at a ceremony in London.The chair of the judging panel, Frederick Studemann, said the book tells “a terrifying story,” reading “almost like a thriller” with a “deep science backdrop.”He called “Fire Weather,” which was also a U.S. National Book Award finalist, “an extraordinary and elegantly rendered account of a terrifying climate disaster that engulfed a community and industry, underscoring our toxic relationship with fossil fuels.”Vaillant, based in British Columbia, recounts how a huge wildfire engulfe...
Climate activists smash glass protecting Velazquez’s Venus painting in London’s National Gallery
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Climate activists smash glass protecting Velazquez’s Venus painting in London’s National Gallery

LONDON -- Two climate change protesters were arrested Monday after they smashed a protective glass panel covering a famous Diego Velázquez oil painting at London's National Gallery, police said Monday. The two activists from the group Just Stop Oil targeted Velázquez's “The Toilet of Venus,” also known as “The Rokeby Venus," with small hammers. Photos showed the protective glass panel punctured with several holes.Just Stop Oil, which has previously led similar protests targeting famous artworks and public buildings, said Monday's action was to demand Britain's government immediately halt all licensing for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the U.K. The group said Monday that the two activists chose to target Velázquez's 17th-century oil painting, one of the Spa...
Prince William goes dragon boating in Singapore ahead of Earthshot Prize ceremony
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Prince William goes dragon boating in Singapore ahead of Earthshot Prize ceremony

SINGAPORE -- Britain's Prince William took to the waters in Singapore for a morning of dragon boating Monday, ahead of activities for the annual Earthshot Prize awards aimed at promoting solutions for the planet’s environmental threats. Donning a life vest and a black cap, the Prince of Wales sat in a long narrow boat as he paddled with athletes from the British Dragons club on the Kallang river. Working in pairs, William and the other 19 paddlers rowed vigorously to the steady beat of a drummer standing in the bow. His boat triumphed in a brief race with another boat captained by British High Commissioner Kara Owen. It was not the first time for William, an avid sportsman who tried his hand at dragon boating with his wife, Kate, the Princess of Wales, during a tour of Canada in 2011. Dra...
Columbia Journalism Review editor leaving to encourage news outlets to devote more time to climate
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Columbia Journalism Review editor leaving to encourage news outlets to devote more time to climate

The leader of the Columbia Journalism Review says he's leaving that job to work at an organization that encourages news outlets to devote more attention to covering climate changeByThe Associated PressOctober 3, 2023, 12:19 AMFILE - A sign displays an unofficial temperature as jets taxi at Sky Harbor International Airport at dusk, July 12, 2023, in Phoenix. Phoenix, Arizona’s most populous city, is in the record books again for notching a record for dry heat. The National Weather Service said Sunday, Oct 1, that the monsoon season this year in the arid Southwest dropped only 0.15 inches (.38 centimeters) of rainfall from June 15 to Sept. 30. That’s the driest since the agency began keeping records in 1895. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)The Associated PressNEW YORK -- Saying that journalism is...
France is rolling out the red carpet for King Charles III’s state visit
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France is rolling out the red carpet for King Charles III’s state visit

PARIS -- PARIS (AP) — King Charles III of the United Kingdom starts a three-day state visit to France on Wednesday meant to highlight with great pomp both nations' friendship, after the trip was postponed in March amid widespread demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension changes.Charles and Queen Camilla will be greeted by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne at Paris-Orly airport, before heading to the city center for a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in the presence of Macron and his wife, Brigitte. The visit shows “the deep historical ties that unite our two countries. It is also an opportunity to showcase France’s cultural, artistic and gastronomic excellence,” the French presidency said. At the Arc de Triomphe, both nations’ hymns will be played before a review of French t...