A look at the challenges for those fighting to save the vital ecosystems of the oceans off Costa Rica.
Rising ocean temperatures have become a worrying trend over the past few decades and pose a threat to sea life. The waters off Costa Rica are host to some of the most diverse corals in the Pacific, and they attract numerous sharks and rays throughout the year. Marine conservation is a priority for this small Central American country. Those trying to protect the oceans, however, are being challenged by a determined fishing industry that wants to exploit this diversity at the expense of disappearing species.
The film The Last Shark is a captivating look at how local marine conservationists are creating initiatives to understand and protect Costa Rica’s vibrant offshore ecosystems.
Authorities say firefighters are facing a ‘challenging day’ as a huge blaze nears Fort McMurray in the Alberta tar sands.
Authorities in the Canadian province of Alberta have issued evacuation orders for neighbourhoods in Fort McMurray, as a growing wildfire nears the community at the heart of Canada’s tar sands region.
The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo on Tuesday afternoon gave residents of the Abasand, Beacon Hill, Prairie Creek and Grayling Terrace areas about two hours to leave their homes due to an approaching wildfire.
“These neighbourhoods directly interface with where the fire could potentially spread. Regional Emergency Services will better be able to defend these neighbourhoods from wildfire if they are uninhabited and clear,” the municipality said.
In 2016, tens of thousands of people were forced to flee as a huge blaze destroyed homes, businesses and other structures in the town.
Wildfire MWF017 has continued to experience growth, especially in the northeast. Firefighters will continue to work on establishing containment lines around this fire today. For more information on this fire: https://t.co/ANhyIyWgttpic.twitter.com/biGLpz0iU6
— Alberta Wildfire (@AlbertaWildfire) May 14, 2024
The current wildfire – dubbed MWF107 – has grown to 9,602 hectares (23,700 acres) and is considered out of control, the province’s Alberta Wildfire agency said in an update on Tuesday. It was located about 15km (9 miles) southwest of Fort McMurray.
“Smoke is impacting visibility, and it is difficult to determine accurate distances at this time,” the agency said on Tuesday morning.
“Fire activity is increasing on the northeastern edge of the wildfire, driven by winds from the southwest. Smoke columns are developing. This will be a challenging day for firefighters.”
Canada saw its most intense fire season on record in 2023, as hundreds of wildfires burned in provinces and territories across the country.
The huge blazes forced thousands from their homes, destroyed entire communities and sent enormous plumes of smoke into the United States as well as Europe.
Experts say the climate crisis is largely responsible for the record-setting conflagrations. Higher temperatures have extended the Canadian wildfire season, which typically runs from the end of April until September or October.
It has also increased lightning, which is generally the cause of about half of all the blazes in the country.
Over the past few days, a few thousand people in Canada’s westernmost province of British Columbia were also evacuated from their homes after a huge wildfire broke out near the small town of Fort Nelson, in the province’s northeastern corner.
The Parker Lake wildfire near Fort Nelson, a small town in northeastern British Columbia, on May 10 [Andrei Axenov/BCEHS/Handout via Reuters]
Known as the Parker Lake wildfire, the blaze in British Columbia could approach the town and the nearby Fort Nelson First Nation, as authorities warn of the risk of strong winds steering the flames.
But local media reported that Tuesday brought favourable weather conditions to the area.
Rob Fraser, the mayor of Northern Rockies Regional Municipality, which includes Fort Nelson, told CBC News on Tuesday morning that the weather was “very calm” and an overcast sky should help crews respond.
“As long as the wind doesn’t come up from the west, it won’t blow any closer to the town,” Fraser said.
Last week, the Canadian government said that meteorologists with Environment and Climate Change Canada had predicted “weather conditions for spring and summer 2024 that could lead to greater wildfire risks”.
“As we can expect with climate change, most parts of Canada have experienced warmer and drier spring conditions so far, with the added influence this year of El Nino,” the government said in a statement.
“Drought conditions are expected to persist in high-risk regions in May, including the southern regions of the prairie and western provinces.”
Officials say residents were unprepared for the heavy flash floods, adding that the death toll could rise.
At least 50 people have died in Afghanistan in flooding following heavy rain in the northern province of Baghlan, a spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior said, adding that the death toll may rise.
Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qaniee told the Reuters news agency that there had been flooding in more than five districts in Baghlan after heavy rains, and that some families were stuck and in need of urgent help.
He added that two heavy storms had been predicted for Friday night.
“The Ministry of Interior has sent teams and helicopters to the area, but due to a shortage of night vision lights in helicopters, the operation may not be successful,” he said.
The toll was confirmed by local official Hedayatullah Hamdard, the head of the provincial natural disaster management department, who also told AFP that the death toll could rise.
Hamdard explained that heavy seasonal rains caused the flooding, and residents were unprepared for the sudden rush of water.
Emergency personnel were “searching for any possible victims under the mud and rubble, with the help of security forces from the national army and police,” he said.
Since mid-April, flash flooding and other floods have left about 100 people dead in 10 of Afghanistan’s provinces, with no region entirely spared, according to authorities.
Farmland has been swamped in a country where 80 percent of the more than 40 million people depend on agriculture to survive.
Afghanistan – which had a relatively dry winter, making it more difficult for the soil to absorb rainfall – is particularly vulnerable to climate change.
The nation, ravaged by four decades of war, is one of the poorest in the world and, according to scientists, one of the worst prepared to face the consequences of global warming.
Afghanistan, which is responsible for only 0.06 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, ranks sixth on the list of countries most at risk from climate change, experts have said.
Crews race to rescue survivors as floodwaters displace 160,000 people across southern state of Rio Grade do Sul.
The death toll from tremendous flooding in southern Brazil has reached 100, the local civil defence agency said, as emergency crews continued to search for dozens of missing people.
Nearly 400 municipalities have been affected after days of heavy rains swamped the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.
The floodwaters injured hundreds of people and forced 160,000 others from their homes as of Wednesday, while the state civil defence authority said 128 people were still missing.
Brazil’s national centre for natural disasters said the southern part of the state was under “high risk” of more floods throughout the day.
It said rainfall was expected to restart, and although it was not expected to be significant in volume terms, water levels are already high in many places and the soil is saturated.
Many residents have no access to drinking water or electricity – or even the means to call for help with telephone and internet services down in many places.
State Governor Eduardo Leite warned earlier this week that the human toll was likely to rise as “the emergency is continuing to develop” in the state capital of Porto Alegre and other areas.
Only two of the six water treatment plants in Porto Alegre – home to about 1.4 million people – were functioning, the mayor’s office said on Tuesday, and hospitals and shelters were being supplied by tankers.
“We understand the difficult financial situation faced by Rio Grande do Sul,” he said at an event in Brasilia, adding he wanted to make sure the state would get “everything it is entitled to”.
“We still don’t know the exact dimension of the floods, that will only be clear to us when the water levels return to normal,” Lula said.
About 15,000 soldiers, firefighters, police and volunteers were at work across the state to rescue those trapped and transport aid.
The Brazilian navy also was expected to send its NAM Atlantico vessel – Latin America’s largest – to Rio Grande do Sul on Wednesday with two mobile water treatment stations.
In Gasometro, a part of Porto Alegre popular with tourists, the water continued to rise on Wednesday, complicating rescue efforts.
“You can only cross on foot or by boat. There is no other way,” 30-year-old Luan Pas told the AFP news agency next to a street turned into a stagnant, smelly river.
Another Porto Alegre resident, Adriana Freitas, said she had “lost everything”.
“It’s sad when we see the city, our house, in the middle of the water,” Freitas told Reuters. “It seems like it’s over, that the world has ended.”
Rescuers are rushing to evacuate people stranded by floodwaters across the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, where at least 90 people have been killed and more than 130 others are missing.
The state capital of Porto Alegre has been virtually cut off by the flooding, with the airport and bus station closed and main roads blocked.
Reporting from the city on Tuesday afternoon, Al Jazeera’s Latin America editor Lucia Newman said the situation had become “very desperate” as volunteers and rescue crews try to evacuate residents.
“Everywhere you look, people have no water, no electricity. Sewage has, in this part of town which is downtown, completely come up.”
The state’s Civil Defence agency said the death toll has risen to 90 with another four deaths being investigated. Another 131 people are still unaccounted for, and 155,000 are homeless.
Heavy rains that began last week have caused rivers to flood, inundating whole towns and destroying roads and bridges.
In Porto Alegre, a city of 1.3 million residents on the Guaiba River, residents faced empty supermarket shelves and closed gas stations, with shops rationing sales of mineral water.
Five of Porto Alegre’s six water treatment facilities are not working, and Mayor Sebastiao Melo on Monday decreed that water be used exclusively for “essential consumption”.
“I am getting water trucks to football fields, and people will have to go there to get their water in bottles. I cannot get them to go home to home.”
Almost half a million people were without power in Porto Alegre and outlying towns, as electricity companies cut off supplies for security reasons in flooded neighbourhoods.
The national electrical grid operator ONS said five hydroelectric dams and transmission lines were shut down due to the heavy rains.
Al Jazeera’s Newman reported that in nearby Eldorado do Sul, a city of 50,000 residents just across the river from Porto Alegre, the streets were “completely covered” with floodwaters on Tuesday.
“It was a desolate situation and desperate for the people who are being rescued, one by one,” said Newman. She explained that large vessels can’t get into the city, which has forced rescuers to use smaller boats.
“It could take days and weeks more before everyone is safe,” she explained.
Rescue workers drive a boat in a flooded street in Porto Alegre on May 7 [Diego Vara/Reuters]
The downpour has stopped for now, but a looming cold front is expected to bring more severe rain starting on Tuesday night, mainly in the southern part of the state, according to Brazil’s National Meteorological Institute.
The rainfall could exceed 150 millimetres (nearly six inches) by early Wednesday.
Back in Porto Alegre, resident Maria Vitoria Jorge told The Associated Press that she decided to leave behind her flooded apartment building downtown.
She withdrew about 8,000 reais ($1,600) from her savings to rent an apartment for herself and her parents elsewhere in the state.
“I can’t shower at home, wash the dishes or even have drinkable water,” the 35-year-old yoga teacher told the news agency from her car as she prepared to depart her old home.
She had about four litres (one gallon) of water for the 200km (125-mile) drive to the city of Torres, which has so far been unaffected by the floods.
Another resident, Adriano Hueck, on Tuesday was attempting to retrieve medicine stocked at a friend’s warehouse, which is partially flooded.
“If we can save some of it, there’s still a chance it can be useful in hospitals,” said the 53-year-old, who then pointed towards another part of the city. “My house is somewhere there. You can’t even see its roof now.”
Floodwaters surround the historic market in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on May 7 [Diego Vara/Reuters]
More than 88,000 people are displaced as floods hit Brazil’s southern Rio Grande do Sul state.
Massive floods in Brazil’s southern Rio Grande do Sul state have killed at least 75 people over the last seven days, and another 103 were reported missing, local authorities have said.
Damage from the rains also forced more than 88,000 people from their homes, state civil defence authorities said on Sunday. Approximately 16,000 took refuge in schools, gymnasiums and other temporary shelters.
The floods left a wake of devastation, including landslides, washed-out roads and collapsed bridges across the state. Operators reported electricity and communications cuts. More than 800,000 people are without a water supply, according to the civil defence, which cited figures from water company Corsan.
“I repeat and insist: the devastation to which we are being subjected is unprecedented,” state Governor Eduardo Leite said on Sunday morning. He had previously said that the state will need a “kind of ‘Marshall Plan’ to be rebuilt”.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited Rio Grande do Sul for a second time on Sunday, accompanied by Defence Minister Jose Mucio, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad and Environment Minister Marina Silva, among others. The leader and his team surveyed the flooded streets of the state capital, Porto Alegre, from a helicopter.
“We need to stop running behind disasters. We need to see in advance what calamities might happen and we need to work,” President Lula told journalists afterwards.
A man walks by a farm destroyed by the currents of the flash floods caused by heavy rains in Jacarezinho, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil [Diego Vara/Reuters]
The Guaiba River reached a record level of 5.33m (17.5 feet) on Sunday morning, surpassing levels seen during a historic 1941 deluge, when the river reached 4.76m (15.6 feet).
During Sunday mass at the Vatican, Pope Francis said he was praying for the state’s population. “May the Lord welcome the dead and comfort their families and those who had to abandon their homes,” he said.
The downpour started on Monday and was expected to last through Sunday. In some areas, such as valleys, mountain slopes and cities, more than 300mm (11.8 inches) of rain fell in less than a week, according to Brazil’s National Institute of Meteorology, known by the Portuguese acronym INMET, on Thursday.
Rescue workers evacuate a flood victim in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil [Renan Mattos/Reuters]
The heavy rains were the fourth such environmental disaster in the state in a year, following floods in July, September and November 2023 that killed 75 people.
Weather across South America is affected by the climate phenomenon El Nino, a periodic, naturally occurring event that warms surface waters in the Equatorial Pacific region. In Brazil, El Nino has historically caused droughts in the north and intense rainfall in the south.
This year, the impacts of El Nino have been particularly dramatic, with a historic drought in the Amazon. Scientists say extreme weather is happening more frequently due to human-caused climate change.
“These tragedies will continue to happen, increasingly worse and more frequent,” said Suely Araujo, a public policy coordinator at the Climate Observatory, a network of dozens of environmental and social groups.
Brazil needs to adjust to the effects of climate change, she said in a Friday statement, referring to a process known as adaptation.
At least 144 people died due to the heavy rainfall in April.
Pakistan has experienced its “wettest April since 1961”, receiving more than twice as much rain as usual for the month, the country’s weather agency has said.
April rainfall was recorded at 59.3mm (2.3 inches), “excessively above” the normal average of 22.5mm (0.9 inches), the metrology department said in its monthly climate report released late on Friday.
The highest rainfall was recorded in the southwestern province of Balochistan with 437 percent more than average.
At least 144 people also died in the thunderstorms and house collapses due to heavy rains in April.
The largest death toll was reported in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where 84 people died, including 38 children, and more than 3,500 homes were damaged.
While much of Asia is sweltering due to heatwaves, Pakistan’s national monthly temperature for April was 23.67 degrees Celsius (74.6 degrees Fahrenheit), 0.87C lower than the average of 24.54C, the report added.
“Climate change is a major factor that is influencing the erratic weather patterns in our region,” Zaheer Ahmad Babar, spokesman for the Pakistan Meteorological Department, said of the report.
In 2022, downpours swelled rivers and at one point flooded a third of Pakistan, killing 1,739 people. The floods caused $30bn in damages, from which Pakistan is still trying to rebuild. Balochistan saw rainfall at 590 percent above average that year, while Karachi saw 726 percent more rainfall than usual.
“The flash floods caused extensive damage to vast area of crops, particularly the wheat crop, which was ready for harvest,” the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said in a recent report.
“This has resulted in significant economic losses for local farmers and communities, compounding the losses from the rain-related incidents,” it said.
Meanwhile, parts of Pakistan have also been hit by heatwaves and severe air pollution, which experts say are exacerbated by inadequate infrastructure and ineffective governance.
“We are witnessing climate change-related incidents nearly every year now. Yet we are not prepared for it,” environment lawyer and activist Ahmad Rafay Alam told the AFP news agency.
“It is the responsibility of our provincial and federal governments to prioritise climate relief and mitigation measures. However, their focus appears to be primarily on political matters,” Alam added.
The death toll has climbed to 56 in Brazil’s southern Rio Grande do Sul state, with tens of thousands displaced.
Overpowering floods and mudslides caused by torrential rains are continuing to sweep southern Brazil, killing at least 56 people and forcing tens of thousands out of their homes, the government said.
As well as raising the death toll on Saturday, the country’s civil defence agency said rising water levels in the state of Rio Grande do Sul were straining dams and threatening the metropolis of Porto Alegre.
Triggered by storms that began on Monday, the flooding is only expected to get worse, local authorities said, as rescuers scoured the ruins of washed-out homes, bridges, and roads for missing people.
“Forget everything you’ve seen, it’s going to be much worse in the metropolitan region,” Governor Eduardo Leite said on Friday as the state’s streets were submerged.
‘Nothing could be saved’
The flooding, Brazil’s worst in 80 years, has so far affected at least 265 municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul, according to the southernmost state’s civil defence department.
It has injured at least 74 people, displaced more than 24,000, and left 350,000 with some form of property damage.
“Nothing could be saved,” said Claudio Almiro, who lost his home and possessions to the flooding.
“Many people have even lost their lives. I raise my hand to heaven and thank God that I’m alive.”
A flooded house in the Sarandi neighbourhood in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, on May 3, 2024 [Anselmo Cunha/AFP]
Residents in several cities and towns have been left completely cut off from the world, with no electricity or telephone access, while others have been forced to abandon their livestock.
“You don’t know if the water will continue to rise or what will happen to the animals, they may soon drown,” said Raul Metzel, from Capela de Santana, north of the state’s capital.
Five days in, as the rainfall shows no signs of letting up, four of the state’s dams are at risk of collapsing, creating the risk of a new “emergency situation”, according to civil defence officials.
Brazil’s federal government has sent aircraft, boats and more than 600 soldiers to help clear roads, distribute food, water and mattresses, and set up shelters, while local volunteers have also helped with search efforts.
Volunteer Anilto Alvares da Silva prepares to search for residents trapped inside their houses in the Quilombo neighbourhood in Sao Sebastiao do Cai, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, on May 2, 2024 [Anselmo Cunha/AFP]
‘Disastrous cocktail’
Climatologist Francisco Eliseu Aquino said the devastating storms were the result of a “disastrous cocktail” of global warming and the El Nino weather phenomenon.
South America’s largest country has recently experienced a string of extreme weather events, including a cyclone in September that killed at least 31 people.
Aquino said the region’s particular geography meant it was often confronted by the effects of tropical and polar air masses colliding – but these events have “intensified due to climate change”.
And when they coincide with El Nino, a periodic warming of the waters in the tropical Pacific, the atmosphere becomes more unstable, he said.
This week, the fourth round of treaty talks by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution concluded in Ottawa, Canada. A major bone of contention between negotiators from 175 countries is whether or not to limit the production of plastic, most of which is made from fossil fuels and chemicals and which causes pollution after use, as it does not fully or easily biodegrade.
Despite several rounds of talks, the pervasive plastic problem remains unresolved. A final round of talks is scheduled to be held in South Korea at the end of this year.
Amid global struggles to curb plastic pollution, the United Kingdom said last month that it would introduce legislation to ban wet wipes which contain plastic. Wet wipes made with plastic have been shown to leach harmful microplastics into the environment after they have been disposed of.
Everyone knows that plastic bags are a blight on the environment, but what other everyday items – also known as “invisible plastics – unexpectedly contain plastic or harmful “microplastics” and is there a solution?
What are invisible plastics and ‘microplastics’?
These are items which are seemingly not made of plastic – such as wet wipes – but which, once disposed of, release plastic into the environment.
“Invisible plastics are everywhere,” Tony Walker, a professor at the School for Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University in Canada who also belongs to the Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty, said.
“In terms of global plastic production, which includes things like the table I’m sat at, the chair I’m sat on, my computer – you name it, it probably contains a plastic of some kind.”
Not all plastic needs to be eliminated, he said, particularly if it is used to make furniture which could last for several decades.
Single-use items containing plastic should be the focus, he added. These are adding to the “tonnes of plastic that are sitting in our landfills”, he said, often leaching harmful microplastics into the environment.
Microplastics are tiny particles of plastic which can even make their way into our food – for example by first being broken down and ingested by fish when they get into the sea. Walker added that even so-called “biodegradable plastic”, which is advertised as being able to break down naturally once disposed of, can contain microplastics.
Plastic can break down into microplastics in the sea, and enter the food chain [Shutterstock]
Which unexpected items could contain plastic?
Some other everyday items which surprisingly contain plastic are:
Chewing gum: A key ingredient used in making chewing gum – “gum base” – actually contains polyvinyl acetate, a plastic which does not biodegrade once the gum is disposed of.
Tea bags: To retain their shape while they are in hot water, most tea bags are lined with a plastic called polypropylene. The same applies to many coffee filters.
Sunscreen: Several brands of sunscreen use microplastics as an ingredient in their formula.
Aluminium cans: Many aluminium cans that contain soda have a lining of plastic to prevent the acid from the soda from reacting with the metal of the can.
Receipts: Many receipts are printed on thermal paper, which is coated with a layer of plastic to give it a shiny finish, making most paper receipts non-recyclable.
Toiletries and laundry products: Some toothpaste brands contain tiny beads or micro-beads of plastic which act as exfoliants. These do not degrade or dissolve in water. Micro-beads can also be found in facial scrubs, makeup products and laundry detergent powders.
What are countries doing about this problem?
During a session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in March 2022, a landmark resolution was adopted to draft an international legally binding treaty on plastic pollution.
Under the resolution, an intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC) including representatives from 175 countries, has been holding talks with the aim of drafting a treaty by the end of this year. Previous sessions have convened in Uruguay, France and Kenya. The fourth session wrapped up this week in Canada and the last one will be held between November and December in South Korea.
This time, major disagreements about limiting the amount of plastic manufactured globally arose.
Environmental experts say it is crucial that they reach an agreement on this issue. Plastic production continues to rise around the world and the annual production of fossil fuel-based plastic is projected by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to triple by 2060 if nothing changes.
The head of Greenpeace in Ottawa, Graham Forbes, said that it will be impossible to end plastic pollution without massively reducing plastic production.
“Current global production [of plastic] is over 400 million metric tons [tonnes] annually,” said Walker. “However, we’re recycling on average as a planet, only 9 percent. That leaves 91 percent of 400 million metric tons as waste.”
Why don’t some countries want to reduce plastic production?
This is mainly down to economic factors, experts say.
Some “have vested interest in producing plastic products or petroleum products”, Walker explained. These countries believe that stopping the production of plastic would hurt their economies, he added.
Will governments find a solution?
Experts are calling on countries represented at the INC to work much harder to reach a consensus on the production of plastic before the end of this year.
Walker pointed out that plastic is a transboundary pollutant, crossing rivers and borders, meaning countries should have a vested interest in tackling this issue. “Plastics are now in the atmosphere, in the air we breathe, so they’re actually travelling between continents on air currents,” said Walker.
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