Climate change will fundamentally reshape life on Earth in the coming decades, even if humans can tame planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, according to a landmark draft report from the UN's climate science advisors obtained by AFP. Species extinction, more widespread disease, unliveable heat, ecosystem collapse, cities menaced by rising seas – these and other devastating climate impacts are accelerating and bound to become painfully obvious before a child born today turns 3

Thousands of worshippers trudged up an active Indonesian volcano Saturday to cast livestock and other offerings down its smouldering crater in a centuries-old religious ceremony.Every year people from the Tengger tribe gather from the surrounding highlands to throw fruit, vegetables, flowers and even livestock such as goats and chickens into Mount Bromo's crater as part of the Yadnya Kasada festival.A long line of worshippers, some with goats slung across their backs, made their way to t

Searing, unrelenting heat scorches large swathes of the Earth, killing millions who have no means to escape.

The pandemic and climate change are testing as never before the delicate balance of human co-habitation with the natural world.As an Australian prison is evacuated after it was overrun by the plague of mice ravaging the east of the country, we look at some of the most spectacular recent examples.Australia Mice PlagueBattling a massive plague of mice after the end of a three-year drought, eastern Australia is seeing crops destroyed, grain silos and barns infested and homes invaded by the roden

A Cambodian court has charged four environmental activists with insulting the king and plotting against the government, an official said Monday, after three of them were arrested for documenting waste run-off into a river.Use of royal defamation laws in Cambodia is a relatively new phenomenon, with the legislation only enacted in 2018.The three activists – Sun Ratha, Ly Chandaravuth and Yim Leanghy of advocacy group Mother Nature – were arrested Wednesday for documenting the draining of waste

A Vietnamese conservationist working to save pangolins from the devastating multi-billion-dollar wildlife trade won a prestigious award Tuesday for his role in rescuing over a thousand of one of the world's most endangered creatures.Highly prized in China and southeast Asia for their flesh, pangolins are seen as a delicacy for the mistaken belief that they can cure anything from impotence to cancer.Nguyen Van Thai, director of Save Vietnam's Wildlife (SVW), has been at the forefront

Surrounded by children in a Bangkok slum, Miss Universe Thailand handed out lunch boxes prepared by Michelin-starred chefs on Monday – a project to help some of the capital's worst COVID-hit communities. The kingdom is currently battling a third wave of coronavirus – an outbreak that authorities traced in April to a nightlife district frequented by Bangkok's uber-rich and politically connected.The government slapped restrictions on businesses and public spaces – much to the

Since his son was diagnosed with HIV during a mass outbreak in Pakistan among babies and children, hard-up Shahzado Shar has often been forced to choose between food and medicine.His five-year-old was one of hundreds who tested positive in 2019 after a whistle blower doctor uncovered a scandal involving the re-use of needles in southern Sindh province.The number of patients quickly swelled and two years later the figure stands at more than 1,500, according to data from the provincial health m

Dengue fever infections dropped dramatically in an Indonesian study where a type of bacteria was introduced into disease-carrying mosquitoes, offering hope in the battle against an illness that sickens millions annually around the world.Results of the three-year study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine this week, found that infecting dengue-carrying mosquitoes with a harmless bacteria called Wolbachia led to a 77 percent drop in human cases.Infections requiring hospitalisation

Train travel has largely ground to a halt in Cambodia due to the coronavirus but railway fans can still get their fix aboard a stationary carriage converted into a hipster cafe.The country has more than 600 kilometres of track extending from its northern border with Thailand to the southern coast, but decades of war and neglect have left vast stretches damaged and coronavirus has shut many remaining services.A new airport rail link was closed last year and passenger trains to the seaport of S