Chile

Authorities said that five tourists died in a powerful storm in Chile's Torres del Paine National Park in the southern region Patagonia. They also reported that four other tourists who had gone missing were found alive. Jose Antonio Ruiz said that talks have begun with representatives of the victims' home countries to repatriate their bodies. Authorities said that two Germans, one Briton, and two Mexicans were killed. They added that the weather conditions made it difficult to recover bodies. In a social media message sent to the families of victims, President Gabriel Boric expressed his deepest condolences. Know that Chilean...

Scientists in Chile warned that the population of Humboldt Penguins, which is one of only a few species to live on rocky coastlines in temperate areas, was at risk of further decline after the species was declared endangered. Scientists at the Universidad de Concepcion estimate the number of Humboldt Penguins in Chile has dropped from 45,000 to fewer that 20,000 since the late 1990s. The species is considered vulnerable by international organizations, which prohibits commercial trade. But late last month Chile’s Environment Ministry reclassified it as “endangered.” Biologists are concerned that the numbers of seabirds will continue to decrease. The...

Brazil hosted world leaders on Thursday for a summit ahead of the COP30 Climate Conference in the rainforest city Belem. Leaders have made some interesting comments. U.N. SECRETAIRE-GENERAL ANTONIO GUTERRES We can either choose to lead or we can be led into ruin. "Too many companies are making record profits by destroying the climate, while spending billions on lobbying and deceiving public opinion and obstructing advancement. And too many leaders continue to be captive to these entrenched interest." BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA We need a road map to plan an equitable way to undo the deforestation and...

BHP and Vale face a London suit from a law firm that represents hundreds of thousands people in relation to Brazil's worst environment disaster. The firm alleges the companies tried to cheat them out of legal fees through settlements. BHP stated that it would contest the allegations and reject them "in their entirety". Vale declined comment. Pogust Goodhead will demand 1.3 billion pounds ($1.7billion) in unpaid fees from BHP, the company that represents claimants in a case against BHP relating to the collapse of the Fundao Dam in Mariana in the southeast Brazil in 2015. In the case before London's...

According to a group of scientists, the central and southern coasts of Chile, which stretch for thousands (miles) on the Pacific Ocean, are at risk of erosion, which could lead to the disappearance or 10 beaches within the next decade. In an interview conducted this month at the Renaca Beach near Vina del Mar, the director of the Coastal Observatory of Universidad Catolica said, "It's going to be very hard for these beaches in the next 10 year," Her team tracked erosion at 67 beaches and found that 86% of them are shrinking steadily -- even in spring and summer...

Multilateral bank executives stated on Tuesday that Latin American countries must address regulatory barriers, improve electric interconnection and enhance project structuring for renewable energy to attract the $200 billion investment needed annually to make the energy transformation a reality. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) organized an event in Colombia’s capital Bogota, where executives spoke. Why it's important Energy infrastructure investments in the region are below global averages. This could make it difficult for it to achieve its climate and energy targets. KEY QUOTES Felix Fernandez is the Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of...

According to documents reviewed by, two indigenous groups in northern Chile asked a local judge to suspend the state-led process of community review that was required to approve a partnership between copper miner Codelco and lithium mining company SQM. Last week, the Indigenous community of Coyo and Atacameno Association of Irrigators and Farmers of San Pedro de Atacama filed separate legal challenges with the Chilean Appeal Court in the Antofagasta Region. They accused the Chilean Economic Development Agency Corfo of failing to properly conduct a consultation process for their input regarding the partnership. This is the last condition for the...

The small mats of hair at the base of the plants help to lock in moisture in orchards in Chile, which have suffered from drought for many years. According to the Matter of Trust Chile Foundation, who makes the mats, the hair is turned into sheets or discs of compostable mulch through mechanical weaving. This reduces direct evaporation of up to 71%, and can save as much as 48% of irrigation. "Hair is interesting. "Hair is very interesting. Maria Salazar, a farmer in Taltal in the arid Antofagasta Region of Chile, said that the hair had helped her get optimum...

Researchers and growers in Chile's Atacama desert, the driest place on earth, are trying to capture moisture from fog to grow lemons and lettuces. They use a net that catches the drops. Near Chanaral, in the Atacama desert, where there are areas that have not seen rain for years, Orlando Rojas told reporters, "We grow hydroponic lettuce completely with fog water." "We've tried other crops and they didn't work, so we tended to do lettuce." Researchers at the UC Atacama Desert Center have launched a web-based mapping tool that allows anyone to see the locations of areas in the country...

Llamas and alpacas are being celebrated as the heroes of South America's high plateaus because they have adapted to harsh climates and environments, and their value is cultural, economic, and ecological. Early May, representatives from Chile, Bolivia and Ecuador met in Antofagasta, a city in northern Chile, to celebrate animals and improve management strategies. The meeting was sponsored by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. Andres Gonzales, regional officer of Animal Health and Production for the FAO said that these animals were considered heroes because they thrived in harsh environments like the high plateau. They have a natural toughness that...

The Patagonian Ice Dragon of Chile is a tiny, but mighty insect. It lives in frozen glaciers and feeds on algae and bacteria. It is now an endangered species due to global warming, which is accelerating the loss of glaciers. Maribet Gamboa is a researcher from Chile's UCSC University. She leads a study aimed at conserving the Patagonian dragon, and the glaciers that it lives in. The research is aimed at understanding the Patagonian Dragon and the glacier. Gamboa added that scientists had taken samples of the insect in order to determine the genes which have been adapted to the...

The Chilean government fined Italian electrical energy supplier Enel's regional system $19 million on Wednesday over prolonged power interruptions in 2024. In a statement, the federal government stated it was fining the company over four violations after heavy storms at the end of the Southern Hemisphere winter season last August caused extended power outages, in many cases lasting more than 15 days. Chile's SEC electrical regulator stated the company failed to correctly preserve its facilities, took too long to restore power, stopped working to turn over details to the federal government and did not have an appropriate system to get...

Chile is creating a national park to protect unique ecosystems and endangered wildlife at the very edge of the map. The proposed?Cape Froward National Park would cover approximately 150,000 hectares of forest, peatlands and glaciers, as well as coastlines facing the Strait of Magellan. Benjamin Caceres is the wildlife coordinator for Rewilding Chile. He said that humans must regulate their activities, including tourism and industry, to protect fragile ecosystems. "These are resilient places that create refuges for endangered species and maintain balance." Rewilding?Chile is a foundation founded by Douglas Tompkins who was a philanthropist, and the founder of North?Face, an...

Media reports said that rescue workers searched on Tuesday for a group who had gone missing during a powerful storm in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, located in southern Patagonia. The storm killed at least 2 Mexicans. According to T13, one of the victims died after she was evacuated. Guillermo Ruiz is the delegate of the president for Chile's southern Ultima Esperanza Province. He told T13 the first responders are still searching for seven people but bad weather has complicated the search. The tourists are lost in the Los Perros camp of the national park, Ruiz stated. It...

Brazil will host world leaders at a summit in Belem, a rainforest city, on Thursday before the COP30 Climate Conference. What the leaders have to say U.N. SECRETAIRE-GENERAL ANTONIO GUTERRES We can either choose to lead or we can be led into ruin. "Too many companies are making record profits by destroying the climate, while spending billions on lobbying and deceiving public opinion and obstructing advancement. And too many leaders continue to be captives of these entrenched interest." BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA We need a road map to plan an equitable way to undo the deforestation and...

Brazil will host world leaders at a summit in Belem, a rainforest city, on Thursday before the COP30 Climate Conference. What the leaders have to say U.N. SECRETAIRE-GENERAL ANTONIO GUTERRES We can either choose to lead or we can be led into ruin. "Too many companies are making record profits by destroying the climate, while spending billions on lobbying and deceiving public opinion and obstructing advancement. And too many leaders continue to be captive to these entrenched interest." BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA We need a road map to plan an equitable way to undo the deforestation and...

Scientists in Chile's Atacama desert, the world's driest, are studying a resilient, small flower. It could provide genetic clues that will help farmers adapt to the worsening droughts caused by climate change. Cistanthe longiscapa blooms in the Atacama Desert during rare rain events, creating a colorful mosaic known as the "flowering desert phenomenon". A team from Chile's Andres Bello University has been conducting genetic sequencing tests to discover the traits that enable the fuchsia colored flower to survive extreme temperatures and water scarcity in one of Earth's harshest environments. They want to transfer the drought-tolerant traits to other crops. Ariel...

Chile has launched an effort to save Darwin's Frogs, tiny amphibians with leaf-like skin. The males of these amphibians carry tadpoles in pouches inside their mouths. The Climate Change and Sustainability Committee of the Chilean Government has launched an initiative to protect habitats, reproductive areas and working with private landowners. The goal of the project is to find new populations and, if feasible, increase the size of current populations. Originally thought to be one species, the frog actually consists of two species: the endangered Rhinoderma darwinii, also known as the Southern Darwin's Frog, and the Rhinoderma darwinii, or Northern Darwin's...

Underwater forests teem with life in the icy waters off Chile's northern coast. Red and green towers of seaweed rise from the ocean floor. They provide food for wildlife and income for the locals, as well as oxygen and carbon for the planet. Scientists believe that these forests have even greater potential for sustainable food, protein and other materials, despite the fact that they are threatened due to human pollution and warming oceans. "They form a band along the coastal edge, which is essentially an armour of protection and biodiversity," said Alejandra González, a marine scientist from the University of...

According to a report by UNESCO released on Friday, glaciers are disappearing more quickly than ever. The last three years saw the greatest loss of mass on record. Michael Zemp of the Switzerland-based World Glacier Monitoring Service said that the 9,000 gigatons (or a quarter of a million tons) of ice lost by glaciers since 1975 is roughly equivalent to an ice block as large as Germany and with a thickness of 25 meters. This was revealed at a Geneva press conference to announce the report. Climate change caused by fossil fuels will likely cause global temperatures to rise, accelerating...

The environmental regulator of Chile said that Canadian mining company Lundin will have to permanently close the Alcaparrosa Copper Mine in Chile after a sinkhole opened up near the mine in 2022. Lundin had stopped work on the site when a sinkhole of more than 60 meters in depth opened up in the Tierra Amarilla Village in northern Chile. However, it had pushed for the restarting of mining at Alcaparrosa. The SMA regulator in Chile said that they had determined that Lundin is responsible for the sinkhole and that the company must close the mine. They also fined the company...

storyp1> SANTIAGO, Oct 17 (Reuters) Sandwiched between wet towels in temperaturemonitored containers, a dozen seriously threatened Loa water frogs were flown from Santiago to Calama previously this month, the initial step conservationists have actually required to return the amphibians to their natural environment in a river that runs through the world's driest desert. The frogs were on the verge of termination in 2019 after water extraction from mining, farming and development, worsened by environment modification, annihilated their habitat. Researchers had the ability to save the remaining malnourished and sickly frogs, transferring 60 and carrying 14 to the Parquemet Zoo in...

On the planet's struggle to halt and reverse climate modification, nations regularly report on their strategies and development in lowering national levels of planetwarming carbon emissions. These strategies are called Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs for brief. WHAT IS AN NDC? A nation's NDC explains its national policies or decisions toward reaching net-zero emissions, and was upgraded every five years until delegates at the 2021 U.N. climate top, COP26, in Glasgow called for more regular updates every couple of years. Altogether, these reports help nations collaborate their environment policies action with one another. More right away, they can tell us...

Engineers who specialize in building NASA spacecraft to check out remote worlds are designing a fleet of undersea robotic probes to measure how rapidly environment modification is melting huge ice sheets around Antarctica and what that implies for rising sea levels. A prototype of the submersible automobiles, under advancement by NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab near Los Angeles, was evaluated from a U.S. Navy laboratory camp in the Arctic, where it was released beneath the frozen Beaufort Sea north of Alaska in March. These robotics are a platform to bring science instruments to the hardest-to-reach places on Earth, Paul Glick, a...