AFP UK

Lava from the erupting volcano on La Palma in Spain’s Canary Islands that began cascading into the ocean two days ago has already covered an area bigger than 25 football pitches, with concerns rising over worsening air quality in nearby residential areas, experts said on Thursday. 

The newly wrought peninsula had doubled in size to 20 hectares (50 acres) since the morning, according to the Volcanic Institute of the Canaries (Involcan).

While the feared explosion and clouds of toxic gases released as the molten rock hit the ocean have not materialised, a forecast change in wind may bring new hazards, the Pevolca volcanic emergency committee warned.

“With the weather we are going to have from tomorrow,” marked by a possible change in the direction of winds that have so far dispersed the gases towards the sea, it is possible “the smell of sulphur” will be felt “with greater intensity”, Pevolca official Ruben Fernandez said. 

Sulphur dioxide levels increased for the first time on Thursday afternoon in Tazacorte, while the ash particles increased in density in Santa Cruz de La Palma, according to the National Institute of Toxicology.

Since it began on September 19, the dramatic eruption has forced thousands out of their homes, while lava has destroyed hundreds of houses, businesses and huge swathes of banana plantations.

The volcano spewed out rivers of lava that slowly crept towards the sea, eventually pouring into the Atlantic Ocean late on Tuesday. 

Since then, the rivers of molten rock have not stopped cascading into the sea, creating a growing lava delta.

While the initial impact on the flora and fauna of being submerged under the river of molten rock is devastating, over the longer term, it may prove beneficial — bringing minerals from the Earth’s core to the surface and providing a habitat both underwater and on land for colonisation by species, experts said.

Fernando Tuya, a biodiversity researcher at the University of La Palma, said: “The lava will form a rocky platform that will become a substrate for numerous marine species in the future, that is to say in three to five years.”

As the white-hot lava poured into the sea, it sent plumes of acid fumes into the air that experts said could irritate the skin, eyes and respiratory tracts.

But fears it could affect the local population were quickly allayed as strong winds dispersed the vapours over the sea.

However that could change with the wind direction predicted to turn around on Friday.

– Disaster zone –

Some 300 residents in the nearby town of Tazacorte have been told to stay at home to avoid any chance of inhaling the gases and a 3.5-kilometre (two-mile) exclusion zone remained in place, which also extends two nautical miles out to sea.

“Until we know that these areas are not at risk, these measures will be maintained,” Pevolca’s Ruben Fernandez said on Wednesday evening. 

La Palma has been declared a natural disaster zone, with the lava scorching its way across 476 hectares of land, the local government said on Twitter. 

It has so far destroyed 855 buildings, an increase of more than 200 in just over 24 hours, the EU’s Copernicus observation programme said on Twitter.

The eruption of La Cumbre Vieja has forced some 6,000 people to flee their homes but so far, nobody has been injured or killed. 

Although the volcano is still erupting, La Palma’s airport resumed operations on Wednesday after flights were suspended at the weekend due to the ash. 

On Thursday, farmers were allowed to access their plantations outside the security zone to collect bananas — the chief cash crop on the island.

La Cumbre Vieja lies about 15 kilometres (nine miles) west of the airport as the crow flies, although the lava has only spilt down the western side of the volcano.

Lava from the erupting volcano on La Palma in Spain’s Canary Islands that began cascading into the ocean two days ago has already covered an area bigger than 25 football pitches, experts said on Thursday. 

The newly wrought peninsula had doubled in size to 20 hectares (50 acres) since the morning, according to the Volcanic Institute of the Canaries (Involcan).

While the feared explosion and clouds of toxic gases released as the molten rock hit the ocean have not materialised, a forecast change in wind may bring new hazards, the Pevolca volcanic emergency committee warned.

“With the weather we are going to have from tomorrow,” marked by a possible change in the direction of winds that have so far dispersed the gases towards the sea, it is possible “the smell of sulphur” will be felt “with greater intensity”, Pevolca official Ruben Fernandez said. 

Since it began on September 19, the dramatic eruption has forced thousands out of their homes, while lava has destroyed hundreds of houses, businesses and huge swathes of banana plantations.

The volcano spewed out rivers of lava that slowly crept towards the sea, eventually pouring into the Atlantic Ocean late on Tuesday. 

Since then, the rivers of molten rock have not stopped cascading into the sea, creating a growing lava delta.

While the initial impact on the flora and fauna of being submerged under the river of molten rock is devastating, over the longer term, it may prove beneficial — bringing minerals from the Earth’s core to the surface and providing a habitat both underwater and on land for colonisation by species, experts said.

Fernando Tuya, a biodiversity researcher at the University of La Palma, said: “The lava will form a rocky platform that will become a substrate for numerous marine species in the future, that is to say in three to five years.”

As the white-hot lava poured into the sea, it sent plumes of acid fumes into the air that experts said could irritate the skin, eyes and respiratory tracts.

But fears it could affect the local population were quickly allayed as strong winds dispersed the vapours over the sea.

However that could change with the wind direction predicted to turn around on Friday.

– Disaster zone –

Some 300 residents in the nearby town of Tazacorte have been told to stay at home to avoid any chance of inhaling the gases and a 3.5-kilometre (two-mile) exclusion zone remained in place, which also extends two nautical miles out to sea.

“Until we know that these areas are not at risk, these measures will be maintained,” Pevolca’s Ruben Fernandez said on Wednesday evening. 

La Palma has been declared a natural disaster zone, with the lava scorching its way across 476 hectares of land, the local government said on Twitter. 

It has so far destroyed 855 buildings, an increase of more than 200 in just over 24 hours, the EU’s Copernicus observation programme said on Twitter.

The eruption of La Cumbre Vieja has forced some 6,000 people to flee their homes but so far, nobody has been injured or killed. 

Although the volcano is still erupting, La Palma’s airport resumed operations on Wednesday after flights were suspended at the weekend due to the ash. 

On Thursday, farmers were allowed to access their plantations outside the security zone to collect bananas — the chief cash crop on the island.

La Cumbre Vieja lies about 15 kilometres (nine miles) west of the airport as the crow flies, although the lava has only spilt down the western side of the volcano.

Leading US journal Science on Thursday issued a rare editorial calling for scientists to fight back against the Covid misinformation that proliferates on Facebook.

“The pandemic has revealed shocking ineptness by the scientific establishment at conveying messages about masks, vaccination, or the dangers of consuming horse drugs and aquarium cleaner,” wrote editor-in-chief H. Holden Thorp.

The former chemistry professor added that social media had been skillfully exploited by “antiscience forces,” singling out Ben Shapiro and Dan Bongino, right wing public figures who have built up loyal followings.

Communicating about research is inherently difficult because the scientific process is slow and iterative, with caveats and answers that aren’t always definitive, conceded Thorp — and such content does not always lend itself to viral posts.

But the problem is “the antiscience opposition doesn’t care about the caveats,” he added.

While the pandemic has seen the rise of numerous credible scientists who have amassed large followings on Twitter — examples include Ashish Jha, dean of Brown School of Public Health and NYU professor Celine Gounder — the same is not true on Facebook.

“People tend to trust individuals they know on Facebook, making it powerful for changing hearts and minds,” said Thorp, urging engagement rather than a boycott.

“To do battle in this arena, science will need to find its own super figures who can compete directly with the Shapiros and Bonginos of the antiscience world,” he added, whether they be practicing scientists or skilled science communicators.

“Since the end of World War II, scientists have clung to the idea that if they stay objective and state the science, then the rest of the world will follow,” he said, concluding that hostility to both climate and Covid research had proven this naive.

“Is our voice so scary?”

For representatives of the next generation, who fear being saddled with a lifetime of climate misery, three days of events designed to have their voices heard hardly seem sufficient to address their concern.

Four hundred youth activists were chosen out of nearly 9,000 applicants by the UN to attend the event in Milan meant to give a platform for young people to speak their minds about the climate crisis — and the lack of action from leaders to address it.

But having been invited from around the world specifically to express their views ahead of the vital COP26 climate summit in October, many participants in Milan did not feel they were being listened to.

On Thursday, when Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi took to the lectern, a small group of protesters held up placards and began chanting: “The people united will not be defeated.”

They were promptly escorted from the premises by security. 

“I think it’s weird that they are scared from a bunch of young people, just because we were protesting and don’t agree with the greenwashing,” Rikke Nielsen, a 20-year-old activist from Denmark, told AFP. 

“It’s ridiculous we cannot speak up our mind, we have to stay within the format they created.” 

Ahead of the now-weekly youth climate strike on Friday, which Swedish activist Greta Thunberg is expected to lead, the youth were defiant. 

– ‘They cannot divide us’ –

“We won’t stop striking until we see change for real, until these things don’t happen anymore,” said Italian activist Martina Comparelli. 

“Until they understand they cannot divide us into delegates and non delegates, as activists who can talk to prime ministers and activists that cannot talk to the prime minister, activists who are stopped because they raised a piece of cardboard.”

Comparelli said that the officials gathering for the pre-COP discussions found young people’s voices “scary”.

“Maybe it is because it is the truth and the truth is always a bit scary.”

Asked about what he had heard during the three-day youth gathering, COP26 President Alok Sharma, said: 

“There are three feelings I got: it was inspiring, secondly they spoke very, very frankly, and third they spoke the truth, we need to do much more, much faster.”

The youth delegates agreed on several key messages for ministers, including increasing climate finance to developing nations and a green energy transition by 2030.

Above all, “young people are not only asking to be heard, they also want their part as equal partners”, said one of UN chief Antonio Guterres’ youth envoys, Jayathma Wickramanayake.

“It’s clearer and clearer the mistrust between young people and governments is increasing more than ever, there is a lot of frustration among young people around the world, especially about the climate crisis.”

– ‘Greatest threat’ – 

Some delegates spoke positively about the opportunity to exchange views with government representatives in Milan, especially after the pandemic curtailed a groundswell in youth climate events.

“Today’s event was such a great opportunity for so many people, and so many underrepresented people,” said Reem al-Saffar, a delegate from Iraq.

However the general mood among activists on Thursday was one of frustration at being invited but not really listened to.

“It’s not a format designed by young people for young people, but by the UN to suits the UN way of working,” said Salina Abraham, 26, from Eritrea.

“Unfortunately it’s not perfectly matched with our ideas, and energy and spirit.”

Speaking to journalists in a nearby park, where dozens of youths had moved to after the morning’s ejections, Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate was undaunted. 

“The climate crisis is the greatest threat facing our lives,” she told gathered journalists. 

“I and other activists will continue speaking, will continue striking, will continue demanding climate justice.”

When Nicole Oliveira was just learning to walk, she would throw up her arms to reach for the stars in the sky.

Today, at just eight years of age, the Brazilian girl is known as the world’s youngest astronomer, looking for asteroids as part of a NASA-affiliated program, attending international seminars and meeting with her country’s top space and science figures.

In Oliveira’s room, filled with posters of the solar system, miniature rockets and Star Wars figures, Nicolinha, as she is affectionately known, works on her computer studying images of the sky on two large screens.

The project, called Asteroid Hunters, is meant to introduce young people to science by giving them a chance to make space discoveries of their own.

It is run by the International Astronomical Search Collaboration, a citizen science program affiliated with NASA, in partnership with Brazil’s ministry of science.

Beaming with pride, Nicolinha told AFP she has already found 18 asteroids. 

“I will give them the names of Brazilian scientists, or members of my family, like my mom or my dad,” said the lively girl with dark brown hair and a high-pitched voice.

If her findings are certified, which may take several years, Oliveira will become the youngest person in the world to officially discover an asteroid, breaking the record of 18-year-old Italian Luigi Sannino.

“She really has an eye. She immediately spots points in the images that look like asteroids and often advises her classmates when they are not sure they have really found any”, said Heliomarzio Rodrigues Moreira, Oliveira’s astronomy teacher at a private school in the city of Fortaleza in northeastern Brazil, which she is attending thanks to a scholarship.

“The most important thing is that she shares her knowledge with other children. She contributes to the dissemination of science,” added Rodrigues Moreira.

  

– ‘Passion for astronomy’ – 

Nicolinha’s family relocated to Fortaleza from their hometown of Maceio, about 1,000 kilometers away, at the beginning of this year, after Nicolinha received a scholarship to attend the prestigious school. Her father, a computer scientist, was allowed to keep his job and telework.

“When she was two, she would raise her arms to the sky and ask me, ‘Mom, give me a star,’ said her mother, Zilma Janaca, 43, who works in the craft industry.

“We understood that this passion for astronomy was serious when she asked us for a telescope as a birthday present when she turned four. I didn’t even really know what a telescope was,” Janaca added.

Nicolinha was so set on getting a telescope that she told her parents she would swap it for all her future birthday parties. Still, such a gift was too expensive for the family and the girl got it only when she turned 7 and all her friends pooled money for the purchase, her mother said.

As she continued her studies, Nicolinha enrolled in an astronomy course that had to lower its age limit for students down from 12. 

On her YouTube channel, Nicolinha has interviewed influential figures like the Brazilian astronomer Duilia de Mello, who took part in the discovery of a supernova called SN 1997D.

Last year, Oliveira traveled to Brasilia to meet with the minister of science as well as with the astronaut Marcos Pontes, the only Brazilian to date to have been to space.

As for her own ambitions, Nicolinha wants to become an aerospace engineer.

“I want to build rockets. I would love to go to the Kennedy Space Center at NASA in Florida to see their rockets,” she said.

“I would also like all children in Brazil to have access to science,” she says.

Lava from the erupting volcano on La Palma in the Canary Islands that began cascading into the ocean 36 hours ago has already covered more than 25 acres at sea, experts said Thursday. 

Since it began on September 19, the dramatic eruption has forced thousands out of their homes, while lava has destroyed hundreds of houses, businesses and huge swathes of banana plantations.

The volcano spewed out rivers of lava that slowly crept towards the sea, eventually pouring into the Atlantic Ocean late on Tuesday in a flow which has not stopped. 

“Estimates suggest it has already covered more than 10 hectares (25 acres)” at sea, David Calvo of the Canaries’ volcanology institute Involcan told AFP, saying experts would carry out a more accurate assessment with drones in the coming hours.

Since then, the rivers of molten rock have not stopped cascading into the sea, creating a growing lava delta in what Calvo described as “a phase of stability”.

“The lava is continuing to flow like a waterfall and a lava delta is forming at the base of the cliff, extending southwards,” the Pevolca volcanic emergency committee said late Wednesday. 

As the white-hot lava poured into the sea, it sent plumes of acid fumes into the air that experts said could irritate the skin, eyes and respiratory tracts, possibly causing breathing difficulties.

But fears it could affect the local population were quickly allayed as strong winds dispersed the vapours over the sea.

A spokesman for Spain’s AEMET weather service on Thursday said the wind would continue to disperse the gases.

There will be “strong northeasterly winds on Thursday and Friday… that will disperse the volcanic emissions towards the sea,” Ruben del Campo told AFP.

“So there will be no problem with air quality in populated areas, except in those closest to the eruption point.” 

– Disaster zone –

Even so, some 300 residents in the nearby town of Tazacorte have been told to stay at home to avoid any chance of inhaling the gases and a 3.5-kilometre (two-mile) exclusion zone remained in place, which also extends two nautical miles out to sea.

“Until we know that these areas are not at risk, these measures will be maintained,” Pevolca’s Ruben Fernandez said on Wednesday evening. 

La Palma has been declared a natural disaster zone, with the lava scorching its way across 476 hectares (1,176 acres) of land, the local government said on Twitter. 

It has so far destroyed 855 buildings, an increase of more than 200 in just over 24 hours, the EU’s Copernicus observation programme said on Twitter.

The eruption of La Cumbre Vieja has forced some 6,000 people to flee their homes but so far, nobody has been injured or killed. 

Although the volcano is still erupting, La Palma’s airport resumed operations on Wednesday after flights were suspended at the weekend due to the ash. 

La Cumbre Vieja lies about 15 kilometres (nine miles) west of the airport as the crow flies, although the lava has only spilt down the western side of the volcano.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Thursday called for G20 nations to commit to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius at a summit next month.

Draghi said Italy, which holds the rotating G20 presidency and which is co-hosting the forthcoming COP26 climate summit with Britain, would be “pushing countries to honour their climate pledges and, in some cases, stand ready to make bolder ones”.

Heads of the G20 nations will convene in Rome on October 30, just a day before COP26 — billed as vital to the success of the Paris climate deal — gets underway in Glasgow.

The 2015 Paris Agreement committed nations to limit global warming to “well below” 2C and to strive for a safer temperature cap of 1.5C. 

“The G20 includes countries that make up more than 80 percent of world GDP and over 75 percent of emissions,” Draghi told a gathering of youth climate activists in Milan.

“We want to achieve a G20 commitment about the need to keep 1.5C within reach. And we want to develop long-term strategies that are consistent with 1.5C.”

Several G20 members, including the European Union, have committed to carbon neutral economies by around mid-century.

But the UN says that global emissions must fall more than seven percent each year this decade to keep 1.5C in play. 

Six years on from the Paris accord, the latest round of national emissions cutting pledges put Earth on course to heat a “catastrophic” 2.7C this century, according to a UN assessment this month. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in August said that the 1.5C threshold would be breached by mid-century under all emissions scenarios, but that rapid decarbonisation could drag temperatures back below the cap by 2100.

UN chief Antonio Guterres urged young people on Thursday to keep up their pressure on world leaders, praising them for “setting a powerful example” ahead of a vital climate summit next month.

“The window of opportunity to prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis is closing quickly,” he told hundreds of youth activists gathered in Milan. 

“We know what needs to be done and we have the tools to do it. Young people have been in the forefront of putting forward positive solutions, advocating for climate justice and holding leaders to account.”

The COP26 UN climate summit, which begins October 31 in Glasgow, is being billed as crucial to the continued success of the 2015 Paris Agreement. 

The landmark 2015 accord commits nations to limiting global temperature rises to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels through sweeping emissions cuts.

Countries also promised to work towards a safer temperature cap of 1.5C. 

But emissions have continued to rise in the six years since the deal, while the latest round of national carbon-cutting pledges puts Earth on track to warm a “catastrophic” 2.7C this century, according to a UN assessment this month.

Guterres urged delegates in Glasgow to bring their emissions plans in line with a 1.5C pathway.

“This means that they must commit to net-zero by mid-century, with ambitious 2030 targets, and clear plans to achieve them,” he said.

The UN chief also called on developed nations at COP26 to make good on their promise to deliver $100 billion each year to countries already bearing the brunt of climate disasters. 

The activists in Milan will outline their priorities for climate action in a joint communique to be presented to ministers meeting Saturday as part of pre-COP preparations. 

“Your solidarity and demands for action set a powerful example,” Guterres told the youth delegates. 

“We need national leaders to follow your example and ensure the ambition and results we need at COP26 and beyond.”

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose country will host COP26, said via video link that “young people around the world are already paying the price for the reckless actions of their elders.”

“There is still just enough time to put on the brakes. We know what needs to be done, we just have to get on with it. Change on the scale we need is perfectly possible.” 

Johnson summed up the summit aims as: “Coal, cars, cash and trees.” 

“We want to move away from using coal as a way we generate electricity and move towards renewables,” he said. 

“We want everybody to stop using internal combustion engine vehicles. We want to raise the funds that the whole world needs — the developing world in particular — to tackle climate change, and we need to plant hundreds of billions if not trillions of trees,” Johnson said. 

“If we do that, we can make COP a success.” 

Watching his fridge float across the kitchen and bed disappear underwater was not how Samran Buachumsuk hoped to begin retirement at his newly built home in central Thailand.

Flooding after tropical storm Dianmu has hit 31 provinces, killed seven people and inundated more than 215,000 households, authorities say.

About 150 kilometres (93 miles) south, the capital is on alert — with floodwater expected to reach Bangkok late next week.

In the ancient city of Lopburi, a caramel sea has lapped into homes and Samran does not know where he will find the money to repair his house and buy new furniture.

“I think this is it — I might have to start from zero since there is very little stuff that is salvageable,” the 61-year-old, who retired last month, told AFP.

Aoi Ketpan, 53, managed to move some of her family’s belongings to higher ground but could not compete with the speed of the rising water.

“The water reached the level of my hip in a matter of minutes,” she told AFP.

Down the road, teenage boys had found a silver lining: throwing nets into the torrent to catch fish and crabs for dinner.

At a nearby temple evacuees rest on mats, reliant on donated food packages.

Lopburi’s weather bureau chief Norawat Thipraks said the flood peaked at two metres and would take at least two weeks to recede.

The level of the Chao Phraya river — which snakes through Bangkok after winding almost 400 kilometres down from the north — is steadily rising as authorities release water from dams further upstream.

The Royal Irrigation Department is discharging 2,750 cubic metres of water — the equivalent of 1.1 Olympic swimming pools — per second, from the Chao Phraya Dam into the river.

Somkiat Prajamwong from the Office of National Water Resources said authorities were working to divert some of the floodwater to protect the capital.

Hydrology expert Seree Suparathit from Rangsit University said the floodwater would likely reach Bangkok around October 6-10, with a new storm expected next week adding to the risks.

The capital experienced catastrophic floods in 2011 that left a fifth of the city underwater, but experts say this year’s disaster is unlikely to reach that level.

Can rock and roll keep people safe from bear attacks? One Japanese region is hoping so, and has commissioned a cautionary anthem warning residents about the threat of its ursine inhabitants.

Bears are common across Japan and regularly spark frantic hunts when they venture into towns, where they have attacked and even killed residents.

A spike in the number of bear sightings in rural northern Japan has been met with a novel response: the Iwate prefecture government has commissioned a rock song that will be belted out across the region.

“So you think bear cubs are cute?” the song lyrics begin, as screaming guitars and pounding drums play in the background.

“Discard that naive way of thinking! Nearby that cub is a parent bear, and it’ll suddenly attack you! Roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar — it’ll suddenly attack you!”

The track was written and performed by a pair of local sexagenarian rockers and offers sobering advice such as “never turn your back and run away”, and “trying to play dead doesn’t work”.

Singer Yuuzen Taguchi, 69, said such advice served him well on the one occasion he encountered a bear near a field.

“It’s very frightening when one just appears before you,” he told AFP.

“You want to run away, but my grandparents told me years ago that if you ever encounter a bear, don’t turn around and just back away slowly,” he added.

“I was taught that rural knowledge that comes from co-existing with bears when I was a kid.”

There were more than 3,300 bear sightings in Iwate prefecture last year, up from just 700 in 2017.

Authorities hope the song, which is playing at local roadside shopping centres until October 31, will teach people how to stay safe.

Songwriter Kaoru Toudou, 61, said he originally wrote it as a blues number.

But Taguchi, who has played in bands for the past 50 years, gave it an uptempo rock twist when he added his howling vocals.

“It’s said that bears are timid creatures, so I think if one heard the song playing outside, it would run away,” Toudou said.

“That’s the power of rock and roll.”