Results for Environment

On a worldwide expedition, a futuristic looking vessel powered by the sun, water, and wind, named ‘Race for Water’, is in Tonga raising awareness about new innovative solutions to preserve our ocean and to combat the rising tides of plastic in our oceans. By Eleanor Gee.

Tonga understands deeply the impact of environmental changes because they directly affect these islands, said the Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry, during a visit to dedicate two Forest Reserves at Tupou College this afternoon. Tupou College singers were a hit with their variation of the Mosquito song harmony "Zing Zang Zung Zoon".

Some 30 cylinders of a banned refrigerant R22 Hyrochlorofluorocarbon HCFC that were seized by Tongan Customs at Queen Salote Wharf in September 2013 are still under the care of the Customs Department.

Tonga took a major step to advance its commitment to the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global surface temperature rise to “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” when the Privy Council endorsed the 2016 Kigali Amendment to the 1987 Montreal Protocol on 21 June this year.

Tonga is finding it difficult to manage illegal dumping of rubbish, including plastic bags, in Nuku'alofa, as it celebrated World Environment Day on 5 June with the worldwide theme "Beat Plastic Pollution". Filimone Lapao’o, the Tonga goverment's Senior Environmentalist, said after Cyclone Gita, the amount of rubbish at Sopu increased so much that his department cannot manage it properly. By Eleanor Gee.

A rare "super blue blood" Moon lit up the sky last night in Tongatapu, followed by a full lunar eclipse in the early hours of this morning when the spectacularly bright moon went dark for over an hour.

Land that was once frozen in the Yukon Territory in Northern Canada is becoming agriculture friendly due to global warming and is being offered for free to small farmers. The Yukon borders on Alaska and its government has already given away nearly 8,000 acres of farmland over the last 10 years, with a dozen applicants currently being considered.

Important questions over massive environmental damage caused by site works for the Va'epopua 18-holes golf course and its associated commercial developments remain unanswered, in spite of fears that the project is killing the reef and endangering the health and fishing livelihoods of its coastal communities.

"Deeply disappointing," is how the incoming President of COP23, Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, this morning responded to the decision by the Trump administration to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change. Bainimarama said the impacts of climate change "are obvious, and humankind ignores these facts at its peril."