A major new study of the world's oceans has reached a shocking conclusion: Thanks to humans, there are now over 5 trillion pieces of plastic, weighing more than 250,000 tons, floating in water around the world.
Until recently, the island’s biggest problem was garbage. Because there is no trash collection at all, locals have long resorted to burying or burning their rubbish.
Following a meeting with animal rights groups, Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo SolÃs on Sunday evening promised the executive branch would include a bill against animal cruelty as a priority for approval in the Legislative Assembly starting next month.
Starting at 8 a.m. Monday, seven alleged poachers will stand trial in a Limón court for the murder last year of 26-year-old Costa Rican sea turtle conservationist Jairo Mora.
As many as 40,000 illegal miners — mostly poor, Quechua-speaking laborers from Peru's Andean highlands — have invaded some of the most pristine and biologically rich sections of ancient forest in the Amazon basin. In just a few years, they have laid waste to more than 120,000 acres, leaving behind Amazonian deserts of pestilent orange craters that bleed into the rivers when it rains.
Responding to an official complaint filed with the National Animal Health Service (SENASA), police raided a Cartago home last week. With only two small bedrooms and a cramped sitting room, the tiny house had served as the only living space for 18 French poodles, part of an illegal breeding operation.
