Cali, Colombia | AFP – UN chief Antonio Guterres warned Tuesday that humanity faced an “existential crisis” caused by the rapacious destruction of life-sustaining nature.

“Every year, we see temperatures climbing higher. Every day, we lose more species. Every minute, we dump a garbage truck of plastic waste into our oceans, rivers and lakes. Make no mistake. This is what an existential crisis looks like,” the secretary-general told delegates to the UN’s COP16 biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia.

mlr/des

© Agence France-Presse

Featured image credit: Naja Bertolt Jensen | Unsplash

Image: meeting in a hall (s. Small island states, climate change)
Small island states win key climate case in UN courtNews

Small island states win key climate case in UN court

By Femke COLBORNE | AFP Berlin, Germany (UPDATED) - The UN maritime court on Tuesday ruled in favour of nine small island states who brought…
SourceSourceMay 21, 2024 Full article
Bees help tackle elephant-human conflict in KenyaNews

Bees help tackle elephant-human conflict in Kenya

Voi, Kenya | AFP "We used to hate elephants a lot," Kenyan farmer Charity Mwangome says, pausing from her work under the shade of a…
SourceSourceNovember 12, 2024 Full article
Image: Debris covers the streets in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, after Hurricane Melissa tore across the island
‘Nowhere to sleep’: Melissa upends life for JamaicansNews

‘Nowhere to sleep’: Melissa upends life for Jamaicans

St. Ann, Jamaica | AFP In the north coast parish of St. Ann, almost all residents are without power -- and many of them woke up…
SourceSourceOctober 30, 2025 Full article