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: sunrise, lake, birds, and mist in Rovaniemi, Finland (s. Lapland, climate change)
Summer 2024 was Lapland’s warmest in 2,000 years: studyNewsFacts

Summer 2024 was Lapland’s warmest in 2,000 years: study

Helsinki, Finland | AFP | Muser NewsDesk The summer of 2024 was the warmest in 2,000 years in the Lapland region of northern Finland, Norway…
SourceSourceApril 28, 2025 Full article
Image: Mining fields on frozen terrain
Energy transition risks critical mineral shortage: IEANews

Energy transition risks critical mineral shortage: IEA

By Isabel Malsang and Nick Perry | AFP Paris, France (UPDATED) - The sharp drop in prices for minerals critical to the green energy transition…
SourceSourceMay 17, 2024 Full article
Satellite Image: Peniche, Portugal
Image of the day: Flooding and coastal impacts in Portugal after Storm KristinNews

Image of the day: Flooding and coastal impacts in Portugal after Storm Kristin

A period of severe winter weather disrupted large parts of Portugal in late January 2026, as Storm Kristin brought heavy rainfall, strong winds, and dangerous…
Muser NewsDeskMuser NewsDeskFebruary 6, 2026 Full article