AFP

Storm Eunice killed at least seven people in Europe on Friday, pummelling Britain with record-breaking winds and forcing millions to take shelter as it disrupted flights, trains and ferries across Western Europe.

London was eerily empty after the British capital was placed under its first ever “red” weather warning, meaning there is “danger to life”. By nightfall, police there said a woman in her 30s had died after a tree fell on a car she was a passenger in.

Meanwhile a man in his 50s was also killed in northwest England after debris struck the windscreen of a vehicle he was travelling in, according to Merseyside Police.

Beyond Britain, falling trees killed three people in the Netherlands and a man in his 60s in southeast Ireland, while a Canadian man aged 79 died in Belgium, according to officials in each country.

As well as in London, the highest weather alert level was declared across southern England, South Wales and the Netherlands, with many schools closed and rail travel paralysed, as towering waves breached sea walls along the coasts.

Meanwhile Eunice’s winds knocked out power to more than 140,000 homes in England, mostly in the southwest, and 80,000 properties in Ireland, utility companies said.

Around the UK capital, three people were taken to hospital after suffering injuries in the storm, and a large section of the roof on the capital’s Millennium Dome was shredded by the gales.

One wind gust of 122 miles (196 kilometres) per hour was measured on the Isle of Wight off southern England, “provisionally the highest gust ever recorded in England”, the Met Office said.

At the Tan Hill Inn, Britain’s highest pub in Yorkshire, staff were busy preparing even if the winds remained merely blustery in the region of northern England.

“But with the snow coming in now, the wind’s increasing, we’re battening down the hatches, getting ready for a bad day and worse night,” pub maintenance worker Angus Leslie told AFP.

– ‘Sting jet’ –

Scientists said the Atlantic storm’s tail could pack a “sting jet”, a rarely seen meteorological phenomenon that brought havoc to Britain and northern France in the “Great Storm” of 1987. 

Eunice caused high waves to batter the Brittany coast in northwest France, while Belgium, Denmark and Sweden all issued weather warnings. Long-distance and regional trains were halted in northern Germany. 

Ferries across the Channel, the world’s busiest shipping lane, were suspended, before the English port of Dover reopened in the late afternoon. 

Hundreds of flights were cancelled or delayed at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports and Schiphol in Amsterdam. One easyJet flight from Bordeaux endured two aborted landings at Gatwick — which saw wind gusts peak at 78 miles per hour — before being forced to return to the French city.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has placed the British army on standby, tweeted: “We should all follow the advice and take precautions to keep safe.”

Environment Agency official Roy Stokes warned weather watchers and amateur photographers against heading to Britain’s southern coastline in search of dramatic footage, calling it “probably the most stupid thing you can do”.

– Climate impact? –

London’s rush-hour streets, where activity has been slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels, were virtually deserted as many heeded government advice to stay home.

Trains into the capital were already running limited services during the morning commute, with speed limits in place, before seven rail operators in England suspended all operations.

The London Fire Brigade declared a “major incident” after taking 550 emergency calls in just over two hours — although it complained that several were “unhelpful”, including one from a resident complaining about a neighbour’s garden trampoline blowing around.

The RAC breakdown service said it was receiving unusually low numbers of callouts on Britain’s main roads, indicating that motorists are “taking the weather warnings seriously and not setting out”.

The storm forced Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, to postpone a trip to South Wales on Friday “in the interests of public safety”, his office said Thursday.

Another storm, Dudley, had caused transport disruption and power outages when it hit Britain on Wednesday, although damage was not widespread.

Experts said the frequency and intensity of the storms could not be linked necessarily to climate change. 

But Richard Allan, professor of climate science at the University of Reading, said a heating planet was leading to more intense rainfall and higher sea levels.

Therefore, he said, “flooding from coastal storm surges and prolonged deluges will worsen still further when these rare, explosive storms hit us in a warmer world”.

Storm Eunice killed three people in Europe on Friday, pummelling Britain with record-breaking winds and forcing millions to take shelter as it disrupted flights, trains and ferries across Western Europe.

London was eerily empty after the British capital was placed under its first ever “red” weather warning, meaning there is “danger to life”.

The same rare level of alert was in place across southern England, South Wales and the Netherlands, with many schools closed and rail travel paralysed, as towering waves breached sea walls along the coasts.

Eunice knocked out power to more than 140,000 homes in England, mostly in the southwest, and 80,000 properties in Ireland, utility companies said.

Two people were killed by falling trees in the Netherlands, Dutch emergency services said. A man in his 60s was killed by a tree in the Ballythomas area of southeast Ireland, police said. 

Around London, three people were hospitalised after suffering injuries in the storm, and a large section of the roof on the capital’s Millennium Dome was shredded by the high winds.

One wind gust of 122 miles (196 kilometres) per hour was measured on the Isle of Wight off southern England, “provisionally the highest gust ever recorded in England”, the Met Office said.

At the Tan Hill Inn, Britain’s highest pub in Yorkshire, staff were busy preparing even if the winds remained merely blustery in the region of northern England.

“But with the snow coming in now, the wind’s increasing, we’re battening down the hatches, getting ready for a bad day and worse night,” pub maintenance worker Angus Leslie told AFP.

– ‘Sting jet’ –

Scientists said the Atlantic storm’s tail could pack a “sting jet”, a rarely seen meteorological phenomenon that brought havoc to Britain and northern France in the “Great Storm” of 1987. 

Eunice caused high waves to batter the Brittany coast in northwest France, while Belgium, Denmark and Sweden all issued weather warnings. Long-distance and regional trains were halted in northern Germany. 

Ferries across the Channel, the world’s busiest shipping lane, were suspended, before the English port of Dover reopened in the late afternoon. 

Hundreds of flights were cancelled or delayed at Heathrow and Gatwick in London, and Schiphol in Amsterdam. One easyJet flight from Bordeaux endured two aborted landings at Gatwick before being forced to return to the French city.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has placed the British army on standby, tweeted: “We should all follow the advice and take precautions to keep safe.”

Environment Agency official Roy Stokes warned weather watchers and amateur photographers against heading to Britain’s southern coastline in search of dramatic footage, calling it “probably the most stupid thing you can do”.

– Climate impact? –

London’s rush-hour streets, where activity has been slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels, were virtually deserted as many heeded government advice to stay home.

Trains into the capital were already running limited services during the morning commute, with speed limits in place, before seven rail operators in England suspended all operations.

The London Fire Brigade declared a “major incident” after taking 550 emergency calls in just over two hours — although it complained that several were “unhelpful”, including one from a resident complaining about a neighbour’s garden trampoline blowing around.

Widespread delays and cancellations were reported on bus and ferry services, with high bridges closed to traffic.

The RAC breakdown service said it was receiving unusually low numbers of callouts on Britain’s main roads, indicating that motorists are “taking the weather warnings seriously and not setting out”.

The storm forced Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, to postpone a trip to South Wales on Friday “in the interests of public safety”, his office said Thursday.

Another storm, Dudley, caused transport disruption and power outages when it hit Britain on Wednesday, although damage was not widespread.

Experts said the frequency and intensity of the storms could not be linked necessarily to climate change. 

But Richard Allan, professor of climate science at the University of Reading, said a heating planet was leading to more intense rainfall and higher sea levels.

Therefore, he said, “flooding from coastal storm surges and prolonged deluges will worsen still further when these rare, explosive storms hit us in a warmer world”.

Millions hunkered down as Storm Eunice pummelled Britain with record-breaking winds on Friday, leaving the streets of London eerily empty and disrupting flights, trains and ferries across Western Europe.

The UK capital was placed under its first ever “red” weather warning, meaning there is “danger to life”. The same level of alert was in place across southern England and South Wales, where schools were closed and transport paralysed.

Eunice knocked out power to 80,000 homes and businesses in Ireland and more than 5,000 in Cornwall and Devon, southwest England, as towering waves breached sea walls along the coast.

One wind gust of 122 miles (196 kilometres) per hour was measured on the Isle of Wight off southern England, “provisionally the highest gust ever recorded in England”, the Met Office said.

A large section of the roof on the Millennium Dome in southeast London was shredded by the high winds, while all trains in Wales, western England and Kent in southeast England were cancelled.

Britain’s meteorological service also forecast heavy snow in Scotland and northern England. 

At the Tan Hill Inn, Britain’s highest pub in Yorkshire, staff were busy preparing even if the winds remained merely blustery in the region of northern England.

“But with the snow coming in now, the wind’s increasing, we’re battening down the hatches, getting ready for a bad day and worse night,” pub maintenance worker Angus Leslie told AFP.

Eunice accrued potency in a “sting jet”, a rarely seen meteorological phenomenon that brought havoc to Britain in the “Great Storm” of 1987, and sparked a red alert also in the Netherlands.

High waves battered the Brittany coast in northwest France. Long-distance and regional trains were being gradually halted in northern Germany, while warnings were also in place in Belgium, Denmark and Sweden.

Ferries across the Channel, the world’s busiest shipping lane, were cancelled, as were flights from northern Europe’s aviation hubs. Hundreds were cancelled or delayed at Heathrow and Gatwick in London, and Schiphol in Amsterdam.

One easyJet flight from Bordeaux endured two aborted landings at Gatwick before being forced to return to the French city.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has placed the British army on standby, tweeted: “We should all follow the advice and take precautions to keep safe.”

The Met Office warned that roofs could be blown off, trees uprooted and power lines brought down across southern Britain. Widespread delays and cancellations were reported on bus and ferry services, with high bridges closed to traffic.

– Climate impact? –

Environment Agency official Roy Stokes warned weather watchers and amateur photographers against heading to Britain’s southern coastline in search of dramatic footage, calling it “probably the most stupid thing you can do”.

London’s rush-hour streets, where activity has been slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels, were virtually deserted as many heeded the advice to stay home.

Trains into the capital were already running limited services during the morning commute, with speed limits in place.

The RAC breakdown service said it was receiving unusually low numbers of callouts on Britain’s main roads, indicating that motorists are “taking the weather warnings seriously and not setting out”.

The arriving storm forced Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, to postpone a trip to South Wales on Friday “in the interests of public safety”, his office said.

Another storm, Dudley, caused transport disruption and power outages when it hit Britain on Wednesday, although damage was not widespread.

Experts said the frequency and intensity of the storms could not be linked necessarily to climate change, but that storms were causing more damage as a result.

“There is very little evidence that winds in these winter storms have gotten stronger with climate change,” said Richard Allan, professor of climate science at the University of Reading. 

“Yet with more intense rainfall and higher sea levels as human-caused climate change continues to heat the planet, flooding from coastal storm surges and prolonged deluges will worsen still further when these rare, explosive storms hit us in a warmer world.”

When marine researchers started recording sounds in the seagrass meadows of the Mediterranean Sea they picked up a mysterious sound, like the croak of a frog, that resounded within the dense foliage — and nowhere else.   

“We recorded over 30 seagrasses and it was always there and no-one knew the species that was producing this kwa! kwa! kwa!” said Lucia Di Iorio, a researcher in ecoacoustics at France’s CEFREM.  

“It took us three years to find out the species that was producing that sound.”

The melodious songs of whales might be familiar music of the world’s underwater habitats but few people will have heard the hoarse growl of a streaked gurnard or the rhythmical drumbeat of a red piranha. 

Scientists are now calling for those sounds and many thousands more to become more widely accessible. 

They say a global database of the booms, whistles and chatter of the sea will help to monitor diversity in aquatic life — and help put a name to mystery sounds like the one Di Iorio and her colleagues investigated. 

Experts from nine countries are working to create what they have dubbed the Global Library of Underwater Biological Sounds — or “GLUBS”. 

This would gather together recordings held all over the world and open them up to artificial intelligence learning and mobile phone apps used by citizen scientists.

While experts have been listening to life underwater for decades, the team behind GLUBS say that audio collections tend to be narrowly focused on a specific species or geographical area. 

Their initiative is part of burgeoning work on marine “soundscapes” — collecting all the sounds in a particular area to discern information about species types, behaviour and overall biological diversity.  

Scientists say these soundscapes are a non-invasive way to “spy on” life underwater. 

In a paper published recently in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, the GLUBS team said many fish and aquatic invertebrates are mainly nocturnal or hard to find, so acoustic monitoring could help conservation efforts. 

“With biodiversity in decline worldwide and humans relentlessly altering underwater soundscapes, there is a need to document, quantify and understand the sources of underwater animal sounds before they potentially disappear,” said lead author Miles Parsons of the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

– Sonic ‘barcode’ –

Scientists believe that all 126 marine mammal species emit sounds, as do at least 100 aquatic invertebrates and some 1,000 fish species.

The sounds can convey a wide range of messages — acting as a defence mechanism, to warn others of danger, as part of mating and reproduction — or just be the passive noise of an animal munching a meal. 

Di Iorio, a co-author on the GLUBS paper, said while marine mammals, like humans, learn their language of communication, the sounds made by invertebrates and fish are “just their anatomy”. 

Many fish produce a distinctive drumming sound using a muscle that contracts around their swim bladder.     

“This dum-dum-dum-dum-dum, the frequency, the rhythm and the number of pulses vary from one species to another. It’s very specific,” Di Iorio told AFP. 

“It’s like a barcode.”

Scientists can recognise families of fish just from these sounds, so with a global library they might be able to compare, for example, the thrumming calls of different grouper fish in the Mediterranean to those off the coast of Florida. 

But another key use for the library, they say, could be to help identify the many unknown sounds in the world’s seas and freshwater habitats. 

– Mystery music –

After many months investigating the strange seagrass croaker, Di Iorio and her colleagues were able to point the finger of suspicion at the scorpionfish. 

But they struggled to explain how it was making such an unusual noise — and it refused to perform for them. 

They tried catching the fish and recording it in a carrier. They sunk sound equipment onto the seabed next to the fish. They even listened in to aquariums that contained scorpionfish.   

“Nothing,” she said. 

Eventually colleagues from Belgium took a camera that could record at low light and staked out some seagrass in Corsica. 

They were able to capture the kwa! kwa! sound as well as video of the fish making a shimmying motion. 

Back in the lab, they dissected a scorpionfish and found that they have tendons strung along their bodies. 

Their hypothesis is that the fish contracts these muscles to produce the sound.    

“It’s a guitar, an underwater guitar,” said Di Iorio. 

But there are many more mysteries where that came from.

Di Iorio said in the Mediterranean, up to 90 percent of noises in a given recording might be unknown.  

“Every time we put a hydrophone in the water we’re discovering new sounds,” she added.  

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday it made “significant progress” on its first mission to review the planned release of treated water from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant.

Since Monday, an IAEA taskforce has been in Japan to assess the country’s plan to gradually release the water, which has been processed to remove most radioactive elements, into the ocean.

The organisation’s deputy director general Lydie Evrard said the international team including non-IAEA experts had examined early preparations at the site for the release, expected to begin as soon as March next year.

“The IAEA taskforce made significant progress in its work this week to get a better understanding of Japan’s operational and regulatory plans for the discharge of the treated water,” she told reporters.

More than a million tonnes of liquid, including rain, groundwater and water used for cooling, has accumulated in tanks at the crippled Fukushima plant since it went into meltdown after a tsunami in 2011, and space is running out.

The IAEA has already endorsed the release, which it says is similar to wastewater disposal at nuclear plants elsewhere.

But neighbouring countries have expressed environmental and safety concerns, and local fishing communities are opposed, fearing it will undermine years of work to restore their reputation.

The water is treated but some radioactive elements including tritium remain. Experts say there is no evidence that would pose any danger, but opponents want the plan blocked.

Evrard said the taskforce collected water samples and gathered technical information on the trip and will release its findings in late April, the first of several reports in a multi-year review.

Ahead of the press conference on Friday, Greenpeace said it had “low expectations” for the taskforce’s investigation, calling for alternative options to the release to be explored.

“The IAEA is incapable of protecting the environment, human health or human rights from radiation risks — that’s not its job,” Shaun Burnie, senior nuclear specialist for Greenpeace East Asia, said in a statement.

Evrard said the UN-affiliated organisation is listening to concerns over the plans and takes them “very seriously”, and the review was “aimed at providing an objective and science-based approach”.

Ahead of more heavy rain, residents of several neighborhoods in the devastated Brazilian city of Petropolis were called to evacuate Thursday, just two days after flash floods and landslides killed 117 people.

Sirens warned neighborhoods in the hillside tourist town to leave, with residents still shocked from the rivers of mud that buried homes and swept away cars and trees. At least two streets were already closed after landslides containing “rocky blocks.”

The new rainfall comes with dozens still reported missing in the city, located some 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro, and as the first funerals of identified victims took place.

Text messages warned residents to take refuge at relatives’ homes or in public shelters “due to the volume of rain affecting the city, which will continue, with an intensity between moderate to strong, in the next few hours,” the local Civil Defense said.

“I feel scared when I see that it’s raining again, because the ground is still soaked,” said 45-year-old Petropolis resident Rodne Montesso, whose house was not at risk from the latest rains. “I think of the families who live in neighborhoods where many people have already died and I get desperate.”

Amid fears that the toll could climb, firefighters and volunteers scrambled through the remains of houses Thursday — many of them impoverished slums.

As rescue helicopters flew overhead, residents shared stories about loved ones or neighbors swept away.

“Unfortunately, it is going to be difficult to find survivors,” Luciano Goncalves, a 26-year-old volunteer, told AFP, completely covered in mud.

“Given the situation, it is practically impossible. But we must do our utmost, to be able to return the bodies to the families. We have to be very careful because there are still areas at risk” of fresh landslides, he added.

– ‘Scene from a war’ –

A total of 24 people have been rescued, while the number of missing is murky due to many of the dead bodies not yet having been identified. Globo TV has reported the number of missing at 41.

So far, 850 displaced people have been relocated to makeshift shelters, the vast majority of them in public schools.

Some 500 firefighters, with the help of hundreds of volunteers, dogs, bulldozers and dozens of aircraft participated in the rescue.

The rains were the latest in a series of deadly storms — which experts say are made worse by climate change — to hit Brazil in the past three months.

Charities have called for donations of mattresses, food, water, clothing and face masks.

Governor Claudio Castro of Rio de Janeiro state said the streets of Petropolis resembled “a scene from a war,” adding these were the heaviest rains to hit the region since 1932.

The “historic tragedy” was made worse, Castro said, by “deficits” in urban planning and housing infrastructure.

The effects of uncontrolled urban expansion, said meteorologist Estael Sias, hit the poor hardest when disaster strikes.

“Those who live in these regions at risk are the most vulnerable,” he said.

City hall declared a state of disaster and three days of mourning.

– ‘Tragedy’ –

Petropolis — the 19th-century summer capital of the Brazilian empire — is a popular destination for tourists fleeing the heat of Rio.

It is known for its leafy streets, stately homes, imperial palace — today a museum — and the natural beauty of surrounding mountains.

President Jair Bolsonaro, on an official trip to Russia and Hungary, will travel to Petropolis on his return Friday to inspect the damage, the government announced.

Experts say rainy season downpours are being augmented by La Nina — the cyclical cooling of the Pacific Ocean — and by climate change.

Because a warmer atmosphere holds more water, global warming increases the risk and intensity of flooding from extreme rainfall.

Last month, torrential downpours triggered floods and landslides that killed at least 28 people in southeastern Brazil, mainly in Sao Paulo state.

There have also been heavy rains in the northeastern state of Bahia, where 24 people died in December.

Petropolis and the surrounding region were previously hit by severe storms in January 2011, when more than 900 people died in flooding and landslides.

jhb-pt-lg-pt/mm/mlr/bfm//to

Sydney reopened beaches to surfers and swimmers on Friday after failing to find a large, great white shark that devoured a swimmer in the Australian city’s first such attack since 1963.

A 35-year-old British diving instructor, Simon Nellist, was identified by national broadcaster ABC and other media as the victim of Wednesday’s attack, which led the authorities to close a string of beaches including the iconic Bondi Beach.

Fishermen and golfers watched helplessly from nearby cliffs as a shark mauled the swimmer to death in a horrific attack off Sydney’s Little Bay Beach. 

Emergency responders described his injuries as “catastrophic”.

After the attack, drones scoured the ocean from the air, spotters launched on boats and six drum lines were set to try to catch the creature, which is believed to be at least three metres (10 feet) in length.

But no shark was seen.

“There have been no further sighting of sharks in the area, so beaches have been cleared to re-open on Friday 18 February 2022,” the mayor of Sydney’s Randwick local government area, Dylan Parker, said on the eve of the reopening.

Shortly after dawn on Friday, about a hundred swimmers at Bondi Beach stood in a circle on the sand and heads-bowed paid their respects to Nellist.

They then entered the surf on mass, and after a ritual swim beyond the breaking waves, regrouped to form another vast circle in moving tribute. 

“Ocean swimming is a special sport that has given me so much and I’m proud to be a part of this beautiful community,” said Bondi lifeguard and local celebrity Andrew ‘Reidy’ Reid. “Rest In Peace Simon.”  

“Everything that is connected to Simon is connected to the ocean,” Della Ross, a reported friend of the victim, told Australia’s Channel Seven news.

“The news hit us like a truck because he was one of the people who make this earth lighter.”

The man’s former employers before he moved to Australia, the Queens Hotel in Penzance, Cornwall, said they were “shocked” by his death.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to Simon Nellist and his family, fiance and friends at this sad time,” the hotel said on Facebook, describing him as a “wonderful man”.

Pumalin and Liquine, two juvenile condors rescued from certain death, have been released back into the wild in a much-needed boost for a dwindling species emblematic of the Chilean Andes.

After 14 months of rehabilitation, the pair of scavengers were freed last week in the Patagonian National Park in Chile’s extreme south, where every individual counts for a species listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as “vulnerable” to extinction.

From a vast cage perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Patagonian valley, the pair spread their massive wings, waddled to the ledge, and took the leap of freedom, soaring away graciously.

“Today we have witnessed a milestone,” Christian Saucedo of the Rewilding Chile Foundation told AFP.

“It is a very complex process… but it means returning individuals who would otherwise be condemned to live in captivity,” he said.

According to the IUCN, the Andean condor — a type of scavenging vulture — is a declining species, with fewer than 7,000 left in the wild.

– Human ‘persecution’ –

The main threat is “direct and indirect persecution by humans,” it states.

Dominic Duran, the executive director of the Manku Project for condor conservation, told AFP “the biggest threat is toxic baits set by humans to poison… pumas or wild dogs eating their livestock.”

When the condors feed on these carcasses, up to 30 at a time, they get poisoned in turn.

The first to eat, he added, are usually the breeding males and females, and “when condors are killed by toxic bait, all the reproductive individuals at the top of the chain die.”

Other threats are hunting by humans, intoxication from poorly-managed landfills and dwindling numbers of the wild animals that make up their diet.

The foundation that rescued Pumalin and Liquine is a legacy of US philanthropist Douglas Tompkins, who in 1990 donated 8,000 square kilometers (3,088 square miles) of land to Chile and Argentina for conservation.

The Patagonia National Park now housed there holds an estimated 70 percent of Chile’s Andean condors — the largest population in South America.

Pumalin, a male, was found over a year ago unable to fly after getting caught in a heavy storm, and Liquine, a female, was rescued struggling to make it in the wild after an earlier attempt to rehabilitate her.

They will now go back to “learning the codes of condor society,” said Saucedo.

The pair’s progress will be monitored with radio transmitters implanted in their wings.

Pumalin and Liquine, two juvenile condors rescued from certain death, have been released back into the wild in a much-needed boost for a dwindling species emblematic of the Chilean Andes.

After 14 months of rehabilitation, the pair of scavengers were freed last week in the Patagonian National Park in Chile’s extreme south, where every individual counts for a species listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as “vulnerable” to extinction.

From a vast cage perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Patagonian valley, the pair spread their massive wings, waddled to the ledge, and took the leap of freedom, soaring away graciously.

“Today we have witnessed a milestone,” Christian Saucedo of the Rewilding Chile Foundation told AFP.

“It is a very complex process… but it means returning individuals who would otherwise be condemned to live in captivity,” he said.

According to the IUCN, the Andean condor — a type of scavenging vulture — is a declining species, with fewer than 7,000 left in the wild.

– Human ‘persecution’ –

The main threat is “direct and indirect persecution by humans,” it states.

Dominic Duran, the executive director of the Manku Project for condor conservation, told AFP “the biggest threat is toxic baits set by humans to poison… pumas or wild dogs eating their livestock.”

When the condors feed on these carcasses, up to 30 at a time, they get poisoned in turn.

The first to eat, he added, are usually the breeding males and females, and “when condors are killed by toxic bait, all the reproductive individuals at the top of the chain die.”

Other threats are hunting by humans, intoxication from poorly-managed landfills and dwindling numbers of the wild animals that make up their diet.

The foundation that rescued Pumalin and Liquine is a legacy of US philanthropist Douglas Tompkins, who in 1990 donated 8,000 square kilometers (3,088 square miles) of land to Chile and Argentina for conservation.

The Patagonia National Park now housed there holds an estimated 70 percent of Chile’s Andean condors — the largest population in South America.

Pumalin, a male, was found over a year ago unable to fly after getting caught in a heavy storm, and Liquine, a female, was rescued struggling to make it in the wild after an earlier attempt to rehabilitate her.

They will now go back to “learning the codes of condor society,” said Saucedo.

The pair’s progress will be monitored with radio transmitters implanted in their wings.

The world must by 2030 slash $1.8 trillion in annual subsidies that destroy the environment, in order to “finance a net-zero global economy”, according to a study Thursday from business groups including one founded by tycoon Richard Branson.

The report, estimating the value of damaging state subsidies, was commissioned by Branson’s nonprofit initiative The B Team and global coalition Business for Nature, which comprises academic, corporate and environmental organisations.

The vast subsidies, totalling two percent of global gross domestic product, fund the “global destruction of nature” and governments worldwide must act, the two organisations said in a statement.

The study “finds the fossil fuel, agriculture and water industries receive more than 80 percent of all environmentally harmful subsidies per year”, the organisations concluded.

And they called upon governments to “redirect, repurpose or eliminate” those subsidies by 2030 to help “finance a net-zero global economy”.

At least 20 nations were subsidising the price of gasoline or petrol, sparking higher emissions of carbon and other dangerous air pollutants, the research suggested.

Beef and soy production were also stimulated by “significant” subsidy flows that are a cause of tropical rainforest loss in Brazil, the report found.

European policies on biofuel blending biofuels with motor fuel meanwhile ramped up pressure for new cropland, often at the expense of tropical biodiversity hotspots, the study added.

And illegal logging, often via corruption and favouritism over lumbering concessions, contributed to climate change, deforestation and ecosystem destruction.

“Nature is declining at an alarming rate, and we have never lived on a planet with so little biodiversity,” said Christiana Figueres, head of The B Team’s climate group.

“At least $1.8 trillion is funding the destruction of nature and changing our climate, while creating huge risks for the very businesses who are receiving the subsidies.”

Governments across the world pay an estimated $640 billion in support to the fossil fuel industry, contributing to climate change, air and water pollution and land subsidence, the study found.

Agriculture receives some $520 billion in subsidies that contribute towards soil erosion, water pollution, deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions and loss of biodiversity and natural habitats, it claimed.

And another $350 billion in subsidies for the water industry is said to help fund water pollution and risk ocean and waterway ecosystems. 

Figueres said that “harmful subsidies must be redirected towards protecting the climate and nature, rather than financing our own extinction”.

The study was published one month before the next phase of the UN biodiversity summit COP15 in Geneva.

The research was based on data from the International Energy Agency watchdog and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which is a club of industrialised economies that includes wealthy G20 members.