Turkey, Neighbors Pledge to Clean Up Mediterranean

A baby turtle heads to sea on a beach in Mersin, southern Turkey, Aug. 7, 2020. (DHA Photo)
A baby turtle heads to sea on a beach in Mersin, southern Turkey, Aug. 7, 2020. (DHA Photo)
TT
20

Turkey, Neighbors Pledge to Clean Up Mediterranean

A baby turtle heads to sea on a beach in Mersin, southern Turkey, Aug. 7, 2020. (DHA Photo)
A baby turtle heads to sea on a beach in Mersin, southern Turkey, Aug. 7, 2020. (DHA Photo)

Turkey and its neighbors pledged Friday to do a better job addressing the threats posed by pollution to people's health and the natural habitats of the Mediterranean Sea.

From plastic waste to slimy mucilage forming on their coasts, the ring of tourism-dependent Mediterranean countries have battled a steady stream of environmental problems, raising the issue's importance in voters' eyes.

Responding to the tide of public unease, envoys from 21 regional states agreed at a four-day gathering that ended Friday on Turkey's southern coast to slash the use of sulphur in fuel for ships.

Their decision to reduce the sulphur content of the fuel to 0.1 percent from 0.5 percent in the Mediterranean will be submitted to the International Maritime Organization.

Once approved, the cap will come into force in January 2025.

"We expect that through the implementation of this decision, there will be an important reduction of pollution coming from ships," said Tatjana Hema, coordinator of the Mediterranean Action Plan at the United Nations Environment Program.

Mediterranean countries and the European Union hope the limit on sulphur use -- the culmination of five years of talks that could provide a template for other deals -- will ultimately save lives.

Besides hurting the sea, air pollution caused by smoke-chugging ships can be linked to 60,000 premature deaths a year globally, according to some expert estimates.

Hema told AFP any cut in sulphur would have positive "socioeconomic and health" effects by reducing hazardous emissions.

The EU led the effort to reduce sulphur content in fuel, said Patrick Child, deputy director general for the environment at the European Commission.

"It's one of the seas with the most challenging environmental biodiversity threats," he said, calling the agreement on sulphur oxides a "breakthrough".

But the list of increasingly urgent problems is long, putting pressure on regional governments.

The Mediterranean is "a hotspot for climate change", said Carlos Bravo, an ocean policy expert who works for the Swiss-based OceanCare advocacy group.

Other issues include ships colliding with marine mammals, Bravo said, since the sea is one of the most dense for shipping traffic.

Action was also needed to eliminate "bycatch", where turtles and sharks get trapped in commercial fishing nets, and to reduce noise pollution from ships that affects more than 150 species, Bravo said.

Turkey, which this year became the last G20 country to ratify the Paris climate agreement, has come under particularly heavy criticism for how it treats its water.

The issue gained international attention when a thick layer of slime dubbed "sea snot" covered Istanbul's southern shores on the Sea of Marmara last summer.

Scientists blamed the mucus on Turkey's failure to properly treat agricultural and industrial waste before it flows down rivers into the sea, whose unusual warmth creates ripe conditions for algae to grow out of control.

The sea snot has all been cleaned up, said Soner Olgun, laboratory, measurement and monitoring department chief at Turkey's environment ministry, adding he did not "expect it to return this year or next year".

Turkish officials now stress the imperative of eliminating all forms of waste -- particularly plastics -- to save the sea.

"It's not just related to marine litter, but also related to waste water treatment, as we saw in Istanbul with the mucilage," Mehmet Emin Birpinar, Turkey's deputy environment minister, told AFP.

Eighty percent of sea waste arrives from land, Birpinar said.

A Greek study in October said 3,760 tons of plastic waste were floating in the Mediterranean, whose littoral states stretch from North Africa to the Middle East and southwestern Europe.

One of the most poignant examples of the plastics' harm comes from the famous but endangered loggerhead turtles, whose babies hatch on Turkey's southern coast before crawling into the sea when they are ready.

They are carnivores but tend to confuse jellyfish for plastic bags, explained Yakup Kaska, head of the Sea Turtle Research, Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre based in Mugla, southwestern Turkey.

Kaska said rising sea temperatures also led to an increase in female turtles because heat determines the creatures' sex.

"We are getting nearly 90 percent of the hatchlings who are females. We need males," Kaska said.

"If one degree Celsius is the best scenario for the temperature increase, we may have all female hatchlings in 50 or 100 years."



SpaceX Starship Explodes During Routine Test

Flames rise as a SpaceX rocket explodes in Brownsville, Texas, US, June 18, 2025, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. TheRocketFuture via X/via REUTERS
Flames rise as a SpaceX rocket explodes in Brownsville, Texas, US, June 18, 2025, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. TheRocketFuture via X/via REUTERS
TT
20

SpaceX Starship Explodes During Routine Test

Flames rise as a SpaceX rocket explodes in Brownsville, Texas, US, June 18, 2025, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. TheRocketFuture via X/via REUTERS
Flames rise as a SpaceX rocket explodes in Brownsville, Texas, US, June 18, 2025, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. TheRocketFuture via X/via REUTERS

One of Elon Musk's SpaceX Starships exploded during a routine test late Wednesday in Texas, law enforcement said, in the latest setback to the billionaire's dream of turning humanity into an interplanetary species.

The Starship 36 suffered "catastrophic failure and exploded" at the Starbase launch facility shortly after 11:00 pm (0400 GMT Thursday), a Facebook post by the Cameron County authorities said, according to AFP.

A video shared with the post showed the megarocket attached to the launch arm, and then a flash and a towering, fiery explosion.

Musk's Space X said the rocket was preparing for the tenth flight test when it "experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase," without elaborating on the nature of the complication.

"A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for," Space X added on social media.

"There are no hazards to residents in surrounding communities, and we ask that individuals do not attempt to approach the area while safing operations continue."

The Starship was not scheduled for launch on Wednesday evening when the explosion occurred during a "routine static fire test," according to the Cameron County authorities.

During a static fire, part of the procedures preceding a launch, the Starship's Super Heavy booster would be anchored to the ground to prevent it from lifting off during the test-firing.

Starbase on the south Texas coast, near the border with Mexico, is the headquarters for Musk's space project.

Standing 403 feet (123 meters) tall, Starship is the world's largest and most powerful rocket and central to Musk's long-term vision of colonizing Mars.

The Starship is billed as a fully reusable rocket with a payload capacity of up to 150 metric tons.

The latest setback follows an explosion of a prototype Starship over the Indian Ocean in late May.

The biggest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built had lifted off on May 27 from the Starbase facility, but the first-stage Super Heavy booster blew up instead of executing its planned splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

The previous two outings also ended poorly, with the upper stage disintegrating over the Caribbean.

But the failures will likely do little to dent Musk's spacefaring ambitions.

SpaceX has been betting that its "fail fast, learn fast" ethos, which has helped it dominate commercial spaceflight, will eventually pay off.

The company has caught the Super Heavy booster in the launch tower's giant robotic arms three times -- a daring engineering feat it sees as key to rapid reusability and slashing costs.

NASA is also increasingly reliant on SpaceX, whose Dragon spacecraft is vital for ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in early May approved an increase in annual Starship rocket launches from five to 25, stating that the increased frequency would not adversely impact the environment.

The decision overruled objections from conservation groups who had warned the expansion could endanger sea turtles and shorebirds.