power plant
Air/Climate

California Holds First Greenhouse Gas Allowance Auction

SAN FRANCISCO, California, November 14, 2012 (ENS) – The California Air Resources Board today held the state’s first cap-and-trade greenhouse gas allowance auction in a sharply divided political environment. While environmentalists applauded the effort to limit climate change, the state’s largest business organization filed a lawsuit against it […]

staph research
Latest News

‘Superbug’ MRSA Found in U.S. Wastewater Treatment Plants

COLLEGE PARK, Maryland, November 14, 2012 (ENS) – The “superbug” methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is prevalent at several U.S. wastewater treatment plants, scientists have found in the first study to investigate U.S. wastewater as an environmental reservoir of the bacteria. […]

Sandy, Rockaway Beach
Air/Climate

UNDP: Doha Talks Could Help Avert Climate Disaster

STANFORD, California, November 13, 2012 (ENS) – “The devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy in the United States and the Caribbean in recent weeks reminds us how destructive extreme and volatile weather can be. The costs of inaction are increasingly clear to all,” said Helen Clark, administrator of the UN Development Program. […]

plastic bag Kampala
Latest News

Uganda High Court Rules in Favor of Plastic Bag Ban

KAMPALA, Uganda, November 12, 2012 (ENS) – The High Court of Uganda has determined that “the rampant and uncontrolled use of polythene bags” poses a danger to the environment and “violates the rights of citizens of Uganda to a clean and healthy environment.” […]

heron, Alabama
Land Use/Forests

U.S. Voters Approve Conservation Ballot Measures Worth Billions

SAN FRANCISCO, California, November 12, 2012 (ENS) – Across the United States on November 6, voters of all political stripes gave overwhelming approval to tax themselves and spend money for new parks in their communities, according the nonprofit The Trust for Public Land, which has tracked these ballot measures. […]

rhinos
At Risk

Secretary Clinton Declares War on Wildlife Traffickers

WASHINGTON, DC, November 9, 2012 (ENS) – The U.S. government is taking aim at wildlife trafficking in a new, more focused manner by placing it high on the foreign policy and security agenda. Increasingly run by well-funded, heavily armed criminal syndicates, wildlife trafficking “has become more organized, more lucrative, more widespread, and more dangerous than ever before,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Thursday. […]

2013 Kia Soul
Latest News

Hyundai, Kia Overstated Fuel Economy Claims

WASHINGTON, DC, November 9, 2012 (ENS) – South Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia exaggerated the fuel economy estimates for the majority of their 2012 and 2013 vehicles offered for sale in the United States and must re-label the vehicles and reimburse owners. […]

troposphere
Air/Climate

Space Sensor to Track Air Pollution Across North America

WASHINGTON, DC, November 8, 2012 (ENS) – The first space-based instrument to monitor major air pollutants across the North American continent hourly during daytime is in the works.The sensor will be placed aboard a commercial satellite to make observations of the atmosphere’s lowest and densest layer. […]

Frack free Colorado
Energy

American Towns Fight Back Against Fracking

WASHINGTON, DC, November 8, 2012 (ENS) – Roughly $30 million in campaign contributions have flowed from the oil and gas industry to congressional candidates and political action committees in 2012 to stall regulation of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Now many towns have swung into action to pass fracking bans to protect their citizens. […]

Jill Stein
Air/Climate

Sandy and Tar Sands Pipeline: Stein Arrest Connects the Dots

WINNSBORO, Texas, October 31, 2012 (ENS) – Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was arrested this morning after bringing supplies to climate justice activists sitting in trees to stop construction of a pipeline to carry crude oil from the Alberta tar sands to Gulf Coast refineries. […]

building
Business

Europe Updates Environment Impact Assessment Law

BRUSSELS, Belgium, October 31, 2012 (ENS) – A modernization of Europe’s environmental impact assessment law now underway will enable governments, for the first time, to take into account climate change, biodiversity, disaster prevention and resource efficiency when considering big projects that may affect the environment. […]

Christie, Obama
At Risk

President Obama, Governor Christie Tour Damaged New Jersey

WASHINGTON, DC, October 31, 2012 (ENS) – President Barack Obama joined New Jersey Governor Chris Christie today for a survey of the destruction left by Hurricane Sandy, which battered the East Coast on Monday. The President has issued a major disaster declaration for New Jersey, among a dozen other states. […]

Hurricane Sandy
Air/Climate

Superstorm Sandy Is ‘What Global Warming Looks Like’

NEW YORK, New York, October 30, 2012 (ENS) – Many environmentalists are blaming climate change for the appearance of superstorm Sandy that has wreaked such devastation on New York, New Jersey and 15 other states. Some meteorologists disagree, contending that Sandy would have occurred even without a warming climate. […]