October, 2020 | Environment News Service (ENS)

Trump Opens Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to Logging

October 29, 2020 News Editor Comments Off

WASHINGTON, DC, October 28, 2020 (ENS) – President Donald Trump’s administration has finalized plans to reverse roadless protections for the Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska that have been in place for nearly 20 years. On Wednesday, the Department of Agriculture released its final decision, opening up 9.4 million acres of the largest old-growth temperate rainforest in North America to logging and roadbuilding. […]

Zeta Strikes Louisiana, Fifth Hurricane This Season

October 28, 2020 News Editor Comments Off

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, October 28, 2020 (ENS) – Hurricane Zeta has just made landfall as a 110 mile per hour, Category 2 hurricane near Cocodrie, Louisiana, a fishing, shrimping and crabbing village in Terrebonne Parish, due south of the city of Houma. It’s the third hurricane to hit Louisiana since late August. […]

French Companies Integrate Biodiversity Impact Assessment

October 27, 2020 News Editor Comments Off

PARIS, France, October 27, 2020 (ENS) – A tool that will allow investors to measure how their investments impact biodiversity – the diversity of plants and animals – is one step closer to completion now that a consortium of some of France’s largest investors have selected the Iceberg Data Lab based in Paris and the French environmental consulting company I Care & Consult as the developers of the tool. […]

UN Virtual Climate Dialogues to Fill COP26 Gap

October 27, 2020 News Editor Comments Off

BONN, Germany, October 27, 2020 (ENS) – The Climate Dialogues, a series of virtual climate change events, will be offered by the United Nations from November 23 to December 4, 2020. This year, virtual events are taking the place of the annual in-person UN climate change conference, so that all work on implementing the Paris climate accord does not grind to a halt in the face of the pandemic. […]

U.S. Renewable Energy Lab Energizes Remote Communities

October 24, 2020 News Editor Comments Off

GOLDEN, Colorado, October 23, 2020 (ENS) – In rural Northern California, inland American Indian reservations risk being “islanded” from the larger electricity grid should a wildfire disable the single transmission line that delivers power to their homes, businesses, and critical services providers. […]

Trump vs Biden: Environment in the Final Debate

October 23, 2020 News Editor Comments Off

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, October 23, 2020 (ENS) – Republican President Donald Trump and his challenger in the November 3 election former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, faced off in their second and final debate Thursday night. They disagreed on everything – especially climate change. […]

New Smart Windows Generate Power as They Change Color

October 21, 2020 News Editor Comments Off

GOLDEN, Colorado, October 21, 2020 (ENS) – A thermochromic window that darkens automatically in the sun and simultaneously uses the sun to generate electricity has been invented by scientists at the chemistry and nanoscience center within the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL. […]

Legal? Trump’s Raid on Military Funds for Border Wall

October 20, 2020 News Editor Comments Off

WASHINGTON, DC, October 20, 2020 (ENS) – The U.S. Supreme Court Monday agreed to rule on whether the Trump administration must stop building sections of the southern border wall with Mexico. The administration is appealing a lower court decision that it illegally diverted money appropriated by Congress for military salaries and pensions to the wall project. […]

COVID Virus Lives 28 Days on Money, Cellphone Screens

October 13, 2020 News Editor Comments Off

GEELONG, Victoria, Australia, October 13, 2020 (ENS) – The virus responsible for COVID-19 can survive for up to 28 days on common surfaces including banknotes, glass items such as cellphone screens, and stainless steel, researchers at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, have found. […]

Back at White House, Infected Trump Tears Off His Mask

October 5, 2020 News Editor Comments Off

WASHINGTON, DC, October 5, 2020 (ENS) – President Donald Trump returned to the White House Monday evening aboard his helicopter just before seven, and his first actions alarmed health professionals. Still infected with COVID-19, Trump quickly removed his face mask. He appeared to be gasping for breath, but Trump urged Americans not to fear the deadly coronavirus that sent him to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. […]

India Halts Amnesty International’s Human Rights Work

October 5, 2020 News Editor Comments Off

NEW DELHI, India, October 5, 2020 (ENS) – The freezing of Amnesty International India’s bank accounts by the Government of India on September 10 has brought all the work being done by the human rights organization to a grinding halt. Amnesty has been compelled to lay off staff in India and pause all its ongoing campaign and research work. […]

President Trump Hospitalized for COVID-19 Treatment

October 4, 2020 News Editor Comments Off

WASHINGTON, DC, October 4, 2020 (ENS) – President Donald Trump is in a military hospital under treatment for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. A statement from the president’s physician Sean Conley, DO, a U.S. Navy commander, says he was first diagnosed with COVID-19 on the evening of Thursday, October 1. He complained of fatigue and had a high temperature. On Friday, still at the White House, he was given supplemental oxygen. […]