2023 | Environment News Service (ENS)

IPCC: Liveable Future Possible If We Defuse Climate Time-Bomb

March 20, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

INTERLAKEN, Switzerland, March 20, 2023 (ENS) – Global temperatures have already risen to 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels after more than a century of burning fossil fuels, as well as unequal and unsustainable energy and land use. More frequent and intense extreme weather events have caused dangerous impacts on nature and people in every region of the world, finds a major new UN report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC. […]

Conservationists Sue to Stop ConocoPhillips Alaska Oil Venture

March 16, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, March 16, 2023 (ENS) – Warning that the U.S. government’s environmental review fails to account for the full climate impact of oil development in Alaska, five of America’s largest conservation groups have filed a lawsuit to stop ConocoPhillips’ Willow oil project in the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska, which the Biden Administration approved Monday. […]

Biden Proposes National Standard for PFAS in Drinking Water

March 14, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

WASHINGTON, DC, March 14, 2023 (ENS) – The today proposed the first national drinking water standard for six harmful “forever chemicals” in the latest action under President Joe Biden’s plan to combat PFAS pollution and EPA Administrator Michael Regan’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap. […]

Freight Train Derailment Politics

March 9, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

WASHINGTON, DC, March 9, 2023 (ENS) – Norfolk Southern President and CEO Alan Shaw apologized today during a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for the February derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio, just a mile from the Pennsylvania border. […]

Atmospheric River Nears California, Escalates Storm Emergency

March 9, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

SACRAMENTO, California, March 9, 2023 (ENS) – Knowing that a series of storms are forecast to continue blowing across California through mid-March, and an atmospheric river event is predicted for later this week, Governor Gavin Newsom Wednesday proclaimed a state of emergency to support storm response and relief efforts in 21 additional counties including San Francisco. […]

All Is Not Lost: Pioneering Restorations of the Natural World

March 1, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

NAIROBI, Kenya, March 1, 2023 (ENS) – For the first time, the United Nations has recognized 10 trail-blazing efforts from across the globe that are restoring the natural world. Declared World Restoration Flagships, these 10 initiatives can now receive UN-backed advice, promotion, and funding in support of their work to prevent and reverse the degradation of natural spaces. […]

Facing Major Lawsuit, 3M to Stop Making ‘Forever Chemicals’

February 9, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

CHARLESTON, South Carolina, February 9, 2023 (ENS) – The 3M Company, which developed and manufactured firefighting foams containing per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS, called “forever chemicals,” is in a legal battle to avoid stiff financial penalties for the alleged damages the chemicals have done to human health and the environment. […]

Earthquakes Kill 29,000+, Smash Buildings in Turkiye and Syria

February 7, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

ANKARA, Turkiye, February 12, 2023 (ENS) – At least 29,600 people have died and thousands of others were injured in 10 provinces after two major earthquakes shook southern Turkiye and surrounding countries on Monday, an official from Turkiye’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, AFAD, said. […]

OHIO: Freight Train Derailment Threatens Chemical Explosion

February 6, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

ennsylvania border setting rail cars loaded with hazardous materials aflame on Friday night as the train was carrying chemicals through the village of East Palestine from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, the rail company Norfolk Southern said. […]

EPA Acts to Keep ‘Inactive’ Forever Chemicals Off the Market

February 3, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

WASHINGTON, DC, February 3, 2023 (ENS) – They’re called “forever chemicals” for a reason – because they don’t break down in the environment over time. Toxic per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS, are the forever chemicals, and they’re not rare – more than 9,000 PFAS have been identified. […]

Worst Bird Flu Outbreak in U.S. History Kills Millions

January 31, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

RIVERDALE, Maryland, January 31, 2023 (ENS) – Wild birds and commercially raised chickens alike are dropping dead from bird flu by the millions across the United States. Red-tailed hawks and great horned owls in Wyoming, American and Canadian wild birds along the Atlantic coast and across the Midwest, and 58.2 million birds in commercial and backyard poultry flocks in 47 states have died in the past year… […]

ALABAMA: Persistent Landfill Fire Prompts State Capitol Rally

January 25, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

MOODY, Alabama, January 25, 2023 ENS) – People living near a huge landfill fire in Moody that has been smoldering for more than two months want more environmental protection in […]

U.S.-South Africa Wildlife Task Force to ‘Follow the Money’

January 25, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

PRETORIA, South Africa, January 25, 2023 (ENS) – In her meeting with South African officials today, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced a commitment between the U.S. Treasury and South Africa’s National Treasury to form a new United States – South Africa Task Force on Combating the Financing of Wildlife Trafficking. […]

Heart Disease-Linked Trans Fats Pass WHO’s Eliminate Date

January 24, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

GENEVA, Switzerland, January 24, 2023 (ENS) – Five of every eight people on Earth, five billion people, remain unprotected from harmful trans fats in their food, increasing their risk of heart disease and death, a new status report from the World Health Organization, WHO, has found. In fact, trans fat intake is responsible for up to 500,000 premature deaths from coronary heart disease each year globally, the UN health agency concludes. […]

Davos 2023 a ‘Watershed Moment’ for Climate Accountability

January 22, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

DAVOS, Switzerland, January 22, 2023 (ENS) – On Friday, the final day of panels at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and other climate campaigners from the nonprofit she started, Fridays for Future, held a climate march. […]

Climate Denier Gosar Rejoins House Natural Resources Committee

January 18, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

WASHINGTON, DC, January 18, 2023 (ENS) – Ally of industrial development and ex-President Donald Trump, far-right election denier Republican Congressman Paul Gosar of Arizona is back on the House Committee on Natural Resources where he sat for 10 years before he was removed by formal censure of the House in 2021. His return to the committee is a boon for resource extraction companies… […]

Police Detain Greta Thunberg at German Coal Mine Protest

January 17, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

LUZERATH, Germany, January 17, 2023 (ENS) – Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was detained by police Tuesday while protesting a coal mine expansion that has emptied a now-abandoned hamlet in western Germany. […]

USDA Approves World’s First Honeybee Vaccine

January 11, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

WASHINGTON, DC, January 11, 2023 (ENS) – The first vaccine for the world’s imperiled honeybees has been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for two years on a conditional basis. The vaccine was developed by Dalan Animal Health, Inc., a biotech company based at the University of Georgia’s Innovation Hub in Athens, Georgia. […]

U.S. Agencies to Assess Climate Impact of Federal Projects

January 9, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

WASHINGTON, DC, January 9, 2023 (ENS) – In a new climate change guidance, the Biden Administration asks federal agencies to account for greenhouse gas emissions as they review proposals for clean energy and other infrastructure projects under the National Environmental Policy Act, commonly called NEPA. […]

KANSAS: Keystone Pipeline Spill Cleanup Plan Agreed

January 9, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

LENEXA, Kansas, January 9, 2023 (ENS) – Canada’s TC Oil Pipeline Operations Inc. has reached an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, to clean up the large oil […]