U.S.-Mexico border wall
Gov/Politics

Biden Waives Vital Environmental Laws to Build Border Wall

WASHINGTON, DC, October 6, 2023 (ENS) – On his Inauguration Day, January 20, 2021, one of the first things Joe Biden did as President was to deliver a Proclamation lifting his predecessor’s 2019 declaration of an emergency at the U.S. southern border with Mexico, used to justify building a border wall. […]

space debris
Latest News

U.S. Issues World’s First Fine for Mishandling Space Debris

WASHINGTON, DC, October 3, 2023 (ENS) – The Enforcement Bureau of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission Monday cracked down on the publicly traded Dish Network Corporation over the TV and technology company’s failure “to properly deorbit” its EchoStar-7 satellite at the end of its mission. The EchoStar-7 was used to carry Dish’s direct broadcast satellite service. […]

United Nations
Air/Climate

UN Chief Excludes World’s Top Polluters from Climate Summit

NEW YORK, New York, September 22, 2023 (ENS) – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres aimed a message at the world’s largest polluters Wednesday when he excluded them from his Climate Ambition Summit that took place in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. His message – you are not taking the climate threat seriously enough. […]

Kern River oilfield
Energy

California Sues Big Oil for Decades of Climate Deception

OAKLAND, California, September 18, 2023 (ENS) – Alleging decades-long campaigns of deception and statewide climate change-related damage in California, the State Friday filed a lawsuit against five of the world’s largest oil and gas companies: Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and BP, and the trade association the American Petroleum Institute. […]

Baltimore
Latest News

Biden Admin Invests $100 Million in Recycling Infrastructure

WASHINGTON, DC, September 14, 2023 (ENS) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is receiving more than $100 million from President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda to expand recycling infrastructure and waste management systems across the country. These funds will be EPA’s largest recycling investment in 30 years. […]

humpback whale
RSS

A World First: High Seas Treaty Signed By 80 Governments

NEW YORK, New York, September 22, 2023 (ENS) – The hard-won High Seas Treaty, the first agreement to protect the two-thirds of the world’s oceans beyond national jurisdiction, was opened for signature by United Nations Member States on September 20 at UN Headquarters in New York. Signing up enthusiastically, 80 countries and the European Union indicated their support […]

water hyacinth
Latest News

Invasive Aliens Blamed for 60% of Plant, Animal Extinctions

BONN, Germany, September 5, 2023 (ENS) – Invasive alien species pose a “severe global threat that is underappreciated, underestimated, and often unacknowledged,” finds a new report by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, IPBES, an independent intergovernmental body working to strengthen the role of science in public decision-making. […]

Florida National Guard
Gov/Politics

Hurricane Politics: Biden Funds Florida Aid Despite Rude DeSantis

LIVE OAK, Florida, September 2, 2023 (ENS) – President Joe Biden saw from the sky Hurricane Idalia’s impact across a swath of Florida before he set out on a walking tour of a city recovering from the storm Saturday. Absent was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate who declined to join Biden after he said that the Democratic president’s presence could hinder disaster response efforts. […]

SEC Chair Gary Gensler
Business

U.S. Stock Market Regulators Embroiled in Climate Debate

WASHINGTON, DC, August 28, 2023 (ENS) – Actions long urged by environmental activists and scientific institutions alike to require corporate disclosures of carbon emissions and limits to those emissions are now, at long last, being taken. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed a rule that would require publicly-traded companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions. […]

wildfire Maui
At Risk

Maui County Sues Hawaiian Electric for Sparking Deadly Fires

KAHULUI, Maui, Hawaii, August 25, 2023 (ENS) – Maui County sued Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. and its subsidiaries, including Maui Electric Co., Thursday, alleging civil damages from the deadly August 8 fires in Lahaina. The lawsuit claims that Hawaiian Electric’s energized and downed power lines sparked three different fires by igniting dry grass and brush in the hills above Lahaina and elsewhere in Upcountry Maui. […]

President Biden Gov. Green Lahaina
At Risk

Biden’s Maui Prayer: May He Hold You in the Palm of His Hand

LAHAINA, Maui, Hawaii, August 22, 2023 (ENS) – Governor Josh Green, M.D., and First Lady Jaime Kanani Green accompanied President Joe Biden, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, Maui Mayor Richard Bissen, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, members of the Hawaii Congressional delegation and others, on an assessment of the wildfire damage to Lahaina Monday. […]

Lake Turkana, Kenya
Air/Climate

Biased Data Yield Flawed AI Weather Forecasts for Global South

NAIROBI, Kenya, August 22, 2023 (ENS) – Biased data being fed into artificial intelligence tools are producing unreliable weather predictions, climate and AI researchers are warning. They say developing countries are at greatest risk of missing out on global climate action and could experience “societal tipping events.” […]

Indigenous Demo Belem Summit
Land Use/Forests

Amazon Accord Elusive, But Leadership Summit Generates Hope

BELEM, Brazil, August 11, 2023, (ENS) – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva this week hosted a two-day regional summit of the eight Amazon River basin countries seeking a plan to save the world’s largest rainforest. At their meeting in Belem on August 8 and 9, the eight leaders had intended to reach consensus on issues from deforestation to sustainable development in the Amazon in the first such conference in 14 years. […]

rock art monument
RSS

New Monument Protects Sacred Native Lands Near Grand Canyon

TUSAYAN, Arizona, August 10, 2023, (ENS) – President Joe Biden has established a new national monument to protect three areas close to Grand Canyon National Park that the President said, “have been profoundly sacred to Tribal Nations and Indigenous peoples of the Southwest since time immemorial…” […]

Lahaina, Maui burned
At Risk

Maui Wildfire Death Toll Hits 93, Lahaina Devastated

LAHAINA, Maui, Hawaii, August 13, 2023 (ENS) – Hawaii Governor Josh Green and Maui County officials said today that the fire death toll from this week’s wildfires in the historic town of Lahaina has risen to 93 people; search and rescue work continues. Many others have been injured, and at least 11,000 residents have lost their homes or businesses. […]