fire
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Wild California Fires Claim 17 Lives, Blister Vineyards

SACRAMENTO, California, October 10, 2017 (ENS) – At least 20,000 people have fled their homes, as 17 wildfires rage on in eight counties across northern California’s wine country. Vineyards are scorched, forests have gone up in smoke and hundreds of houses are burned to the ground. […]

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225 Die as Second Earthquake Shakes Mexico

MEXICO CITY, Mexico, September 20, 2017 (ENS) – A deadly earthquake struck Mexico on Tuesday afternoon, sending buildings crashing to the ground, killing children in their collapsing school, cracking highways, rocking the capital and sending thousands of people into the streets for the second time in two weeks. […]

hurricanes
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Powerful Hurricane Irma Punishes Florida

MIAMI, Florida, September 10, 2017 (ENS) – Hurricane Irma made landfall twice in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane Sunday morning and is currently blasting up the state’s Gulf coast. Irma first touched land just after 9 am at Cudjoe Key in the Florida Keys archipelago; the second landfall occurred at Marco Island, at 3:35 pm local time. […]

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Category 5 Hurricane Irma on a Caribbean Rampage

MIAMI, Florida, September 6, 2017 (ENS) – Hurricane Irma, one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Atlantic, slammed Puerto Rico’s north shore Wednesday night after devastating several small northern Caribbean islands. At least three people have lost their lives to the storm. […]

first responder
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Harvey ‘Costliest and Worst’ Disaster in U.S. History

HOUSTON, Texas, August 31, 2017 (ENS) – After dumping record rainfall of nearly 52 inches on the east Texas coast, claiming 29 lives and sending thousands of people into shelters or fleeing to higher ground, Hurricane Harvey, now slowed to a tropical depression, is making its destructive way across the Lower Mississippi Valley. […]

Arkema
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Flooded Chemical Plant Near Houston Explodes

HOUSTON, Texas, August 31, 2017 (ENS) – Two explosions rocked a flooded chemical plant 20 miles northeast of Houston at 2 am this morning. A column of black smoke rose into the air, and the explosions set off an intense fire. More explosions are expected over the next five to seven days. […]

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Harvey Inundates Texas Coast, Days More Rain Forecast

AUSTIN, Texas, August 27, 2017 (ENS) – Catastrophic and life-threatening flooding is inundating southeastern Texas, and flash flood emergencies are in effect as Hurricane Harvey dumps record rainfall on the area. The combination of wind and water could leave parts of south Texas “uninhabitable for weeks or months,” warns the National Weather Service. […]

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Dangerous Hurricane Harvey Takes Aim at Texas

AUSTIN, Texas, August 24, 2017 (ENS) – Widespread evacuations have been ordered along the Texas Gulf Coast ahead of Hurricane Harvey, the first major hurricane, Category 3 or stronger, to strike the United States in nearly 12 years. Workers are being evacuated off oil rigs in the Gulf ahead of the storm. […]

fire
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Wildfire Rages on Icy Greenland’s West Coast

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, August 17, 2017 (ENS) – Greenland, the world’s largest island, known for its vast sheets of ice, is now experiencing its first large wildfire. The fire is burning along the island’s west coast about 150 kilometers (90 miles) northeast of Sisimiut, the second-largest city in Greenland, an autonomous county of Denmark. […]

fire
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British Columbia Wildfires Force Thousands to Flee

VICTORIA, British Columbia, Canada, August 7, 2017 (ENS) – Hot and dry, the interior of British Columbia is ablaze with wildfires that have driven tens of thousands of residents from their homes and filled the skies over the province with smoke. International firefighting assistance is on the way. […]

fire
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‘Exceptional Global Warmth’ Triggers Wildfires, Floods

GENEVA, Switzerland, July 26, 2017 (ENS) – Wildfires in southeastern France forced the evacuation of 10,000 people overnight, French officials have confirmed. Overall, more than 4,000 firefighters and troops supported by water bombers have been trying to extinguish the flames since Monday. […]

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Nuclear Disarmament Treaty Adopted Without Nuclear States

NEW YORK, New York, July 7, 2017 (ENS) – Despite the absence of all nine nuclear-weapons states, countries meeting at a United Nations conference in New York Friday adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the first multilateral legally-binding agreement for nuclear disarmament to have been negotiated in 20 years. […]

park
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Struggling U.S. National Parks Flooded With Visitors

WASHINGTON, DC, July 3, 2017 (ENS) – U.S. national parks are experiencing some of the heaviest traffic of the year this Independence Day weekend, as millions of visitors stream into the country’s 59 parks to explore the 52.2 million acres they cover. But the President Donald Trump’s budget request to Congress would cut $378 million from the National Park Service and eliminate some 1,200 park employees, without addressing the $12.5 billion maintenance backlog. […]

air pollution
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Trump’s 2018 Budget Would ‘Devastate’ Environment

WASHINGTON, DC, May 24, 2017 (ENS) – President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2018 budget request to Congress, released in detail Tuesday, has Americans who care about the environment and public health up in arms. The proposal would impose massive cuts on health, environmental and safety net programs … […]

salmon
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Feared Pebble Mine Again Threatens Bristol Bay Salmon

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada, May 12, 2017 (ENS) – The Trump administration has undone President Barack Obama’s protection for Bristol Bay, Alaska, which hosts the world largest sockeye salmon run, by allowing a Canadian mining company to apply for a permit to dig up the world’s largest undeveloped gold and copper deposits. […]

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Hanford Tunnel Collapses, No Radiation Released

RICHLAND, Washington, May 9, 2017 (ENS) – The U.S. Department of Energy Richland Operations Office declared an emergency at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation at 8:30 this morning after a cave-in of a 20-foot section of a tunnel hundreds of feet long that is used to store contaminated materials. […]

Gallmann
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Renowned Conservationist Kuki Gallmann Shot in Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya, April 24, 2017 (ENS) – Conservationist and author Kuki Gallmann, 73, was shot and wounded on Sunday morning in Kenya as she was inspecting damage committed by arsonists to her property, an expansive conservation park in Western Laikipia, in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley. […]