At Risk

Blowing Snow, Ice Storms Paralyze Much of United States

COLLEGE PARK, Maryland, February 13, 2021 (ENS) – More than 100 million Americans are currently under Winter Storm Warnings, Winter Storm Watches, or Winter Weather Advisories as coast-to-coast stormy winter weather is hitting them now or is forecast by the National Weather Service. […]

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Health

Silica-Silver Plastic Film Kills Coronavirus on Contact

SAO PAULO, Brazil, February 13, 2021 (ENS) – A plastic film that can deactivate 99.99 percent of the virus that causes COVID-19 in 15 minutes has been released by an international team of companies and universities from Brazil and Spain. The product, AlpFilm Protect PVC, is now on the market and is being used to pack meat, fruit, vegetables and cold meats, and to protect surfaces. […]

wall
Gov/Politics

Biden Lifts Emergency on U.S.-Mexico Border, Stops Wall

WASHINGTON, DC, February 11, 2021 (ENS) – A national emergency no longer exists at the U.S. southern border with Mexico; it has been terminated after nearly two years. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation that ends the national emergency first declared by former President Donald Trump on February 15, 2019, and twice renewed. […]

Nathan
Air/Climate

Youth Climate Case Headed for U.S. Supreme Court

EUGENE, Oregon, February 10, 2021 (ENS) – The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, without explanation, today denied the request of 21 young people to have a full panel of the court hear their climate case against the U.S. Government. “We will now seek review in the U.S. Supreme Court,” declared the plaintiffs’ Eugene-based law firm Our Children’s Trust, […]

Mota
Health

Dreams During Pandemic Reveal Fear, Mental Suffering

SAO PAULO, Brazil, February 10, 2021 (ENS) – Amid the isolation imposed by COVID-19, the brain resorts to dreams in an effort to metabolize the intense emotions experienced during the day and assimilate experiences that favor survival as we strive to adapt to the “new normal.” Suddenly, we have to avoid kissing, hugging, and even friendly handshaking. […]

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Land Use/Forests

Paradise Closing: Oil Drilling Begins in Okavango Delta

WINDHOEK, Namibia, February 1, 2021 (ENS) – The fate of one of Africa’s most valuable ecosystems will depend on results from wells being drilled deep into the bedrock beneath the Kalahari Desert of northern Namibia and Botswana in the hunt for a petroleum reservoir. If the search by Canadian oil and gas company ReconAfrica is successful, the region could be irrevocably transmogrified… […]

fire
Latest News

President Biden: It’s Time to Act on ‘Climate Crisis’

WASHINGTON, DC, January 28, 2021 (ENS) – “Today is Climate Day at the White House, which means that today is Jobs Day at the White House,” President Joe Biden told reporters Wednesday morning. “We’re talking about American innovation, American products, American labor. And we’re talking about the health of our families and cleaner water, cleaner air, and cleaner communities. […]

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Latest News

Seaweed-Loving Crabs Help Restore Caribbean Corals

MIAMI, Florida, January 28, 2021 (ENS) – With the dangers of climate change increasing at a rapid rate, Caribbean coral reefs are in decline, overcome by seaweed. Now scientists think that they have found a solution for the infested reefs – herbivorous crabs that enjoy a seaweed diet. […]

fire
Air/Climate

Emergency or Not? Peoples’ Climate Vote Polls 1.2 Million

NEW YORK, New York, January 27, 2021 (ENS) – “Urgent climate action has broad support amongst people around the globe, across nationalities, age, gender and education levels,” declared United Nations Development Programme Administrator Achim Steiner today as he released the results of the first Peoples’ Climate Vote. With 1.2 million respondents, it’s the largest survey of public opinion on climate ever conducted. […]

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Air/Climate

World Leaders Reach for Climate Adaptation Strategies

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands, January 26, 2021 (ENS) – As Earth’s climate heats up, a new international coalition is forming to tackle the impacts of global climate change, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Monday. Johnson was speaking at the virtual Netherlands-hosted Climate Adaptation Summit- the first global summit focused solely on adaptation and resilience. […]

Air/Climate

Teens Press Climate Cases in Courts Across the World

EUGENE, Oregon, January 25, 2021 (ENS) – Climate change is worsening by the year, threatening to make the planet unliveable for people now in their teens and early twenties. Because government actions are often at the root of climate warming, young Americans have taken the first legal steps in what has become a global youth climate movement. […]

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Health

Living Near Trees Prevents Blood Vessel Damage

ROCKVILLE, Maryland, January 21, 2021 (ENS) – Living near an abundance of green plants and trees can offset the negative effects of air pollution on blood vessel health, according to a first-of-its-kind study published ahead of print in the “American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology.” […]

snapper
Latest News

NOAA Triples Gulf of Mexico Marine Sanctuary Area

GALVESTON, Texas, January 22, 2021 (ENS) – One of the last acts of the outgoing Trump administration was taken by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, which has tripled the area protected by the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico. […]

No Picture
Air/Climate

‘Reset Earth’ Animated Film, Game Aims to Inspire Gen Z

NAIROBI, Kenya, January 21, 2021 (ENS) – The United Nations Ozone Secretariat is about the last place a Gen Zer might look for a fun new mobile game, but that’s about to change on Sunday, January 24, World Education Day, when the Secretariat will release “Reset Earth,” an innovative educational platform about the fundamental protective role of the ozone layer. […]

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Gov/Politics

President Joe Biden Protects Environment on Day One

WASHINGTON, DC, January 20, 2021 (ENS) – “A cry for survival comes from the planet itself, a cry that can’t be any more desperate or any more clear,” President Joe Biden declared today in his Inaugural Address on the steps of the Capitol building after he was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. […]

Biden
Air/Climate

Day One: President Biden to Reject Keystone XL Pipeline

WASHINGTON, DC, January 19, 2021 (ENS) – A series of executive orders expected from President Joe Biden on his first day in office, January 20, include many that affect the environment, particularly the climate. Among his actions on Day One, Biden intends to sign an order to rescind the construction permit for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline expansion granted in 2019 by President Donald Trump. […]

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Energy

Trump Auctions Off Arctic Refuge Land to Oil Companies

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, January 14, 2020 (ENS) – The Trump administration has begun to auction off roughly one-third of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling. It is no coincidence that this lease sale was announced with only a few weeks left in the Trump presidency, as President Donald Trump is eager to kickstart Arctic oil drilling before leaving the White House on January 20. […]

nets
Latest News

Trash by the Ton Cleared Off Remote Hawaiian Beaches

KAUNAKAKAI, Moloka’i, Hawaii, January 13, 2021 (ENS) – In the Hawaiian Islands, the past year was plagued with travel and gathering limitations due to COVID-19, yet The Nature Conservancy’s Hawaii Chapter and partners were able to remove more than 46,000 pounds of marine debris from Moloka’i’s remote beaches in the last quarter of 2020 alone. […]

Air/Climate

Biden’s Green Team Takes Shape With Race, Gender Firsts

WASHINGTON, DC, January 13, 2021 (ENS) – President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on January 20 at noon, has nominated a team of seasoned environmental leaders to fill his Cabinet in positions that will impact the Earth’s unique places, people, and species, now more vulnerable than ever after the Trump administration. Climate will be a top priority of Biden’s core plan for a “clean energy revolution and environmental justice.” […]

workers
Latest News

U.S. Hanford Nuclear Site to Glassify Plutonium Waste

RICHLAND, Washington, January 12, 2021 (ENS) – The U.S. Department of Energy is poised to complete a cleanup commitment that has been decades in the making – immobilizing in glass the least radioactive portion of the tank waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in south central Washington State. […]