firefighters
Energy

U.S. To Review Oil-by-Rail Flammability Risk

NEW YORK , New York, December 13, 2016 (ENS) – The federal government will take action on a petition by the state of New York seeking to close a loophole that currently allows highly flammable crude oil to be shipped by rail through communities in New York and across the country. […]

survivors
At Risk

Deadly Indonesian Earthquake Displaces Thousands

JAKARTA, Indonesia, December 10, 2016 (ENS) – While most people were asleep, a shallow earthquake of magnitude 6.5 struck Indonesia’s Aceh Province in Northwest Sumatra at 5:03 am local time on December 7, leaving more than 100 people dead and injuring or displacing thousands of others. […]

Brazil
Land Use/Forests

Brazil Vows to Restore Degraded Land

CANCUN, Mexico, December 11, 2016 (ENS) – In a move that aligns the interests of conservationists, farmers and ranchers, Brazil’s Ministries of Agriculture and the Environment have pledged to jointly restore and promote sustainable agriculture across 22 million hectares of degraded land, covering an area the size of Uruguay. […]

giraffes
Latest News

Giraffes Now Listed as ‘Vulnerable’ to Extinction

CANCUN, Mexico, December 11, 2016 (ENS) – Driven by habitat loss, civil unrest and illegal hunting, the global giraffe population has fallen by 40 percent over the last 30 years, and the species has been listed as Vulnerable on the Red List of Threatened Species maintained by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, IUCN. […]

ice
Air/Climate

Sea Ice at Both Poles Hits Record Lows

BOULDER, Colorado, December 10, 2016 (ENS) – Unusually high air temperatures over the Arctic Ocean, persistent winds from the south, and a warm ocean have resulted in a record low Arctic sea ice extent for November, say scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, NSIDC, at the University of Colorado, Boulder. […]

Bowser
Air/Climate

U.S. Mayors to Trump: Help Us Keep Cool

MEXICO CITY, Mexico, December 9, 2016 (ENS) – Mayors from cities across the United States are urging president-elect Donald Trump to recognize the “real and urgent threat that climate change poses to the world’s cities,” and to support them as they enact policies and programs to combat climate change. […]

Pruitt
Gov/Politics

EPA Enemy, Climate Denier Pruitt Chosen to Head EPA

WASHINGTON, DC, December 8, 2016 (ENS) – Oklahoma Attorney General and climate denier E. Scott Pruitt is President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. The announcement of Pruitt’s nomination on Wednesday has drawn responses ranging from outrage to grim, tight-lipped determination to get along with the incoming administration. […]

Mexico coast
Latest News

Mexico Safeguards Vast Stretches of Coast, Deep Ocean

CANCUN, Mexico, December 5, 2016 (ENS) – Much of Mexico’s Caribbean coast, Baja coast and deep ocean are to become protected areas, President Enrique Peña Nieto announced Monday at the opening of the 13th Conference of the Parties (COP 13) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity underway in Cancun. […]

Maine
Land Use/Forests

Trump Urged to Undo Obama’s National Monuments

WASHINGTON, DC, December 5, 2016 (ENS) – Obama Administration critics are urging President-elect Donald Trump to test the limits of presidential executive power by revoking national monuments established by President Barack Obama. No president has revoked a national monument created by his predecessor. […]

protesters
Energy

U.S. Army Denies Dakota Access Pipeline Permit

WASHINGTON, DC, December 4, 2016 (ENS) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will not approve an easement that would allow the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe in North Dakota. Instead, the Corps will undertake an environmental impact statement to examine alternative routes. […]

solar
Energy

Australia Invests in Both Big Solar and Big Coal

TOWNSVILLE, Queensland, Australia, December 4, 2016 (ENS) – To accelerate Australia’s rollout of big solar, the first funding agreement from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, ARENA, was signed Friday. But at the same time, Australia is expanding its coal production and transport capacity. […]

corals dead
Latest News

Coral Die-Off Devastates Great Barrier Reef

TOWNSVILLE, Queensland, Australia, December 1, 2016 (ENS) – Scientists have confirmed the largest die-off of corals ever recorded on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. The worst affected area, a 700 km (435 mile) stretch in the northern region of the world’s largest reef, has lost 67 percent of its shallow-water corals in the past nine months. […]

medic
Energy

Army to Evict Dakota Access Pipeline Protesters

CANNON BALL, North Dakota, November 28, 2016 (ENS) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has sent a letter informing the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe that on December 5, it will “close” all lands north of the Cannonball River, on unceded territory where indigenous encampments are set up in protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline. […]

Ban
Latest News

1st Global Sustainable Transport Meeting Finds Consensus

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, November 28, 2016 (ENS) – The first-ever Global Sustainable Transport Conference concluded Sunday in the Central Asian country of Turkmenistan with sustainable transport welded into the United Nations global sustainable development agenda, showing that to be sustainable, transport must be a shared global task. […]

Stein
Gov/Politics

Green Nominee Stein Funds Vote Recount in Three States

MADISON, Wisconsin, November 25, 2016 (ENS) – The Green Party presidential nominee Dr. Jill Stein says she met her crowd sourced fundraising goal early Thursday to pay for manual recounts of the vote in three key battleground states that went to Donald Trump – Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. […]

delegates
Air/Climate

COP22: Nations Hold Fast to Paris Climate Accord

MARRAKECH, Morocco, November 20, 2016 (ENS) – Countries fast-tracked the political and practical aims of the landmark Paris Climate Change Agreement and accelerated global climate action at the 2016 UN climate change conference that concluded in the early hours of Saturday morning in Marrakech. […]