Latest News

Anger Rises Over Oil Drilling in Endangered Elephants’ ‘Last Stronghold’

WINDHOEK, Namibia, June 23, 2021 (ENS) – The Canadian oil and gas company Reconnaissance Energy Africa, or ReconAfrica, is currently drilling for oil in Namibia, with further exploration in Botswana moving forward too. Ultimately, the company aims “to develop an area roughly the size of Belgium into an oil field.” according to activists against the exploration. […]

RSS

WasteShark, the Swimming Drone, Devours Marine Trash

ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands, April 5, 2021 (ENS) – The Rotterdam-based startup RanMarine Technology has built a drone that swims rather than flies. The WasteShark travels waterways to collect litter, biomass, plastics, microplastic and other debris using a basket underneath… […]

Latest News

Invaluable: Waters Clean Enough to Drink

NEW YORK, New York, March 22, 2021 (ENS) – Clean drinkable water is rare and precious. Of the waters that cover 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, roughly 97 percent is the salt water of the oceans; just three percent is freshwater. Of that, only 1.2 percent can be used as drinking water; the rest is locked up in glaciers, ice caps, and permafrost, or stored too far beneath the surface to be retrieved. Much of the accessible freshwater has become polluted. […]

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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… […]

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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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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. […]

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. […]

drinking
Latest News

U.S. Hispanics High Risk for Arsenic in Drinking Water

NEW YORK, New York, December 17, 2020 (ENS) – Community water systems that fail to comply with the federal arsenic standard are most likely to occur in the Southwest, serving Hispanic communities, rural populations of around 1,000, and those who rely on groundwater, finds a new study from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. […]

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Latest News

Michigan to Pay Flint $600 Million for Water Crisis

FLINT, Michigan, August 22, 2020 (ENS) – The State of Michigan has agreed to a $600 million settlement of civil lawsuits brought against the state by residents of the city of Flint after the source of the city’s water supply was switched from clean Lake Huron to the tainted Flint River on April 25, 2014. The majority of the money will be going to settle claims filed on behalf of children exposed to toxics… […]