World Environment News
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Latest News (195 stories)
Black Holes May Precede Galaxies, Astronomers Say
Photo: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss
Date: 08-Jan-09
Country: US
Author: Maggie Fox
WASHINGTON - Black holes -- those massive, invisible objects that suck in everything around them -- may have appeared before the galaxies that host them, astronomers said on Wednesday.
Emcor CEO: Stimulus Needs Green Tax Credits
Date: 08-Jan-09
Country: US
Author: Nick Carey
CHICAGO - The proposed economic stimulus package of President-elect Barack Obama should focus more on the private sector and provide tax credits for the green retrofitting of buildings, the top executive of construction and engineering firm Emcor Group Inc said on Tuesday.
Japan Mulls Expanding Green Business Market
Photo: Kim Kyung-Hoon
Date: 08-Jan-09
Country: JAPAN
Author: Yoko Kubota
TOKYO - Japan aims to expand the "green business" market and create up to 1 million new jobs, the environment ministry said on Wednesday, to simultaneously fight climate change and boost the economy amid a global downturn.
Japan To Monitor Greenhouse Gases From Space
Photo: REUTERS/Stringer (CHINA)
Date: 08-Jan-09
Country: JAPAN
Author: Chisa Fujioka
TOKYO - Japan's space agency will launch a satellite later this month to monitor greenhouse gases around the world, officials said Wednesday, hoping the data it collects helps global efforts to combat climate change.
Monsanto Seeks FDA Approval For Drought-Tolerant Corn
Date: 08-Jan-09
Country: US
Author: Carey Gillam
KANSAS CITY - Monsanto Co said Wednesday it filed for U.S. regulatory approval for what could be the world's first drought-tolerant corn, a product that agricultural companies around the globe are racing to roll out amid fears of global warming and the needs of a growing population.
Climate Change Threatens Pacific, Arctic Conflicts
Photo: NASA/Terra Satellite/Handout
Date: 08-Jan-09
Country: AUSTRALIA
Author: Rob Taylor
CANBERRA - Climate change and rising sea levels pose one of the biggest threats to security in the Pacific and may also spark a global conflict over energy reserves under melting Arctic ice, according to Australia's military.
NY Gov Targets Clean Energy And Health Despite Deficit
Photo: Chip East
Date: 08-Jan-09
Country: US
Author: Joan Gralla
NEW YORK - New York state should fight obesity, help more residents get health insurance and revive the upstate economy with a research consortium for hybrid car batteries and energy storage, Governor David Paterson proposed on Wednesday.
Groups Seek Syncrude Charges Over 500 Duck Deaths
Date: 08-Jan-09
Country: CANADA
Author: Jeffrey Jones
CALGARY - Environmental groups took the first step on Wednesday to convince a court to charge Canada's largest oil sands producer with the deaths of 500 ducks, an incident that brought worldwide attention to the ecological impact of the huge energy resource.
Enbridge Cleaning Up Spill At Oil Sands Terminal
Date: 08-Jan-09
Country: CANADA
Author: Scott Haggett
CALGARY - Enbridge Inc, Canada's No. 2 pipeline firm, said a malfunctioning valve at an oil storage facility in the oil sands region of northern Alberta this week spewed out 4,000 barrels of oil, but the spill was mostly contained on the grounds of its tank farm.
Yellow Submarine To Probe Antarctica Glacier
Photo: Alister Doyle
Date: 08-Jan-09
Country: CHILE
Author: Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
PUNTA ARENAS - A yellow robot submarine will dive under an ice shelf in Antarctica to seek clues to world ocean level rises in one of the most inaccessible places on earth.
Thousands Shiver In Europe's Big Chill
Photo: Jean-Paul Pelissier
Date: 08-Jan-09
Country: FRANCE
Author: Reporting by Catherine Hornby, Martina Fuchs, Jean-Francois Rosnoblet, Anna Mudeva, Maja Zuvela and Benet Koleka
PARIS - Temperatures plunged to record lows in Germany and heavy snow forced normally sunny Marseille to close its international airport as freezing winter weather gripped much of Europe on Wednesday.
Obama Will Decide New Auto Fuel Efficiency Targets
Photo: Jason Reed
Date: 08-Jan-09
Country: US
Author: John Crawley
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration will not finalize new auto fuel efficiency standards, as it had planned, due to the industry's woeful financial state, officials said on Wednesday.
Guatemala Suspends Landslide Rescue, No Survivors
Photo: Daniel LeClair
Date: 07-Jan-09
Country: GUATEMALA
Author: Sarah Grainger
GUATEMALA CITY - Threatened by rockfalls, rescue workers called off their search for bodies on Tuesday and gave up on finding anybody alive in the rubble of a landslide in northern Guatemala that killed at least 34 coffee laborers.
Russian Gas Disruption Spreads Across Europe
Photo: Bogdan Cristel
Date: 07-Jan-09
Country: RUSSIA
Author: Christian Lowe
MOSCOW - Russia sharply cut gas flows to Europe via Ukraine on Tuesday in a dramatic worsening of a pricing dispute with Kiev that threatened to disrupt supplies as far west as Italy and Germany.
Motorola Unveils Phone Made From Recycled Bottles
Date: 07-Jan-09
Country: US
Author: Sinead Carew
LAS VEGAS Motorola Inc unveiled a cell phone made of recycled water bottles on Tuesday, hoping to cash in on the trend for environmentally friendly products.
Holier Than Thou? Christ Statue Has Rival
Photo: Bruno Domingos
Date: 07-Jan-09
Country: BRAZIL
Author: Bruno Domingos
SAO PAULO - A little-known Brazilian farming town with sugar cane wealth is set to upstage Rio de Janeiro by erecting a statue of Christ that will eclipse its famous equivalent atop Rio's Corcovado mountain.
China Confirms Woman Died Of Bird Flu In Beijing
Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
Date: 07-Jan-09
Country: CHINA
Author: Ian Ransom, Yu Le and Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Tan Ee Lyn in Hong Kong
BEIJING/HONGKONG - A 19-year-old woman has died of the H5N1 bird flu virus in Beijing after coming into contact with poultry, health authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong said on Tuesday.
Bush To Declare Pacific Areas Protected Monuments
Photo: Mike Blake
Date: 07-Jan-09
Country: US
Author: Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush will designate nearly 200,000 square miles (518,000 sq km) of the Pacific ocean on Tuesday as a protected region, White House officials said, making the areas hands-off for oil drilling or other extraction procedures.
New Reptiles Found In Tanzania's Shrinking Forests
Date: 06-Jan-09
Country: UK
Author: Ben Hirschler
LONDON - Seventeen previously unknown species of reptiles and amphibians have been found in the threatened rainforests of eastern Tanzania, Italian and Tanzanian scientists reported on Monday.
Pink Iguanas Unseen By Darwin Offer Evolution Clue
Photo: Gabriele Gentile/Handout
Date: 06-Jan-09
Country: UK
Author: Michael Kahn
LONDON - Pink iguanas unknown to Charles Darwin during his visits to the Galapagos islands may provide evidence of species divergence far earlier than the English naturalist's famous finches, researchers said Monday.
Angola Shuts Off Border With Congo To Avoid Ebola
Date: 06-Jan-09
Country: ANGOLA
Author: Henrique Almeida
LUANDA - Angola closed part of its northeastern border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday to stop the contagious Ebola virus from spreading into the oil-rich African nation, the health minister said.
Zimbabwe Cholera Fears Grow As Rains Peak
Date: 06-Jan-09
Country: ZIMBABWE
Author: Nelson Banya
HARARE - Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic, which has killed more than 1,600 people, could get worse as the rainy season peaks, its health minister said on Monday.
Berlin Zookeeper's Son Tries To Cash In On Knut
Photo: Johannes Eisele
Date: 06-Jan-09
Country: GERMANY
Author: Reuters Germany
BERLIN - The son of the late German zookeeper who nurtured celebrity polar bear cub Knut at Berlin zoo has raised nearly 7,000 euros ($9,748) by selling off his father's belongings on internet auction site eBay.
Iraq Earns $60 Billion From 2008 Crude Exports
Date: 06-Jan-09
Country: UK
Author: Mariam Karouny
LONDON - Iraq earned about $60 billion from average crude oil sales of 1.85 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2008, a top Iraqi oil official said on Monday.
Guatemala Landslide Kills 33, More Missing
Date: 06-Jan-09
Country: GUATEMALA
Author: Sarah Grainger
GUATEMALA CITY, Jan 5 - At least 33 people were killed and up to 60 were missing after a huge chunk of mountain collapsed onto coffee farmworkers walking home along a road in northern Guatemala on Sunday, officials said.
LDK Shares Slide After Issues Revenue Warning
Date: 06-Jan-09
Country: US
Author: Nichola Groom
LOS ANGELES - Solar wafer maker LDK Solar Co Ltd warned on Monday of lower-than-expected fourth quarter and 2009 revenue, saying the global economic crisis and tight credit markets have weakened demand for solar power, sending its shares down nearly 14 percent.
Basalt Rock Wall Found In Ocean Near Taiwan
Photo: Academia Sinica/Handout
Date: 06-Jan-09
Country: TAIWAN
Author: Ralph Jennings
TAIPEI - A biodiversity researcher has found a huge basalt rock formation in the Taiwan Strait, resembling a city wall and rivaling similar monoliths on land.
Diamonds Suggest Comets Caused Killer Cold Spell
Photo: NASA/JPL/Handout
Date: 05-Jan-09
Country: US
Author: Maggie Fox
WASHINGTON - Tiny diamonds sprinkled across North America suggest a "swarm" of comets hit the Earth around 13,000 years ago, kicking up enough disruption to send the planet into a cold spell and drive mammoths and other creatures into extinction, scientists reported on Friday.
Infection Cuts Mosquitoes' Lives Short
Photo: Jitendra Prakash
Date: 05-Jan-09
Country: AUSTRALIA
Author: Pauline Askin
SYDNEY - Infecting mosquitoes with a common bacteria can cut their lives short and reduce the likelihood they will transmit dengue and other diseases, Australian researchers reported on Friday.
India's West Bengal Reports Fresh Bird Flu Outbreak
Date: 05-Jan-09
Country: INDIA
Author: Sujoy Dhar
KOLKATA - Health and veterinary workers culled poultry in a densely populated eastern Indian state on Saturday after a fresh outbreak of H5N1 bird flu, officials said.