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The World Environment News is a daily environmental update bringing you all the latest environmental stories, pictures and video from across the globe, courtesy of the Reuters news service. if it’s happening in the world of environment, it’s happening in the World Environment News.
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Latest News (126 stories)
Analysis: Obama climate agenda faces Supreme Court reckoning
Photo: Kevin Lamarque
Date: 17-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Lawrence Hurley and Valerie Volcovici
With a barrage of legal briefs, a coalition of business groups and Republican-leaning states are taking their fight against Obama administration climate change regulations to the U.S. Supreme Court.
BP to ask UK government to intervene on Gulf spill payments: BBC
Date: 17-May-13
Country: UK
Author: Andrew Callus
British oil company BP wants Prime Minister David Cameron to intervene with the U.S. government over the escalating cost of compensating U.S. companies for the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster in 2010, the BBC reported Thursday.
New protest in Chinese city over planned chemical plant
Photo: Wong Campion
Date: 17-May-13
Country: CHINA
Author: Ben Blanchard
Hundreds of people took to the streets of the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming on Thursday to protest against the planned production of a chemical at a refinery, the second demonstration this month against the project.
Six dead, seven missing in Texas tornadoes: county spokesman
Date: 17-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Ian Simpson
Six people were killed and seven are missing after tornadoes slammed into north-central Texas after dark, Hood County spokesman Tye Bell said on Thursday.
Cyclone Mahasen buffets Bangladesh coast, six dead
Photo: Andrew Biraj
Date: 17-May-13
Country: BANGLADESH
Author: Andrew Biraj
Cyclone Mahasen buffeted Bangladesh's low-lying coast on Thursday, killing six people after forcing many thousands into emergency shelters, but authorities downgraded warnings later in the day as the storm lost strength.
Norwegian firm to seek ways to trap cement factory CO2
Date: 17-May-13
Country: NORWAY
Author: Alister Doyle
Norway's Aker Solutions has won a contract to make the world's first tests for capturing emissions of carbon dioxide from cement factories as part of efforts to slow climate change, the company said on Thursday.
Monster Texas tornado kills six, seven people missing
Photo: Richard Rodriguez
Date: 17-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Jana J. Pruet
Six people were dead and seven missing after a powerful tornado ripped through a neighborhood that included housing for the poor in the north Texas town of Granbury, marking the deadliest severe storm outbreak in the United States so far this year.
New fracking rules attempt to placate opposing camps
Photo: Shannon Stapleton
Date: 17-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Ayesha Rascoe
The Obama administration on Thursday unveiled a new proposal for regulating hydraulic fracturing on federal lands, rolling back some measures from its original, abandoned draft as it sought to ease concerns the rules would be too burdensome for producers.
BYD's electric taxis hit Hong Kong roads with big ambitions
Photo: Tyrone Siu
Date: 16-May-13
Country: HONG KONG
Author: Lavinia Mo
Warren Buffett-backed Chinese carmaker BYD Co Ltd rolled out Hong Kong's first electric taxi fleet on Wednesday, marking a milestone for its all-electric battery car that highlights its promise and its limitations.
Japan takes first step to a permanent reactor shutdown after Fukushima
Photo: Kyodo
Date: 16-May-13
Country: JAPAN
Author: Risa Maeda
Experts judged on Wednesday that a reactor on Japan's west coast is located on ground at high risk of an earthquake, setting in motion a process that will likely lead to the first permanent shutdown of a nuclear plant since the 2011 Fukushima crisis.
China granted observer seat on Arctic governing council
Date: 16-May-13
Country: SWEDEN
Author: Alister Doyle
The Arctic Council agreed on Wednesday to admit emerging powers China and India as observers, reflecting growing global interest in the trade and energy potential of the planet's Far North.
Many countries badly mismanage oil, mining resources: study
Photo: Soe Zeya Tun
Date: 16-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Valerie Volcovici
More than 80 percent of the world's major oil and gas-producing and mining countries fail to meet "satisfactory standards" for managing their natural resources, according to a report tracking global resource mismanagement and corruption.
Monsanto tests planting platform, eyes new microbial business
Date: 16-May-13
Country: FRANCE
Author: Carey Gillam
Monsanto Co, the world's largest seed company, is developing two new platforms that diverge from its core business and are seen as potential key long-term growth drivers, according to top Monsanto executives.
Scientists say united on global warming, at odds with public view
Photo: ??David Gray
Date: 16-May-13
Country: NORWAY
Author: Alister Doyle
Ninety-seven percent of scientists say global warming is mainly man-made but a wide public belief that experts are divided is making it harder to gain support for policies to curb climate change, an international study showed on Thursday.
DiCaprio's wildlife charity auction brings in $38.8 million
Photo: Andrew Kelly/Files
Date: 15-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Patricia Reaney
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Christie's auction house raised $38.8 million through a charity art auction and donations, Christie's said on Tuesday, with proceeds to benefit environmental and conservation causes.
U.S. tax dollars promote Monsanto's GMO crops overseas: report
Photo: Robert Pratta
Date: 15-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Carey Gillam
U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill for overseas lobbying that promotes controversial biotech crops developed by U.S.-based Monsanto Co and other seed makers, a report issued on Tuesday said.
Ice melt, sea level rise, to be less severe than feared: study
Date: 15-May-13
Country: NORWAY
Author: Alister Doyle
A melt of ice on Greenland and Antarctica is likely to be less severe than expected this century, limiting sea level rise to a maximum of 69 cm (27 inches), an international study said on Tuesday.
Rosatom offers emerging nations nuclear package: paper
Date: 14-May-13
Country: FRANCE
Author: Geert De Clercq
Russia's state-owned nuclear company Rosatom is offering a special package deal to build and operate nuclear power stations abroad in a bid to win business from developing countries, a company official was quoted on Monday as saying.
U.S. Supreme Court rules for Monsanto in patent fight
Date: 14-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Lawrence Hurley
In a ruling that drew sighs of relief from the biotechnology industry, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that an Indiana farmer violated agribusiness company Monsanto Co.'s patent for a type of soybean.
UN faces uphill battle to reduce global airline emissions
Photo: Petar Kujundzic
Date: 14-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Allison Martell and Valerie Volcovici
Little progress has been made in a United Nations' effort to craft an agreement to lower greenhouse gas emissions from international air travel, raising doubts that its civil aviation body can deliver a final resolution by a September target date, several government officials said on Monday.
Montana looks to expand hunting of wolves despite criticism
Photo: Doug Smith/National Park Service/Handout
Date: 13-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Laura Zuckerman
Conservationists are criticizing a plan by wildlife managers in Montana that would nearly double the number of wolves a person is allowed to kill each year, lengthen the hunting season and sanction shooting of wolves near baited traps.
Mexico raises alert level for Popocatepetl volcano
Date: 13-May-13
Country: MEXICO
Author: David Alire Garcia
Mexican authorities raised the alert level for the Popocatepetl volcano near Mexico City on Sunday morning after observing an increased level of explosive activity.
Climate change forecast to shrink habitat of common plants, animals
Date: 13-May-13
Country: NORWAY
Author: Alister Doyle
The habitats of many common plants and animals will shrink dramatically this century unless governments act quickly to cut rising greenhouse gas emissions, scientists said on Sunday after studying 50,000 species around the world.
China battery plant protest gives voice to rising anger over pollution
Photo: Aly Song
Date: 13-May-13
Country: CHINA
Author: Jane Lee and Gabriel Wildau
Hundreds of protesters gathered in the Chinese financial hub of Shanghai on Saturday to oppose plans for a lithium battery factory, highlighting growing social tension over pollution.
Eco-friendly green burials catching on in the U.S.
Photo: Steve Johnson
Date: 13-May-13
Country: USA
Author: David Adams
After a two-year battle with cancer, Joseph Fitzgerald was determined to leave his final resting place to Mother Nature.
EU pesticide ban to save bees may curb rapeseed production
Photo: Nigel Roddis
Date: 13-May-13
Country: LONDON
Author: Nigel Hunt
Rapeseed production is likely to fall in the European Union, top grower of the oilseed, from the 2015 harvest after the bloc voted to protect bees by banning three of the most widely used pesticides.
Indonesia to extend ban on forest clearing: government
Date: 13-May-13
Country: INDONESIA
Author: Fergus Jensen
The president of Indonesia, home to the world's third-largest tropical forests and a powerful palm oil industry, has agreed to extend a ban on forest clearing, a government official said on Friday.
The solar paradox: boom, bust or both?
Date: 13-May-13
Country: GERMANY
Author: Christoph Steitz
Planned European levies on Chinese solar panels will only go some way to halt a rout among equipment makers who face the paradox of a booming market but falling revenues - and could suffer even more if a trade war erupts.
Suspected rebels kill 26 elephants in Central African Republic: WWF
Date: 13-May-13
Country: AFRICA
Author: David Lewis
Gunmen believed to be part of the rebel force that seized power in Central African Republic in March have killed at least 26 elephants in a raid on an internationally-protected wildlife park, campaigners said on Friday.
USDA says more review needed for new Monsanto, Dow GMO crops
Photo: Gary Cameron
Date: 13-May-13
Country: USA
Author: Carey Gillam
The Department of Agriculture said Friday it will extend its scrutiny of controversial proposed biotech crops developed by Dow AgroSciences, a unit of Dow Chemical, and Monsanto Co. after receiving an onslaught of opposition to the companies' plans.