Know your World. Choose your Impact.
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.
Email, Online and now Twitter
To receive your copy straight to your inbox signup here, or you can view it online or now follow us on Twitter (#WENnews).
Latest News (148 stories)
Analysis: Companies may turn to courts on U.S. natural gas export push
Photo: Shannon Stapleton
Date: 19-Jun-13
Country: USA
Author: Ayesha Rascoe
U.S. companies hoping to export natural gas are frustrated by lengthy delays and rule changes as they await U.S. Department of Energy approval of their applications and may turn to the courts to speed up the process.
China takes cautious step toward carbon emissions trading
Date: 19-Jun-13
Country: CHINA
Author: David Stanway
China launched its first pilot carbon emissions exchange on Tuesday, though plans for a nationwide rollout and efforts to apply the scheme to some polluting heavy industries could be undermined by a slowdown in the world's No.2 economy.
Tropical Depression Two moving over Northern Guatemala - NHC
Date: 19-Jun-13
Country: USA
Author: Shrutee Sarkar
A Tropical Depression Two that formed over the northwestern Caribbean Sea was moving over Northern Guatemala, U.S. government forecasters said on Tuesday.
EU trade chief to discuss solar dispute in Beijing
Photo: ??Eric Vidal
Date: 19-Jun-13
Country: BELGIUM
Author: Ethan Bilby
The European Union's top trade official will discuss a dispute with China over solar panels at a meeting in Beijing on Friday, with the EU looking to negotiate a settlement to the spat and avoid a costly and debilitating trade war.
Singapore pressures Indonesia to identify firms behind haze
Photo: Edgar Su
Date: 19-Jun-13
Country: SINGAPORE
Author: Kevin Lim
Singapore's worst air pollution in 16 years sparked diplomatic tension on Tuesday, as the city-state urged Indonesia to provide data on company names and concession maps to enable it to act against plantation firms that allow slash-and-burn farming.
Ethiopia, Egypt tone down talk of war over Nile dam
Photo: Tiksa Negeri
Date: 19-Jun-13
Country: ETHIOPIA
Author: Aaron Maasho
Ethiopia and Egypt cooled talk of war on Tuesday and agreed to more dialogue to resolve a row over a giant dam that the Horn of Africa nation is building on the Nile, on which Egyptians depend on for almost all their water.
Germany leans on EU states to weaken car emissions law
Photo: Vincent West
Date: 19-Jun-13
Country: BELGIUM
Author: Barbara Lewis and Charlie Dunmore
Senior members of the German government have warned EU member states that German automakers could scale back or scrap production plans in their countries unless they support weakened carbon emissions rules, according to diplomatic sources.
Chad arrests suspected member of elephant slaughter gang
Date: 19-Jun-13
Country: AFRICA
Author: Madjiasra Nako
Authorities in Chad have arrested a suspected member of a poaching gang accused of slaughtering nearly 200 elephants and killing five Cameroonian park rangers, the environment minister said on Tuesday.
India on 'war footing' as monsoon floods kill scores
Photo: Ahmad Masood
Date: 19-Jun-13
Country: INDIA
Author: Abhishek Madhukar
Early monsoon rains have swollen the Ganges, India's longest river, swept away houses, killed at least 60 people and left tens of thousands stranded, officials said on Tuesday.
Colorado wildfire snuffs over 500 homes, new blazes menace West
Photo: Rick Wilking
Date: 19-Jun-13
Country: USA
Author: Keith Coffman and Alex Dobuzinskis
The number of homes destroyed by a Colorado wildfire rose above 500 on Tuesday as rain dampened the flames and allowed damage assessment teams to enter charred neighborhoods, as other threatening blazes grew in Alaska and elsewhere in the West.
Caribbean storm has 40 percent chance of becoming cyclone: U.S. agency
Date: 18-Jun-13
Country: INDIA
Author: Koustav Samanta
A large area of clouds and thunderstorms over Honduras and the northwestern Caribbean Sea has a 40 percent chance of developing into a tropical cyclone over the next 48 hours, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Monday.
Singapore, Malaysia choke as illegal Indonesia forest fires rage
Photo: Edgar Su
Date: 18-Jun-13
Country: SINGAPORE
Author: Kevin Lim
Air pollution in Singapore and Malaysia rose to unhealthy levels on Monday thanks to illegal forest clearing in Indonesia, prompting Singapore to advise people against staying outdoors for long and to urge Indonesia to do something to stop it.
Monsoon rains cover India early, boost crop hopes
Photo: ANI via Reuters TV
Date: 18-Jun-13
Country: INDIA
Author: Rajendra Jadhav and Ratnajyoti Dutta
India's monsoon rains have covered the entire country a month ahead of the normal schedule, increasing the prospects for a bumper output for summer-sown crops such as rice, oilseeds and cotton in one of the world's leading producers.
Religions seen slow to go green; Pope has chance to inspire
Photo: Stefano Rellandini
Date: 18-Jun-13
Country: NORWAY
Author: Alister Doyle
Few religious communities have gone as far in fighting climate change as a church in Queensland, Australia, which has 24 solar panels bolted to the roof in the shape of a Christian cross.
Mayors aim for resilience to weather, energy challenges
Date: 18-Jun-13
Country: USA
Author: Deborah Zabarenko
U.S. mayors pledged Monday to make their communities more resilient to increasingly severe floods, droughts, extreme storms and wildfires, which they said was more efficient and cost-effective than disaster clean-up afterwards.
U.S. states, greens delay lawsuit, await Obama climate plan
Date: 18-Jun-13
Country: USA
Author: Valerie Volcovici
Environmental groups and a dozen states and cities said Monday they will delay planned legal action against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, saying they will wait to see if the White House soon unveils a climate policy strategy.
World's wind turbines to cross the 300 gigawatt mark - data
Photo: Ina Fassbender
Date: 17-Jun-13
Country: BRUSSELS
Author: Barbara Lewis
The world will have enough wind turbines to generate more than 300 gigawatts of power - the equivalent of 114 nuclear power plants - by the end of the year, industry figures show.
EPA confirmation delay raises questions about U.S. carbon rules
Date: 17-Jun-13
Country: USA
Author: Valerie Volcovici
With a Senate vote on President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency still in limbo, speculation is rising about the fate of a proposed emissions rule for new power plants that was scheduled to have been finished in April.
China makes fresh promises on air pollution, pledges support for solar
Photo: Reuters
Date: 17-Jun-13
Country: CHINA
Author: Gabriel Wildau
China's cabinet approved new measures to combat air pollution on Friday, in the latest step by China's new leadership to address the country's enormous environmental problems, with pollution a key source of rising social discontent in China.
Obama leaves climate change-fighting tool on shelf for now
Photo: Larry Downing
Date: 17-Jun-13
Country: USA
Author: Patrick Rucker and Valerie Volcovici
President Barack Obama has vowed to tackle climate change in his second term, but so far has not acted to strengthen a tool that does not require backing from Congress - the National Environmental Policy Act.
Deadly Colorado wildfire now 65 percent contained: officials
Photo: Mark Leffingwell
Date: 17-Jun-13
Country: USA
Author: Ian Simpson
Authorities battling the deadly wildfire outside Colorado's second-largest city said on Sunday that firefighters were getting the upper hand on the blaze that ranks as the state's most destructive on record.
Magnitude 6.5 quake strikes in Pacific off Nicaragua; no damage
Date: 17-Jun-13
Country: USA
Author: Ivan Castro
A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck on Saturday off the Pacific coast of the central American nation of Nicaragua, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of damage.
Probe indicates biotech wheat was "isolated incident" -USDA
Date: 17-Jun-13
Country: USA
Author: Charles Abbott
The unapproved genetically modified wheat that was discovered sprouting in Oregon appears to have been "a single isolated incident," U.S. agricultural officials said on Friday in their most detailed description yet of their ongoing investigation.
Czechs hope wealth-destroying floods can lift growth
Photo: Thomas Peter
Date: 14-Jun-13
Country: CZECH REPUBLIC
Author: Michael Winfrey
Floods that have caused billions of euros in damage across central Europe may actually provide an economic boost for the Czech Republic, a country struggling to shrug off its longest recession in more than two decades.
EU proposes mandatory nuclear reviews every six years
Photo: Yves Herman
Date: 14-Jun-13
Country: UK and BELGIUM
Author: Karolin Schaps and Barbara Lewis
The European Commission on Thursday published a draft nuclear safety law that includes mandatory EU-wide reviews every six years in response to lessons learnt from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
Serbia readies flood defences as Danube nears record high
Photo: Marko Djurica
Date: 14-Jun-13
Country: SERBIA
Author: Valerie Hopkins
Water levels in the Serbian stretch of the Danube river neared a 50-year high on Thursday as the Balkan country braced for a wave of floods that have already ravaged parts of central Europe.
Ethiopia ratifies Nile treaty in snub to Egypt
Photo: Amr Abdallah Dalsh
Date: 14-Jun-13
Country: EGYPT
Author: Aaron Maasho
Ethiopia's parliament unanimously ratified a treaty on Thursday that strips Egypt of its right to the lion's share of the Nile river waters, raising the political temperature in a dispute between Cairo and Addis Ababa over the construction of a dam.
Severe weather threatens U.S. South with hail, damaging winds
Photo: Lucas Jackson
Date: 14-Jun-13
Country: USA
Author: Colleen Jenkins
A severe storm system threatened the U.S. South with damaging winds and large hail on Thursday after earlier thunderstorms dumped heavy rains, delayed flights and downed power lines in the Mid-Atlantic.
Native Americans decry eagle deaths tied to wind farms
Date: 14-Jun-13
Country: USA
Author: Laura Zuckerman
A Native American tribe in Oklahoma on Thursday registered its opposition to a U.S. government plan that would allow a wind farm to kill as many as three bald eagles a year despite special federal protections afforded the birds.
Tide of humanity, as well as rising seas, lap at Kiribati's future
Photo: David Gray
Date: 14-Jun-13
Country: SOUTH AFRICA
Author: David Gray
The ocean laps against a protective seawall outside the maternity ward at Kiribati's Nawerewere Hospital, marshalling itself for another assault with the next king tide.